Serum ferritin concentrations in Africans with low dietary iron.

In the setting of high dietary, several studies have provided evidence for a strong effect of both high dietary iron and an unidentified genetic locus on iron stores in Africans. To investigate whether these effects are discernible in the setting of low dietary iron, serum ferritin concentrations were measured in 194 Zimbabwean men >30 years of age and 299 postmenopausal women who consumed a non-iron-fortified diet and who did not drink iron-rich traditional beer or other alcoholic beverages. Comparisons were made with non-alcohol drinking African-Americans studied in the third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES III) who consume an iron-fortified diet.

Good pregnancy outcome with emergent cerclage placed in the presence of intra-amniotic microbial invasion.

Cervical insufficiency with dilation can be associated with amniotic fluid microbial invasion. Cerclage placement in the presence of infection is contraindicated because it is associated with poor fetal and maternal outcome. A 30-year-old gravida 4 para 0 with cervical insufficiency had emergent cervical suture placement at 19 weeks.

Iron status in black persons is not influenced by haptoglobin polymorphism.

Iron status in man is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. The molecular variation of haptoglobin is one of the genetic factors influencing iron status in Caucasians. Differences in iron metabolism between blacks and whites have been reported.

Effect of transferrin polymorphism on the metabolism of vitamin C in Zimbabwean adults.

Background: Transferrin is the major iron binding protein in human plasma. In black persons, the transferrin CD phenotype has been associated with alterations in certain markers of iron status.

Objective: We studied vitamin C status in a Zimbabwean population according to transferrin phenotype because vitamin C metabolism is influenced by iron-driven oxidative stress.

Association of pulmonary tuberculosis with increased dietary iron.

To determine whether increased dietary iron could be a risk factor for active tuberculosis, dietary iron history and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status were studied in 98 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and in 98 control subjects from rural Zimbabwe. Exposure to high levels of dietary iron in the form of traditional beer is associated with increased iron stores in rural Africans. HIV seropositivity was associated with a 17.