Application of Transthoracic Echocardiography for Cardiac Safety Evaluation in the Clinical Development Process of Vaccines Against Streptococcus pyogenes.

Superficial infections with Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A), pharyngitis and impetigo can induce acute rheumatic fever, an autoimmune sequela manifesting mostly with arthritis and rheumatic carditis. Valvular heart damage can persist or advance following repeated episodes of acute rheumatic fever, causing rheumatic heart disease. Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease disproportionately affect children and young adults in developing countries and disadvantaged communities in developed countries.

WORDS: A New Verbal Memory Test to Evaluate Cognitive Health in a Zambian School-aged Population.

Objective: The paucity of psychometric instruments is one of the challenges preventing the effective implementation of child cognitive health testing in Sub-Saharan countries. WORDS is a new memory assessment tool originally validated in a Zambian school-aged population.

Design: WORDS involves the standardized administration of a multitrial, verbal, free recall task with acquisition and immediate recall of a structured list of 16 words, followed by a second acquisition and delayed recall after a five-minute interference.

WAVES: A Novel Test to Evaluate Visuospatial Construction Ability in a School-aged Population.

Objective: The paucity of valid diagnostic tools is one of the challenges preventing the effective implementation of child cognitive health testing in Sub-Saharan developing countries. WAVES addresses the need for new psychometric tests to evaluate visuospatial construction ability in a school-aged population. WAVES involves the standardized administration of a copy design task that is sequentially repeated by four distinct reproduction modalities: copy design with open eyes (CDO), immediate reproduction from memory with open eyes (IRMO), immediate reproduction from memory with closed eyes (IRMC), and delayed reproduction from memory with closed eyes (DRMC).

Development of a Symbol Cancellation Test to Evaluate Attention in a School-aged Zambian Population.

Objective: The assessment of child cognitive health in Sub-Saharan developing countries poses significant challenges, including the paucity of valid diagnostic tools. We report the development and the initial validation of the Zambia Symbol Cancellation Test (ZSCT), a psychometric test to evaluate selective attention in a pediatric, school-aged population.

Design: ZSCT reliability and validity were assessed in a field trial.

Development of a Cognitive Ability Assessment Tool for a Pediatric School-aged Population.

Objective: The assessment of a child's cognitive health in developing countries poses significant challenges, including the paucity of valid diagnostic tools. We report the development and initial psychometric evaluation of a new eight-item cognitive ability assessment tool (CAAT-8) for use in an African Sub-Saharan school-aged population.

Design: CAAT-8 reliability and validity were assessed in a field trial.