ATRIAL FIBRILLATION IN WEST AFRICA: LESSONS GLEANED FROM THE IBADAN AF PROJECT.

Introduction/background: There is still little data on clinical profile and atrial fibrillation (AF) characteristics in West Africa. Traditionally the risk factor for chronic AF in the sub-region is chronic rheumatic heart disease. However, with the rapid demographic and epidemiologic transition in the sub-region, the risk factors, clinical profile, and complications of AF appear to be changing.

Registry for Acute Coronary Events in Nigeria (RACE-Nigeria): Clinical Characterization, Management, and Outcome.

Background Coronary artery disease was hitherto a rarity in Africa. Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) accounts for coronary artery disease-related morbidity and mortality. Reports on ACS in Africa are few.

Heart rate variability study in adult Nigerian subjects with sickle cell disease during vaso-occlusive crisis.

Context: Autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction assessed by abnormalities in heart rate variability (HRV) is thought to play a role in the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease (SCD). There is suggestion that changes in ANS may occur in SCD subjects during episodes of vaso-occlusive crises (VOC).

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the ANS by determining the HRV in patients with SCD during VOC.

Hypertensive heart failure in Nigerian Africans: insights from the Abeokuta Heart Failure Registry.

Data from the Abeokuta Heart Failure Registry were used to determine the clinical characteristics, mode of treatment, and short- and medium-term outcomes of patients with hypertensive heart failure. A total of 320 patients were consecutively studied, comprising 184 men (57.5%) and 136 women (42.

Non-invasive estimation of pulmonary artery pressures in patients with sickle cell anaemia in Ibadan, Nigeria: an echocardiographic study.

Introduction: Pulmonary hypertension is emerging as one of the causes of morbidity and mortality in adults with sickle cell disease. The prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in Nigerian adults with sickle cell anaemia is unknown. We decided to estimate the pulmonary artery systolic and diastolic pressures in subjects with sickle cell anaemia seen at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, and to determine the frequency of pulmonary hypertension among them.

Economic burden of heart failure: investigating outpatient and inpatient costs in Abeokuta, Southwest Nigeria.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a deadly, disabling and often costly syndrome world-wide. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of data describing its economic impact in sub Saharan Africa; a region in which the number of relatively younger cases will inevitably rise.

Methods: Heath economic data were extracted from a prospective HF registry in a tertiary hospital situated in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria.

Short-term outcomes after hospital discharge in patients admitted with heart failure in Abeokuta, Nigeria: data from the Abeokuta Heart Failure Registry.

Background: Compared to other regions of the world, there is a paucity of data on the short-term outcome of acute heart failure (AHF) in Africa's most populous country, Nigeria. We examined the six-month outcomes (including case fatalities) in 285 of 309 AHF subjects admitted with HF to a tertiary hospital in Abeokuta, Nigeria.

Methods: The study cohort of 285 subjects comprised 150 men (52.

Predictors of rehospitalization in patients admitted with heart failure in Abeokuta, Nigeria: data from the Abeokuta heart failure registry.

Objective: We sought, for the first time, to examine the rate and predictors of hospital readmission in patients discharged after an episode of heart failure (HF) in Nigeria.

Methods: This was a hospital-based, prospective, observational study that used the data from the Abeokuta HF Registry.

Results: Overall, 1.

Contemporary profile of acute heart failure in Southern Nigeria: data from the Abeokuta Heart Failure Clinical Registry.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the contemporary profile, clinical characteristics, and intrahospital outcomes of acute heart failure (AHF) in an African urban community.

Background: There are limited data on the current burden and characteristics of AHF in Nigerian Africans.

Methods: Comprehensive and detailed clinical and sociodemographic data were prospectively collected from 452 consecutive patients presenting with AHF to the only tertiary hospital in Abeokuta, Nigeria (population about 1 million) over a 2-year period.

Relationship between 24-hour blood pressure pattern and left ventricular structure and function in hypertensive Nigerians.

Objective: Blood pressure variation throughout the day is known to have cardiovascular consequences. Left ventricular (LV) mass is more closely related to 24-hour blood pressure than casual blood pressure. Daytime blood pressure expectedly is higher than that of nighttime under normal circumstances.

Republished: recent advances in the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of endomyocardial fibrosis in Africa.

Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) continues to be an important and disabling disease in many parts of Africa, although its prevalence has declined in some parts of the continent. Increased access to medical care in general and increased availability of echocardiography in some parts of the continent have led to recognition of the disease in areas in which the disease had not been previously reported, and this has given new insights into its natural history. However, the early manifestations of EMF continue to elude clinicians and researchers, and no progress has been made in defining its aetiology.

Relationship between Plasma Aldosterone Levels and Left Ventricular Mass in Hypertensive Africans.

Background. Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease worldwide and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Studies have suggested that the activity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system play a major role in the target organ damage such as left ventricular hypertrophy occuring in hypertension.

Recent advances in the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of endomyocardial fibrosis in Africa.

Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) continues to be an important and disabling disease in many parts of Africa, although its prevalence has declined in some parts of the continent. Increased access to medical care in general and increased availability of echocardiography in some parts of the continent have led to recognition of the disease in areas in which the disease had not been previously reported, and this has given new insights into its natural history. However, the early manifestations of EMF continue to elude clinicians and researchers, and no progress has been made in defining its aetiology.

Blood pressure, prevalence of hypertension and hypertension related complications in Nigerian Africans: A review.

To review studies on hypertension in Nigeria over the past five decades in terms of prevalence, awareness and treatment and complications. Following our search on Pubmed, African Journals Online and the World Health Organization Global cardiovascular infobase, 1060 related references were identified out of which 43 were found to be relevant for this review. The overall prevalence of hypertension in Nigeria ranges from 8%-46.

Cardiomyopathies and myocardial disorders in Africa: present status and the way forward.

A review of heart diseases in Africa shows that the cardiomyopathies continue to be important causes of morbidity and mortality in the population. Hypertension remains the commonest cause of myocardial disease, followed by the cardiomyopathies. Ischaemic heart disease continues to be rare.

Target-organ damage and cardiovascular complications in hypertensive Nigerian Yoruba adults: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Hypertension is a major challenge to public health as it is frequently associated with sudden death due to the silent nature of the condition. By the time of diagnosis, some patients would have developed target-organ damage (TOD) and associated clinical conditions (ACC) due to low levels of detection, treatment and control. TOD and ACC are easy to evaluate in a primary healthcare (PHC) setting and offer valuable information for stratifying cardiovascular risks in the patient.

Early diastolic functional abnormalities in normotensive offspring of Nigerian hypertensives.

Background: Some studies have suggested that diastolic dysfunction precedes the clinical manifestation of hypertension. Whether changes in cardiac structure and function predate the clinical manifestation of hypertension later in life is now being investigated. The aim of this study was to assess the differences in cardiac structure and function between the offspring of hypertensive and normotensive parents.

Prevalence of asymptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction in hypertensive Nigerians: echocardiographic study of 832 subjects.

Background: We sought to determine the prevalence of echocardiographically determined left ventricular systolic dysfunction in asymptomatic hypertensive subjects seen in Abeokuta, Nigeria.

Methods: Echocardiography was performed in 832 consecutive hypertensive subjects referred for cardiac evaluation over a three-year period.

Results: Data were obtained in 832 subjects (50.

Uncorrected tetralogy of fallot in a 25-year old nigerian african.

Tetralogy of Fallot is the most common form of cyanotic congenital heart disease. Survival after the age of 12 years without corrective surgery is rare. We present the case of a 25 year-old man with uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot.

Plasma catecholamines in Nigerians with primary hypertension.

Background: Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease worldwide and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Increased adrenergic activity is thought to play a major role in the initiation and progression of the hypertensive state. Hypertension is more severe in Blacks when compared with White patients.

A prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors among a rural Yoruba south-western Nigerian population: a population-based survey.

Background: It has been hypothesised that rural sub-Saharan Africa is at an early stage of epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases (NCD). Limited information exists about the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors and the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the adult Nigerian population, especially in the rural setting.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess and describe the prevalence of several cardiometabolic risk factors in the sub-Saharan adult population of a rural Yoruba community, living in south-western Nigeria.

Pattern of heart failure in Abuja, Nigeria: an echocardiographic study.

Aim: Despite heart failure having been identified in subjects in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 60 years, there is still a dearth of data, especially echocardiographic data on heart failure. We therefore set out to analyse the clinical and echocardiographic features of all consecutive subjects presenting with heart failure in a tertiary institution in Nigeria.

Methods: Three hundred and forty subjects with heart failure, according to the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology, were studied.

Characterisation of heart failure with normal ejection fraction in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.

Background: The study aimed to determine the frequency and characteristics of heart failure with normal EF in a native African population with heart failure.

Methods: It was a hospital cohort study. Subjects were 177 consecutive individuals with heart failure and ninety apparently normal control subjects.