Introduction: Anemia has been implicated in heart failure. Existing literatures, involving predominantly African-Americans, suggests that Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) maybe linked to various cardiovascular complications including pulmonary hypertension and left venticular dysfunction. Peculiarly, our study involves exclusively Sub-Saharan population. Method: We conducted a cross sectional observational study of 208 hydroxyurea-naive consecutive SCD patients aged 10-52 years at steady state and 94 healthy non-matched controls who were studied in an out patient clinic in Sub-Saharan Africa. SCD patients were required to have electrophoretic or liquid chromatography documentation of major sickling phenotypes. Control group was required to have non-sickling phenotypes. Cardiac measurements were performed with TransThoracic Echo according to American Society of Echocardiography guidelines. Hemoglobin level was also obtained. Results: Hemoglobin level in SCD group (8.5+/- 1.5) was significant (P<0.001) compared to control (13.8+/- 1.7). Although SCD group had significantly higher values of left ventricular (LV) size, there was no qualitative evidence of LV dysfunction. SCD group had higher values of Ejection Fraction but not statistically significant. There was no evidence of LV wall stiffening to impair proper filling in SCD group, with the ratio of early to late ventricular filling velocities, E/A ratio elevated (1.7+/-0.4 compared to 1.6+/- 0.4; P=0.010). Right ventricular systolic pressure was determined using the formula of 4x Tricuspid Reugurgitant jet (TRV) square as an indirect measurement of Pulmonary arterial systolic pressure. SCD patients had significantly higher mean±SD values for tricuspid regurgitant jet velocity than did the controls (2.1±0.6 vs. 1.8±0.5; p= 0.001). Within the SCD group, there was no clear pattern of worsening diastolic function with increased TRV. Furthermore, E/A had a significant positive relationship with jet velocity in bivariate analysis (R=0.20; P=0.013). Conclusions: We were unable to demonstrate existence of anemia-associated left ventricular dysfunction in Sub-Saharan African with SCD. Further studies is required to highlight the reason behind this finding.
Prevalence of malaria in certain parts of the world without adequate planning and monitoring based on ill- informed decisions has wreaked havoc on the health system and economy of many developing nations. The purpose of this study is to create a functional Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for malaria monitoring in parts of Zaria, Kaduna State. A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) SDSS was created using ArcGIS 10.5 software for the 2019 Malaria data obtained from the Ministry of Health, Kaduna State Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Programme for collation and analysis across 13 political wards in Zaria Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State. The results revealed that a total of 443,852 cases of malaria were reported across the 13 political wards of the study area. The reported cases had predominant occurrences at the Gyellesu ward, followed by the Kwarbai A ward. The spatial incidence was displayed via vector control maps, malaria burden maps, malaria prevalence in Zaria maps, and service area maps. The map of demography indicated a higher prevalence of malaria of 73.35% for the male gender compared to the female (26.65%). However, the independent t-test revealed no significant difference between males' and females' malaria prevalence. It was also revealed that the adult population had the highest malaria prevalence followed by children less than 5 years while pregnant women were the least infected. The study further indicated that 38.5% of the existing political wards recorded a shortfall of at least two (2) healthcare facilities. This study identified areas that required the establishment of health facilities to offset the existing shortfall. The SDSS was able to effectively monitor and appraise malaria incidence for proper surveillance and management that will be required for malaria prevention and elimination activities. The study recommends that policymakers invest in the deployment of an SDSS for better and robust planning, monitoring and execution of their malaria intervention programmes as this aligns with the sustainable development goal (SDG) target 3.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.