Seroprevalence of pertussis among healthcare workers: A cross-sectional study from Tunisia.

This cross-sectional study aimed to assess pertussis seroprevalence among healthy healthcare workers (HCW) of the Children's Hospital of Tunis, Tunisia. During the study period, 236 blood samples were obtained to determine HCW exposure to pertussis. Concentrations of immunoglobulin G (IgG) to pertussis toxin (PT) were measured using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Breast Cancer Ultrasound Images' Sequence Exploration Using BI-RADS Features' Extraction: Towards an Advanced Clinical Aided Tool for Precise Lesion Characterization.

This research concerned a clinical need for precise breast cancer lesion characterization imaged by ultrasound sequences. Using therefore BI-RADS features that would be carefully extracted, the purpose of this study could be mainly to prove and to demonstrate the possibility of surveying precisely the changing characteristics of a breast cancer lesion within a considered ultrasound images' sequence. This was in fact a clinical need of a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system permitting flexible and convivial clinical analysis of multi-slices' ultrasound breast cancer lesion with greater precision.

[Spinal cord electric stimulation. Treatment of serious chronic ischemic syndromes of the limbs].

Background: Aim of this study is to estimate the effectiveness of epidural electric stimulation of spinal cord for the treatment of patients with severe peripheral chronic arteriopathy who can't be surgically treated or when surgical therapy failed.

Methods: A retrospective study was carried out on 18 patients with peripheral chronic arteriopathy at clinical stage I of Fontaine classification; average age was of 60.08 years an they had rest pain and dystrophic lesions.

Possibilities at present for the application of lumbar sympathectomy in chronic occlusive arterial disease of the lower limbs.

Background: Research on the limitations of the validity of lumbar sympathectomy in surgical treatment of lower limb occlusive arterial disease is still of great interest today.

Methods: Our study deals with 385 patients who underwent the surgical removal of a segment which includes the 2nd and the 3rd ganglion of the lumbar sympathetic chain in the period between the month of January 1989 and the month of December 1998.

Results: Results were good in 63.

[Present-day role of vena cava filters].

Background: The purpose of the present is to assess the effectiveness of pulmonary embolism prevention using temporary or permanent vena cava filters in deep venous thromboses of the lower extremities with a discussion of indications and complications.

Methods: In the period between 1989 and 1998 we observed 46 patients (33 m, 13 f) suffering from deep venous thrombosis of the lower extremities.

Results: The cases treated with cava filter showed an improvement in clinical conditions in 15-19 cases with 4/19 cases of complications: filter ascent, lipothymia, one case of pneumothorax and one case of filter ascent with thrombosis of the contralateral venous axis.