Low birth weight and risk of hypertension in African school children.

Background: In accordance with Baker's programming hypothesis, many studies have demonstrated a relationship between low birth weight (LBW) and high risk of hypertension in adulthood. The present study examines a possible association between LBW and the risk of a child having hypertension later in life.

Methods: The study was a cross-sectional, semi-urban survey.

Hematocrit and stroke in black Africans under tropical climate and meteorological influence.

Objectives: To assess the relationship between hematocrit and risk of fatal and non-fatal stroke in conjunction with meteorological variations.

Design: Prospective study of a series of Africans living in Kinshasa, Congo, followed up for 5 years.

Subjects: A total of 1,032 unselected patients consecutively admitted to hospitals for acute stroke.

Assessment of ventricular diastolic function in AIDS patients from Congo: a Doppler echocardiographic study.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of left ventricular dysfunction in African patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The hypothesis was that HIV infected patients with left ventricular dysfunction are asymptomatic.

Methods: M mode, cross sectional, and Doppler echocardiography were performed in 49 consecutive patients (30 HIV positive (HIV+) carriers and 19 AIDS patients).

Survey of rheumatic heart disease in school children of Kinshasa town.

Study Objective: To determine the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease and study the association of this disease to factor such as personal host and environment.

Design: A cross sectional survey was carried out by a specially trained medical team.

Setting: The study involved high risk school children aged 5-16 years from Binza-Kinshasa urban area and adjoining slums in semi-urban area of Kinshasa town.