Malaria remains an important public heath concern in Nigeria because of its impact on child and maternal health, but the contribution of severe malaria to morbidity among Nigerian children was scantly reported. This study was undertaking to document the hospital-burden of severe malaria among children in Ibadan in order to reflect on the impacts and health implications of the current malaria control strategies. A review of 6-year case records of all children admitted to the emergency ward of the University College Hospital Ibadan was carried out. Cases of severe malaria were defined as those children in whom parasitaemia were confirmed with blood film microscopy and any of the WHO case definitions for severe malaria was documented. Severe malaria cases constituted 11.3% of 16 031 admissions (2000–05) with 89.1% being children

Iodine Deficiency, Iodine Content of Salt and Knowledge of Iodine Supplementation in the Dominican Republic

Evaluation of the TEG platelet mapping assay in blood donors
Background: Monitoring of antiplatelet therapy in patients at cardiovascular risk is difficult because existing platelet function tests are too sophisticated for clinical routine. The whole blood TEG Platelet Mapping assay measures clot strength as maximal amplitude (MA) and enables for quantification of platelet function, including the contribution of the adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and thromboxane A2 (TxA2) receptors to clot formation. Methods: In 43 healthy blood donors, the analytical (CVa) and inter-individual variability (CVg) of the TEG Platelet Mapping assay were determined together with platelet receptor inhibition in response to arachidonic acid (AA) and ADP. Results: The CVa of the assay for maximal platelet contribution to clot strength (MAThrombin) was 3.5%, for the fibrin contribution to clot strength (MAFibrin) 5.2%, for MAAA 4.5% and for MAADP it was 6.6%. The MAThrombin CVg was 2.8%, MAFibrin 4.7%, MAAA 6.6% and for MAADP it was 26.2%. Females had a higher MAThrombin compared to males (62.8 vs. 58.4 mm, p = 0.005). The platelet TxA2 receptor inhibition was 1.2% (range 0 10%) and lower than for the ADP receptor (18.6% (0 58%); p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The high variability in ADP receptor inhibition may explain both the differences in response to ADP receptor inhibitor therapy and why major bleeding sometimes develops during surgery in patients not treated with ADP receptor inhibitors. An analytical variation of ~5 % for the TEG enables, however, for routine monitoring of the variability in ADP receptor inhibition and of antiplatelet therapy.

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