The experience of the adolescent with homozygous sickle-cell disease is influenced by several factors that differentiate it from the older child entirely dependent on his parents. The objective of this study was to describe the state of health and to assess the quality of follow-up and to identify the determinants of poor monitoring of adolescent sickle-cell followed in Brazzaville for an average of 12 ± 9.6 years, starting from a cross-sectional study carried out at the Brazzaville University Hospital from March to September 2016. It is based on a questionnaire composed of elements of assessment of the state of health and the quality of the follow-up. The vaccination coverage of adolescents was low, 81.3% for DTCP, 66.5% for Typhim Vi, 50.2% for viral hepatitis B, 76.4% for pneumococcus, and 59.1% for the ROR. In the last two years prior to the survey, 99 (48.7%) adolescents had only 2 follow-up visits instead of 4 planned per year. Therapeutic compliance was good in 132 (65%). No hospitalizations were reported during this period in 23 adolescents (11.3%); in 180 cases (88.7%), however, adolescents were hospitalized one to three times apart from regular follow-up visits. Since the discovery of the disease, 177 (87.2%) adolescents had already been transfused, more than three times in 89 cases. A history of neurovascular seizures was found in 10 cases (5.2%) and priapism in 35 cases (18.2%). Paraclinical examinations were not systematic during follow-up visits. The socioeconomic level of the family and the level of education of the father had a negative impact on monitoring and adherence (P < 0.01). On clinical examinations, stunting, undernutrition, pubertal delay, tooth decay, enuresis were found in 45.3%, 36%, 53.7%, 27.6%, 15.3%, respectively. The biological examinations carried out during the investigation showed an average inter-critical hemoglobin level between 7 and 8 g/dl, creatinine level was normal in all cases, ferritinemia was elevated in 93.6%, a negative proteinuria was found in 71.4% of the cases, and hematuria in 26.6%. Systematic abdominal ultrasound revealed vesicular lithiasis in 8 cases, hepatomegaly in 10 cases, and splenomegaly in 102 cases. Echocardiography performed in all subjects showed cardiomyopathy in 9 cases. The follow-up of the adolescent sickle-cell in Brazzaville still faces enormous difficulties. The improvement of the standard of living, the therapeutic education and the introduction of a total free of charge of the global management of sickle-cell disease would make it possible to minimize these difficulties which also would improve the future of these teenagers, adults of tomorrow.
Mycetoma is transmitted by thorns infected. The commonest site for mycetoma is the foot. The primary pulmonary are rare and usually secondary to other primary site. We report a case of pulmonary fungal mycetoma secondary to primary site in the knee. We do a review of the literature and we discuss the way of dissemination.
Despite the criticism and reservations made about him still nowadays, Louis Pasteur may be considered one of the most important scientists of the last two centuries in public health, even if the work of the numerous scientists who preceded him have largely contributed to the successes he obtained without following too much to the rules of deontology and ethics currently in force in the world of research and medicine. He has definitively put down, by his experiments, the "theory of spontaneous generation" in force since antiquity, validated that of "germs or microbes", enacted the first rules of asepsis, while inspiring those of the antisepsis applied by Joseph Lister, and developed a certain number of vaccinations in veterinary and human medicine, including the anti-rabies, the one which made him famous all over the world. All this was not done without difficulty and Pasteur encountered for a large part of his life the misunderstanding of his contemporaries and the hostility of the medical world to which he did not belong. The authors comment in this text the movie The Story of Louis Pasteur by William Dieterle, filmed in 1936, based on the knowledge acquired since that date and doing the part of the real and the fiction.
Rheumatic mitral stenosis is still common in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and echocardiographic contraindications to the realization of percutaneous mitral commissurotomy (PMC) in Abidjan Heart Institute. We conducted a prospective, transversal and analytical study in the Exploration Unit from March 30, 2017 to March 30, 2018. Mitral stenosis was severe with an average anatomical surface area of 0.87cm2, an average gradient of 13.7 mmHg and an upstream repercussion (dilatation of the left atrium (78 ml/m2); moderate dilatation of the right atrium (22.3 cm2) and average pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) of 55 mmHg). The main clinical contraindications were a history of rest dyspnoea at 66.7%, permanent atrial fibrillation at 53.3 % and clinical manifestations of severe PAH in 40 %. Unfavourable anatomy (95.7 %) evaluated by scores of Wilkins, Cormier and especially Echoscore revisited; bicommissural fusion (95.7 %) and severe aortic valvulopathy (31.1%) were the main barriers in transthoracic echocardiography. In multivariate analysis after linear regression, valvular anatomy, as assessed by the various scores, was significantly related to low socioeconomic status (p=0.018), level of education (p=0.04), severity of mitral stenosis evaluated by the mean gradient (p=0.033) and the impact on the left atrium (p=0.015). Mitral stenosis presents several clinical and echocardiographic contraindications. Adverse anatomy is the main obstacle and is related to low socio-economic status, educational level and severity of stenosis.
The objective of this study is to reduce the morbidity of children with homozygous sickle cell disease presenting severe forms. We have conducted a longitudinal study between November 2015 and September 2017 at the Brazzaville University Hospital. Children with sickle cell disease requiring treatment with hydroxyurea were included. The variables studied were therapeutic compliance, evolutive profile of nutritional status, indications of hydroxyurea, electrophoresis of hemoglobin, blood count, and toxicity. The statistical test used was Student test with a significance threshold of less than 0.05. One thousand twenty-four children were monitored for sickle cell disease, 107 of which had received hydroxyurea (10.4%). The indications for hydroxyurea were recurrent anemic attacks (≥ 4) in 62 cases (57.9%), neurological crises 19 cases (17.8%), recurrent hyperalgesic crises in 17 cases (15.9%), priapism in 4 cases (3.7), and acute thoracic syndrome in 2 cases (1.9%). Therapeutic compliance was good in 89.5% of them. A rapid and lasting clinical improvement was noted in the majority of patients with hyperalgesic attacks (88.2%) and anemic attacks (88.7%), two recurrences for the cerebrovascular accidents, and an absence of recurrence of priapism and of the acute thoracic syndrome. From the biological point of view, there was a significant increase in fetal hemoglobin (1.2 to 16.2%; P < 0.05), hemoglobin (7 to 8.3 g/dl; P < 0.05), mean cell volume (80.8 to 96 fl; P < 0.05) and a significant decrease in mean white blood cell count (15,633 to 9,872/mm3; P < 0.05) and platelets (387,002 to 324,400/mm3; P < 0.05). The signs of toxicity observed were mainly vomiting and thrombocytopenia in two cases each, one case with headache and the other with neutropenia. Indications for use of hydroxyurea therapy in children with sickle cell disease in Brazzaville are common. These are dominated by recurrent anemic seizures, strokes, and hyperalgesic seizures. The excellent evolution of these complications under hydroxyurea represents an interesting alternative in our countries with limited resources.