Promotion of Cardiovascular Health in Africa: The Alliance for Medical Research in Africa (AMedRA) Expert Panel.

This proposed scientific statement is focused on providing new insights regarding challenges and opportunities for cardiovascular health (CVH) promotion in Africa. The statement includes an overview of the current state of CVH in Africa, with a particular interest in the cardiometabolic risk factors and their evaluation through metrics. The statement also explains the main principles of primordial prevention, its relevance in reducing noncommunicable disease and the different strategies that have been effective worldwide.

Dietary salt intake and kidney function in rural Senegalese populations: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: High salt intake is a major risk factor for hypertension and its complications such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular diseases. The present study aimed to determine level of sodium consumption and its relation with kidney function in the rural populations of Ferlo (centre of Senegal).

Subjects And Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study including 400 volunteers aged > 18 years.

[Pediatric orbital Rosai-Dorfman disease: An unusual case].

Introduction: Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is a sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy. This rare condition is a benign disease of unknown etiology. Bilateral orbital localization of RDD is rare.

Urbanization associates with restricted gut microbiome diversity and delayed maturation in infants.

Alterations of the microbiome are linked to increasingly common diseases such as obesity, allergy, and inflammatory bowel disease. Post-industrial lifestyles are thought to contribute to the gut microbiome alterations that cause or aggravate these diseases. Comparing communities across the industrialization spectrum can reveal associations between gut microbiome alterations and lifestyle and health, and help pinpoint which specific aspect of the post-industrial lifestyle is linked to microbiome alterations.

Long-term outcome in vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis.

Background: Rapid diagnosis and treatment has improved outcome of patients with vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT). However, after the acute episode, many questions on long-term management of VITT remained unanswered.

Objectives: To analyze, in patients with VITT, the long-term course of anti-platelet factor 4 (PF4) antibodies; clinical outcomes, including risk of recurrent thrombosis and/or thrombocytopenia; and the effects of new vaccinations.

Photoprotection in skin of color.

As populations in many parts of the world are projected to become more racially diverse over the coming decades, we must better understand the unique characteristics of the skin of populations with skin of color (SOC). This review aims to highlight important physiologic and clinical considerations of photoprotection in SOC. Ultraviolet radiation and visible light affect dark and light skin differently.

[Assessing psychological, anxiety, depression and stress levels of Senegalese general population during COVID-19 pandemic].

Objectives: - Assessing of Impact of Event, depression, anxiety and stress levels in the Senegalese general population during the COVID19 pandemic and identifying associated factors.

Methods: - Socio-demographic data, psychological impact of the pandemic, and mental health status of participants were collected using an online questionnaire administered to the general population of Senegal between April 1 and April 30 2021. Psychological impact and mental health status were assessed, respectively, by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale 21 (DASS21).

Pilot Study of Associations Among Functional Connectivity and Neurocognition in Survivors of Pediatric Brain Tumor and Healthy Peers.

This pilot study examined the associations among functional connectivity in the salience, central executive, and default mode networks, and neurocognition in pediatric brain tumor survivors and healthy children. Thirteen pediatric brain tumor survivors (9 boys, M = 12.76 years) and 10 healthy children (6 boys, M = 12.

Quantitative interpretation of PF4/heparin-EIA optical densities in predicting platelet-activating VITT antibodies.

Background: Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) is a prothrombotic, heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT)-mimicking, adverse reaction caused by platelet-activating anti-platelet factor 4 (PF4) antibodies that occurs rarely after adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccination. Strength of PF4-dependent enzyme immunoassay (EIA) reactivity-judged by optical density (OD) measurements-strongly predicts platelet-activating properties of HIT antibodies in a functional test. Whether a similar relationship holds for VITT antibodies is unknown.

Most anti-PF4 antibodies in vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia are transient.

Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) is triggered by vaccination against COVID-19 with adenovirus vector vaccines (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; Ad26.COV2-S). In this observational study, we followed VITT patients for changes in their reactivity of platelet-activating antiplatelet factor 4 (PF4) immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies by an anti-PF4/heparin IgG enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and a functional test for PF4-dependent, platelet-activating antibodies, and new thrombotic complications.

Qualitative and quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from dried blood spots.

Introduction: Dried blood spot (DBS) sampling is a minimally invasive method for specimen collection with potential multifaceted uses, particularly for serosurveillance of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, we assessed DBS as a potential specimen type for assessing IgG and total (including IgG and IgM) antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in vaccinated and naturally infected patients.

Methods: Six candidate buffers were assessed for eluting blood from DBS cards.

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in hemodialysis patients in Senegal: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Background: Hemodialysis patients are among high-risk groups for COVID-19. Africa is the continent with the lowest number of cases in the general population but we have little information about the disease burden in dialysis patients.

Objectives: This study aimed to describe the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the hemodialysis population of Senegal.

Diagnostic Yield of Population-Based Screening for Chronic Kidney Disease in Low-Income, Middle-Income, and High-Income Countries.

Importance: Population-based screening for chronic kidney disease (CKD) is sometimes recommended based on the assumption that detecting CKD is associated with beneficial changes in treatment. However, the treatment of CKD is often similar to the treatment of hypertension or diabetes, which commonly coexist with CKD.

Objective: To determine the frequency with which population-based screening for CKD is associated with a change in recommended treatment compared with a strategy of measuring blood pressure and assessing glycemia.

The good life in rural and urban Senegal: A qualitative and quantitative study.

Very few studies have analyzed the influence of the environment, rural or urban, on the notion of good life and subjective well-being in sub-Saharan Africa and none, to our knowledge, has combined qualitative and quantitative methodologies for this purpose. The objectives of this interdisciplinary study were: a) to understand the emic representations of the good life in rural and urban Senegal and; b) to compare the levels and determinants of satisfaction with life between these two populations. This study was carried out in Dakar and in a very isolated rural area in the North East of Senegal: the sylvo-pastoral zone of Ferlo.

[Nephrology in Sub-saharan Africa: Past, present, future].

Nephrology was a relatively poorly known specialty in sub-Saharan Africa until the early 1980s, because of low awareness and lack of access to diagnosis and renal replacement therapies. Nephrology has seen progress on the continent despite an unfavourable economic and geopolitical environment. With a prevalence of fewer than five nephrologists per million inhabitants, the training of nephrologists, now carried out on the continent, allowed to have more than 200 specialists trained in the last decade in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.

Hypertension treatment with Combretum micranthum or Hibiscus sabdariffa, as decoction or tablet: a randomized clinical trial.

Hibiscus sabdariffa L. (local names: bissap, karkade) and Combretum micranthum (kinkeliba) are widely known in traditional medicines and popular beliefs for their antihypertensive effect. This study assessed the clinical effectiveness of these two plants in the galenic forms of tablet and brew (decoction) in noncomplicated hypertensive patients.

Risk of obstructive sleep apnea among senegalese dialysis patients.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common condition in patients undergoing chronic dialysis and is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of OSAS in Senegalese dialysis patients. In a cross-sectional study including 128 patients (75 men and 53 women) dialyzed since ≥6 months in four dialysis units.

Severe infectious keratitis in tropical environments: 118 cases collected over 10 years.

Introduction: The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical, microbiological, and contributing factors of microbial keratitis in tropical environment. Materiel and methods: We performed a retrospective study of all patients admitted to the ophthalmology department of Principal Hospital in Dakar for infectious keratitis, over ten years from January 2006 to December 2015. Clinical, microbiological, and contributing factors as well as visual effects were studied.