Inflammatory Markers and Plasma Lipids in HIV Patients: A Correlation Analysis Study.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that HIV infection, even with treatment, increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and that both chronic inflammation and traditional risk factors play key roles in HIV-associated CHD.

Subjects And Methods: Patients (N=152), attending Harare HIV clinic, 26% of them male and 82% of them on antiretroviral therapy (ART), were studied. Inflammatory markers comprising of cytokines such as pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-α, (TNF-α), anti-inflammatory interleukin 10, (IL-10) and highly sensitive C reactive protein (hsCRP) together with lipids were assayed using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immuno-turbidimetric and enzymatic assays, respectively.

Adult Hematology and Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Reference Ranges in a Zimbabwean Population.

Background: Laboratory reference ranges used for clinical care and clinical trials in various laboratories in Zimbabwe were derived from textbooks and research studies conducted more than ten years ago. Periodic verification of these ranges is essential to track changes over time. The purpose of this study was to establish hematology and chemistry laboratory reference ranges using more rigorous methods.

Hematological and biochemical laboratory reference intervals for Zimbabwean adolescents.

Background: Reference intervals are used as an aid in the interpretation of laboratory results. Most developing countries do not have reference intervals specific to adolescents. This study was aimed at establishing hematological and biochemical reference intervals for adolescents aged ≥ 12 years to < 18 years.

Hepatitis B and C infection at a large public sector hospital clinic: is it a burden?

Background: Co-infections have become significant causes of morbidity and mortality in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected people. Due to shared routes of transmission, co-infection of HIV with Hepatitis B (HBV) and/or Hepatitis C (HCV) should be expected. In Zimbabwe, screening for both viruses in HIV infected people prior to treatment is not routinely practised despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines (2013) prioritising treatment where these co-infections exist.

Glucose tolerance study in low and normal birth weight young adults.

Objective: To determine blood glucose levels by conducting an oral glucose tolerance test in low and normal birth weight young black adults.

Design: Acase control study was done. Seventy students in the College of Health Sciences who had neonatal clinic cards as proof of birth weight were recruited into the study.

Clinical laboratory test prices in Zimbabwe: A case of profiteering?

Objective: To compare the prices charged for clinical laboratory tests in Zimbabwean institutions with those of similar institutions abroad.

Design: An online analytical cross sectional study was conducted.

Setting: An online survey.

Circulating cytokines in pulmonary tuberculosis according to HIV status and dietary iron content.

Objective: To evaluate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) serology, dietary iron and serum concentrations of markers of T-helper type (Th) 1 and Th-2 immune pathways in the setting of tuberculosis (TB).

Methods: A total of 49 patients with pulmonary TB in rural Zimbabwe, 32 of whom were HIV-positive, were evaluated at presentation and over 10 weeks of anti-tuberculosis treatment.

Results: Interleukin (IL) 12 and neopterin, Th-1 markers, were both elevated at presentation in 92% of the subjects.

Evaluation of cost per test of clinical biochemistry tests at Parirenyatwa Central Hospital Laboratory, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Objectives: To determine the cost per test for selected clinical biochemistry tests at Parirenyatwa Central Hospital, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Design: A retrospective study for the month January 2003. Cost analysis was based on a 'bottom-up' micro cost analysis technique.

Serum ferritin concentrations in Africans with low dietary iron.

In the setting of high dietary, several studies have provided evidence for a strong effect of both high dietary iron and an unidentified genetic locus on iron stores in Africans. To investigate whether these effects are discernible in the setting of low dietary iron, serum ferritin concentrations were measured in 194 Zimbabwean men >30 years of age and 299 postmenopausal women who consumed a non-iron-fortified diet and who did not drink iron-rich traditional beer or other alcoholic beverages. Comparisons were made with non-alcohol drinking African-Americans studied in the third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES III) who consume an iron-fortified diet.

Reference intervals of serum transferrin receptors in pre-school children in Zimbabwe.

In laboratory medicine an observed value of a biological analyte may be compared with previously observed values from an appropriate reference population. A reference range for serum transferrin receptor concentration has not been established for Zimbabwean children. We prospectively studied 208 children aged 3-60 months who were residents of Harare, a non-malaria and non-hookworm endemic area, and who attended a well-child clinic.

The prevalence of diabetic nephropathy in adult patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus attending Parirenyatwa Diabetic Clinic, Harare.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of diabetic nephropathy in a diabetic clinic in a tertiary hospital setting in Zimbabwe.

Design: Descriptive cross sectional study.

Setting: Diabetic clinic in a tertiary hospital.

Association of serum transferrin receptor concentration with markers of inflammation in Zimbabwean children.

Background: Clinical studies have shown that degree of erythropoiesis, the hypoxic response, and iron status each independently influences transferrin receptor concentration, but there is conflicting information regarding the effect of inflammation on transferrin receptor expression.

Subjects And Methods: Levels of hemoglobin, reticulocytes, serum ferritin, transferrin receptors and inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and neutrophils) were determined in 208 Zimbabwean children
Results: In linear regression models among 147 children with ferritin >10 ng/mL that adjusted for erythropoiesis with log(10) reticulocyte count, the hypoxic response with hemoglobin concentration and iron status with log(10) ferritin concentration, positive correlations were found between log(10) transferrin receptor concentration and log(10) C-reactive protein concentration (P=0.

Effect of ferroportin Q248H polymorphism on iron status in African children.

Background: Iron deficiency is common in African children, but genetic variations affecting susceptibility have not been identified. The Q248H mutation in ferroportin, a cellular iron exporter regulated by iron status and inflammation, may be associated with high iron stores in African adults.

Objective: The study examined the prevalence of iron deficiency in African children in an area where malaria transmission is low to absent and investigated whether ferroportin Q248H provides protection from iron deficiency.

Metabolic syndrome disorders in urban black Zimbabweans with type 2 Diabetes mellitus.

Objective: The main aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome disorders and their interrelations in black Zimbabwean type 2 diabetic patients.

Study Design: Prospective cross sectional study.

Setting: Outpatient diabetic clinics at Harare and Parirenyatwa tertiary hospitals.

Iron overload in Africans and African-Americans and a common mutation in the SCL40A1 (ferroportin 1) gene.

The product of the SLC40A1 gene, ferroportin 1, is a main iron export protein. Pathogenic mutations in ferroportin 1 lead to an autosomal dominant hereditary iron overload syndrome characterized by high serum ferritin concentration, normal transferrin saturation, iron accumulation predominantly in macrophages, and marginal anemia. Iron overload occurs in both the African and the African-American populations, but a possible genetic basis has not been established.

Iron status in black persons is not influenced by haptoglobin polymorphism.

Iron status in man is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. The molecular variation of haptoglobin is one of the genetic factors influencing iron status in Caucasians. Differences in iron metabolism between blacks and whites have been reported.

Effect of transferrin polymorphism on the metabolism of vitamin C in Zimbabwean adults.

Background: Transferrin is the major iron binding protein in human plasma. In black persons, the transferrin CD phenotype has been associated with alterations in certain markers of iron status.

Objective: We studied vitamin C status in a Zimbabwean population according to transferrin phenotype because vitamin C metabolism is influenced by iron-driven oxidative stress.