Aims: It is well known that patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) could be co-infected with hepatitis D virus (HDV), thus worsening and complicating their condition. The prevalence of HBV and HDV co-infection in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital has not been ascertained. This study was therefore carried out to determine the frequency of hepatitis D virus among chronic liver disease Original Research Article

Aims: To investigating some demographic variables and red cell parameters of infected persons already accessing antiretroviral therapy with a view to identifying sub- groups with higher proportions of anaemia.  Study Design:  Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: University of Calabar Teaching Hospital Calabar Nigeria, between August 2017 and July 2018. Methodology: Subjects comprised 60 male and female HIV-infected adults attending University of Calabar Teaching Hospital Calabar, and equal number of age and sex-matched control subjects who were HIV sero-negative as at the time of this study. The infected persons were being treated with either Tenofovir+Lamivudine+Efavirenz (TLE) or Lamivudine+Zidovudine+Nevirapine (LZN). A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered by two trained interviewers which captured the bio-data, sociodemographic variables and therapy-related information. Venous blood was collected aseptically by standard phlebotomy into appropriate sample containers for CD4 and red cell counts by automation. Results: The proportion of anaemia occurring between TLE and LZN users was observed to be in the ratio of 2:3. The RBC count, haematocrit and haemoglobin concentration were significantly lower (p=.000), while MCV, MCH and RDW were significantly higher (p=.000) in subjects infected with HIV compared to the control subjects, Duration of treatment beyond 6 years significantly raised both MCV (p=.007) and MCH (p=.006) compared to the first 3 years of treatment commencement, while the MCV, MCH and RDW-SD were significantly higher (p=.003, .014 and .018 respectively) among LZN users compared to those on TLE. Conclusion: Human immunodeficiency virus infection triggers pathologic mechanisms that culminate into anaemia. While the use of antiretroviral therapy appears to gradually resolve this derangement, the adverse effects of some of the antiretroviral agents contribute to the persistence of anaemia particularly with increasing years of treatment.

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Diabetes mellitus has become increasingly prevalent over the years. The chronic hyperglycaemia of diabetes is associated with long-term damage, dysfunctions, and failure of different organs suggesting that the most effective tool to prevent complications is the effective control of hyperglycaemia itself. The study is set to determine the effect of glycemic control on plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1), soluble thrombomodulin (STM) alongside fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) among type 2 diabetic subjects. One hundred diabetic subjects accessing care at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital Calabar and 100 non –diabetics that served as controls were enrolled. Blood samples from participants were analyzed for FPG, HbA1c, PAI-1 and STM by standard methods. The result shows 74% of the diabetic to be females. Half of the diabetics were managed on only oral anti-diabetic drugs while the remaining half were either on insulin injection or a combination of oral and insulin injection.  Poor glycemic control was observed in 56% of the studied subjects. The mean age of 54.69 ± 9.94 years for the diabetics was comparable to the age-matched controls (p=.097). Diabetics showed significantly higher FPG, HbA1c, PAI-1and STM (P=0.001) compared to control values. Correlations between STM, PAI 1 and glycated hemoglobin (figures 2 p=0.001, p =0.001) and STM, PAI-1 and FPG revealed significantly robust association (p=0.001, p=0.001).  The study concludes that there is poor glycemic control among the treated diabetic subjects with PAI-1 and STM showing a very strong positive correlation with HbA1c than FPG.

Background. Rhesus antigens have been documented to cause haemolytic disease of the newborn as well as acute and delayed transfusion reactions. This study was performed to evaluate the frequency of rhesus antigens (C, c, D, E, and e) in the studied population. Method. This study was a cross-sectional study involving 130 prospective blood donors attending University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) donor clinic. Donors were grouped for Rh antisera (anti-E, anti-e, anti-C, anti-c, and anti-D) using the standard serologic technique. Result. The most prevalent Rh antigen was “c” (98.5%), followed by “D” (97.7%), while the least was “C” (30.7%). The most prevalent phenotype was cDe/cDe (R0R0). Conclusion. This work therefore concludes that the most prevalent rhesus antigen and rhesus phenotype was c and cDe/cDe among blood donors in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.