Suggestive criteria for pulmonary tuberculosis in developing countries.

Tuberculosis (TB) represents a major problem in developing countries. Diagnosis is often difficult and mainly relies on clinical criteria and simple laboratory examinations, as cultural methods and molecular biology are not available in most health facilities. In order to evaluate the reliability of clinical criteria to suggest pulmonary TB, a prospective survey was conducted in Wolisso Hospital, South-West Shewa region, Ethiopia.

Echocardiography in low-resource rural tropical hospitals.

Cardiopathies are common in tropical regions and echocardiography could be of substantial value. However, it is difficult to practice. We suggest simple techniques with conventional instruments that are available in many rural hospitals, and describe the most common echocardiographic procedures and findings that can be undertaken with short training by non-cardiologist physicians.

Snake bites in Moyen Chari district, Chad: a five-year experience.

Snake bites are of major public health importance in Africa as a cause of morbidity and mortality. Echis ocellatus is responsible for the majority of envenomation cases in West Africa. Antivenom immunotherapy is the only specific treatment available for envenomed patients.

Leukocyte alkaline phosphatase in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

We studied leukocyte alkaline phosphatase in malaria to assess leukocyte defence mechanisms. Twenty-seven patients with malaria were stratified into two classes on the basis of disease severity. Fifteen malaria negative patients were taken as controls.