Establishing national noncommunicable disease surveillance in a developing country: a model for small island nations.

Objective To describe the surveillance model used to develop the first national, population-based, multiple noncommunicable disease (NCD) registry in the Caribbean (one of the first of its kind worldwide); registry implementation; lessons learned; and incidence and mortality rates from the first years of operation. Methods Driven by limited national resources, this initiative of the Barbados Ministry of Health (MoH), in collaboration with The University of the West Indies, was designed to collect prospective data on incident stroke and acute myocardial infarction (MI) (heart attack) cases from all health care facilities in this small island developing state (SIDS) in the Eastern Caribbean. Emphasis is on tertiary and emergency health care data sources.

Advancing Cancer Control Through Research and Cancer Registry Collaborations in the Caribbean.

Background: Few national registries exist in the Caribbean, resulting in limited cancer statistics being available for the region. Therefore, estimates are frequently based on the extrapolation of mortality data submitted to the World Health Organization. Thus, regional cancer surveillance and research need promoting, and their synergy must be strengthened.

Fine-needle aspiration cytology of thyroid nodules: experience at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados (1998-2002).

Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the thyroid nodule has become part of accepted practice defining the role of surgery. This study assessed a 5-year period comparing cytologic with histopathologic diagnosis in 256 samples from 234 patients (203 women and 31 men). Inadequate cytologic samples were obtained in 21.

Risk behaviour, healthcare access and prevalence of infection with Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in a population-based sample of adults in Barbados.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of urogenital infection with Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in people 18 to 35 years of age in Barbados, and to examine factors associated with infection.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey of randomly selected people from the voters' register of one electoral district and the collection of urine samples for testing by PCR.

Results: The response rate was 82%; 408 people (195 males and 213 females) completed a questionnaire and had their urine collected.

Extensive extranodal adult T-cell lymphoma presenting with a lytic arthropathy of the ankle.

A case is presented of a 44-year-old human T-cell lymphotropic virus-1 seropositive Afro-Caribbean man whose adult T-cell lymphoma presented with an ankle arthropathy. Over a period of weeks he developed subcutaneous tumor masses, osteolytic lesions, sinonasal involvement, and spinal disease culminating in death 4 months after his diagnosis. The case highlights the extranodal manifestations, generally, and rheumatological complications, specifically, of this very aggressive form of lymphoma with review of the relevant literature.