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Urinary tract infections (UTIs) remains the most common infections diagnosed among in and out patients as well as hospitalized patients. A total of 400 urine samples were collected from pregnant women attending selected hospitals within Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria and analyzed for E. coli associated urinary tract infection. E. coli was isolated using Eosin methylene blue agar, and preserved on Nutrient agar slant. The isolates were identified based on cultural characteristics, conventional biochemical test and microgen kit identification. The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolate was determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Out of the 400 samples collected, 85 (21.3%) were positive for Escherichia coli. In relation to the age-group, pregnant women within the age group 26-30 years had the highest prevalence of infection (28.3%), followed by pregnant women within the age of 31-35 years (18.9%), pregnant women with the least prevalence are within the age 15-20 years (18.3%). Pregnant women who were housewives had the highest prevalence of E. coli infection. Women in their 2nd and 3rd trimesters were found to have a higher prevalence of Escherichia coli infection; 21.7% and 23.0% respectively. This shows that high parity is one of the possible factors affecting the prevalence of urinary tract infection among pregnant women. Escherichia coli isolates showed highest susceptibility to Gentamicin (72.9%), Amoxycillin (70.5%) and Streptomycin (70.5%). However, the isolates showed higher resistance to Perfloxacin (49.4%), Chloramphenicol (38.8%), and Ciprofloxacin (36.5%).

Abstract The relationship between APOE polymorphisms and Parkinson’s disease (PD) in black Africans has not been previously investigated. We evaluated the association between APOE polymorphic variability and self-declared cognition in 1100 Nigerians with PD and 1097 age-matched healthy controls. Cognition in PD was assessed using the single item cognition question (item 1.1) of the MDS-UPDRS. APOE genotype and allele frequencies did not differ between PD and controls (p > 0.05). No allelic or genotypic association was observed between APOE and age at onset of PD. In PD, APOE ε4/ε4 conferred a two-fold risk of cognitive impairment compared to one or no ε4 (HR: 2.09 (95% CI: 1.13–3.89; p = 0.02)), while APOE ε2 was associated with modest protection against cognitive impairment (HR: 0.41 (95% CI 0.19–0.99, p = 0.02)). Of 773 PD with motor phenotype and APOE characterized, tremor-dominant (TD) phenotype predominated significantly in ε2 carriers (87/135, 64.4%) compared to 22.2% in persons with postural instability/gait difficulty (PIGD) (30/135) and 13.3% in indeterminate (ID) (18/135, 13.3%) (p = 0.037). Although the frequency of the TD phenotype was highest in homozygous ε2 carriers (85.7%), the distribution of motor phenotypes across the six genotypes did not differ significantly (p = 0.18). Altogether, our findings support previous studies in other ethnicities, implying a role for APOE ε4 and ε2 as risk and protective factors, respectively, for cognitive impairment in PD.

A total of 45 samples of herbal preparation consisting of 15 each of “Maganin Shawara,” Maganin tsusan ciki and “Maganin Basir” claimed to cure typhoid fever, intestinal parasites and pile respectively were analyzed. The isolation, identification and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of bacterial contaminants of the herbal products were carried out using standard procedures. The study was aimed at determining the bacteriological quality of some liquid herbal preparations sold within Jos metropolis, Nigeria and the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates. The results showed that out of the 45 liquid herbal samples analyzed, 21 (46.67%) were contaminated with Esherichia coli, 8 (17.78%) with Staphylococcus aureus, 6 (13.33%) with Salmonella sp, 7(15.56%) and 3(6.67%) were contaminated with Bacillus sp and Proteus vulgaris respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility tests showed that all the isolates have high level of resistance to the antibiotics used in this study. Findings of this study imply that the herbal preparations are of poor bacteriological quality and may be potential source for the dissemination of multi-drug resistant microorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless body area network (WBAN) is a promising candidate for future health monitoring system. Nevertheless, the path to mature solutions is still facing a lot of challenges that need to be overcome. Energy efficient scheduling is one of these challenges given the scarcity of available energy of biosensors and the lack of portability. Therefore, researchers from academia, industry and health sectors are working together to realize practical solutions for these challenges. The main difficulty in WBAN is the uncertainty in the state of the monitored system. Intelligent learning approaches such as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) were proposed to tackle this issue. A Markov Decision Process (MDP) is a form of Markov Chain in which the transition matrix depends on the action taken by the decision maker (agent) at each time step. The agent receives a reward, which depends on the action and the state. The goal is to find a function, called a policy, which specifies which action to take in each state, so as to maximize some utility functions (e.g., the mean or expected discounted sum) of the sequence of rewards. A partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP) is a generalization of Markov decision processes that allows for the incomplete information regarding the state of the system. In this case, the state is not visible to the agent. This has many applications in operations research and artificial intelligence. Due to incomplete knowledge of the system, this uncertainty makes formulating and solving POMDP models mathematically complex and computationally expensive. Limited progress has been made in terms of applying POMPD to real applications. In this paper, we surveyed the existing methods and algorithms for solving POMDP in the general domain and in particular in Wireless body area network (WBAN). In addition, the papers discussed recent real implementation of POMDP on practical problems of WBAN. We believe that this work will provide valuable insights for the newcomers who would like to pursue related research in the domain of WBAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression has significant negative impact on the quality of life in patients with epilepsy (PWE). Aim: This study assessed the prevalence of depression in PWE and the impact of seizure variables on the depression scores. Settings and Design: A case-control study of randomly selected PWE attending a tertiary hospital in a metropolitan, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total of 152 randomly selected subjects the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for quantitative assessment of depression, while the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) was used by the investigators. Statistical Analysis: The Student t test assessed statistical significance of differences in the BDI and HRSD scores, whereas the scores were correlated with Pearson's correlation coefficient. Logistic regression analysis and Chi-square test for trend assessed the impact of seizure variables on the scores. The level of significance was taken as P < 0.05. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 42% and 45% using the HRSD and BDI, respectively, with significant differences in the scores of the patients and controls on the both scales (P < 0.001). The PWE scores on both scales yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.8 indicating their utility in detecting depressive symptoms. Seizure control was the most potent predictor of depression (HRSD: P = 0.004; BDI: P = 0.001). Conclusions: Depressive symptoms are common in epilepsy. Early detection and prompt management are recommended. Good seizure control with an appropriate antiepileptic drug, among other interventional measures, may contribute to the prevention of depression in epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A school survey of 1232 primary school children between the ages of 4-12 years was carried out in randomly selected schools in Igala-mela/Odolu L.G.A. of Kogi State for Tinea capitis infection. Cultural and Microscopic examinations of hair and scalp scrapings were carried out. A total of 602 (48.9%) had the infections, out of which 502 were males and 98 were females (ratio 5:1). Among the isolated dermatophytes, Microsporum canis was most predominant 287(47.7%), followed by Trichophyton tonsurans 140 (23.3%),Trichophyton mentagrophytes 112 (18.6%) while Microsporum audouinii was 63(10.4%). The high cases of the disease had a strong relationship with low standard of living, poor hygiene, overcrowding and proximity to domestic animals. Personal hygiene, proper sanitation and proper education on handling pet animals are strongly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The record is presented of a patient with severe recurrent bleeding due to portal hypertension. Surgical control of the feeding vessels of a fistulous communication between the gastroduodenal artery and its companion vein arrested the haemorrhage and controlled the portal hypertension.