Etiological Profile and Treatment Outcome of Epistaxis at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northwestern Tanzania: A Prospective Review of 104 Cases.

Epistaxis is the commonest otolaryngological emergency affecting up to 60% of the population in their lifetime, with 6% requiring medical attention. There is paucity of published data regarding the management of epistaxis in Tanzania, especially the study area. This study was conducted to describe the etiological profile and treatment outcome of epistaxis at Bugando Medical Centre, a tertiary care hospital in Northwestern Tanzania. This was a prospective descriptive study of the cases of epistaxis managed at Bugando Medical Centre from January 2008 to December 2010. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS computer software version 15. A total of 104 patients with epistaxis were studied. Males were affected twice more than the females (2.7:1). Their mean age was 32.24 ± 12.54 years (range 4 to 82 years). The modal age group was 31-40 years. The commonest cause of epistaxis was trauma (30.8%) followed by idiopathic (26.9%) and hypertension (17.3%). Anterior nasal bleeding was noted in majority of the patients (88.7%). Non surgical measures such as observation alone (40.4%) and anterior nasal packing (38.5%) were the main intervention methods in 98.1% of cases. Surgical measures mainly intranasal tumor resection was carried out in 1.9% of cases. Arterial ligation and endovascular embolization were not performed. Complication rate was 3.8%. The overall mean of hospital stay was 7.2 ± 1.6 days (range 1 to 24 days). Five patients died giving a mortality rate of 4.8%. Trauma resulting from road traffic crush (RTC) remains the most common etiological factor for epistaxis in our setting. Most cases were successfully managed with conservative (non-surgical) treatment alone and surgical intervention with its potential complications may not be necessary in most cases and should be the last resort. Reducing the incidence of trauma from RTC will reduce the incidence of emergency epistaxis in our centre

Citywide Trauma Experience in Mwanza, Tanzania: A Need for Urgent Intervention.

Trauma remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in resource limited countries. There is paucity of published reports on trauma care in Tanzania, particularly the study area. This study was carried out to describe our experiences in trauma management outlining the etiological spectrum, injury characteristics and treatment outcome of trauma patients at our local setting and compare our results with those from other centers in the world. A descriptive prospective study of trauma patients was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre from April 2010 to March 2012. Statistical data analysis was done using SPSS software version 17.0. A total of 5672 trauma patients were enrolled in the study. The male to female ratio was 2.3: 1. The majority of patients were in the 2nd decade of life. Road traffic accident was the most common cause of trauma accounting for 60.7% of cases. The majority of patients (76.6%) sustained blunt injuries. Musculoskeletal (68.5%) and head/neck (52.6%) were the most frequent body region injured. Soft tissue injuries (open wounds) and fractures were the most common injuries accounting for 82.8% and 76.8% respectively. Majority of patients (74.4%) were treated surgically with wound debridement (94.0%) being the most frequently performed procedure. Postoperative complications were recorded in 31.5% of cases.The overall median duration of hospitalization was 26 days (range 1 day to 144 days). Mortality rate was 16.7%. Patients who had polytrauma, burn injuries and those who had tetanus and long bone fractures stayed longer in the hospital and this was statistically significant (P < 0.001), whereas the age > 65 years, severe trauma, admission Systolic Blood Pressure < 90 mmHg, presence of tetanus, severe head injury, the duration of loss of consciousness, the need for intensive care unit admission and finding of space occupying lesion on CT scan of the brain significantly influenced mortality (P < 0.001). Trauma resulting from road traffic accidents remains a major public health problem in this part of Tanzania. Urgent preventive measures targeting at reducing the occurrence of road traffic accidents is necessary to reduce the incidence of trauma in this region

Ligand-guided investigation of a series of formamidine-based thiuram disulfides as potential dual-inhibitors of COX-1and COX-2

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.A series of thiuram disulfides 1–6 which had been previously synthesized and characterized, were studied for their potential therapeutic properties. Target-fishing analyses through HitPick and SwissTarget prediction identified COX1 and COX2, which are essential biomolecules in cancer-related inflammations, as the possible targets for compounds 1 and 4 among all the compounds tested. These two proteins have enjoyed interest as targets for treating some neoplastic cancer types such as breast, colorectal, skin, pancreatic, haematological and head cancers. The inhibitory potency of 1 and 4 as lead anticancer drug candidates with dual-target ability against COX1 and COX2 was examined through molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation and post-MD analyses such as binding energy calculation, RMSD, RMSF, and RoG. The two compounds had better docking scores and binding energies than the known inhibitors of COX1 and COX2. Insights from the RMSD, RMSF, and RoG suggested that both 1 and 4 showed observable influence on the structural stability of these targets throughout the simulation. The reported observations of the effects of 1 and 4 on the structures of COX1 and COX2 indicate their probable inhibitory properties against these target proteins and their potential as lead anticancer drug candidates.The College of Agriculture, Science, and Engineering, the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Olabisi Onabanjo University and the National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa.http://www.cb.wiley.comam2024BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologySDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

Strength Properties of Steel and Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Containing Quarry Dust, Rice Husk Ash and Guinea Corn Husk Ash

The rising cost of concrete production due to the global recession in world economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the greenhouse gases emitted in the production of cement has necessitated the need for alternative materials for cement. In this study, bamboo strips and steel rebars were used as reinforcements in a ternary blended concrete to determine their strength properties. In alignment with standard requirements for testing, concrete specimens were tested at curing ages of 7, 14 and 28 days for compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths. The morphological and bond characteristics of the bamboo were determined through the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively; while its tensile strength was determined and compared with that of steel reinforcement. These results showed that bamboo is ductile and has stretching vibrational spectrum. The combinations of quarry dust, river sand, Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and Guinea Corn Husk Ash (GCHA) yielded compressive and split tensile strengths of 20.4 N/mm2 and 2.18 N/mm2, respectively. Concrete with 50 % river sand and 50 % quarry dust performed better in flexure for both Bamboo Reinforced Concrete (BRC) and Steel Reinforced Concrete (SRC) at 28 days with strengths of 12.75 N/mm2 and 22.49 N/mm2, respectively. Therefore, bamboo, quarry dust, rice husk and guinea corn husk ash can be used for reinforced concrete production

Growth and characterization of copper cadmium sulphide thin films

Copper cadmium sulphide thin film was deposited onto glass (soda-lime) substrates using chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique at room temperature. Chemical, optical, structural, and microstructural features were examined via the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis Spectroscopy, and High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). FTIR revealed that the associated chemical bond was below the 900 cm-1 marks. The optical band-gap of 2.36 eV was estimated from the absorption analysis. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the deposited material is polycrystalline with hexagonal and cubic structures typical of the binary constituents of and thin films. The grain sizes were randomly distributed and ranged between 35 and 60 nm as indicated by the HRTEM

Malaria and typhoid fever co-infection: a retrospective analysis of University Hospital records in Nigeria

Studies have long documented the presence of malaria and typhoid fever in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, studies on these diseases have primarily concentrated on rural settings, neglecting the potential impact on urban areas. This knowledge gap hinders effective surveillance and intervention strategies. To bridge this gap, this study investigated the prevalence of malaria and typhoid co-infections in an urban environment.MethodsThis study, conducted at Lead City University Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria (West Africa’s largest metropolis), analysed medical records of over 3195 patients seen between April and June 2023. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to understand how these co-infections were distributed across different age and gender groups.ResultsThe prevalence of co-infection peaked in May (9.7%), followed by June (8.9%) and April (5.7%). Notably, children aged 6–12 years exhibited the highest co-infection rate (18.5%), while those under five had the lowest (6.3%). Gender analysis indicated a slight difference, with 8.8% of females and 7.1% of males co-infected. Malaria prevalence was highest at the beginning of the rainy season and significantly decreased over time. Conversely, typhoid fever displayed the opposite trend, increasing with the rainy season. Children under five years old were most susceptible to malaria, while typhoid fever predominantly affected adults over 25 years old, with prevalence decreasing significantly with age.ConclusionThis study sheds light on the previously overlooked risk of malaria and typhoid co-infections in urban settings. These findings highlight the need for enhanced surveillance and targeted public health interventions, particularly for vulnerable groups like young children during peak transmission seasons

Determination of cross-sectional void fraction in a two-phase water flow through a PVC pipe

Gamma ray transmission method for void faction measurement studies is in rare use in Nigeria, especially in industries and research.The study used this method to determine the cross-sectional void fraction of two-phase water flow through a Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipechannel.The gamma-ray counts transmitted through the water pipe were recorded and used to calculate the void fraction using a semi-empirical approach. Void ratio values varying from 0.171 – 0.036 were obtained for water flow rates ranging between 0.5gal/min - 4.0gal/min at estimated constant air flow rate. Conclusively, the experimental results compared well with Chisholm theoretical model predictions of void ratio applicable to horizontal flow.The use of two or more theoretical model predictions is recommended for further comparative study with experimental process. Also, more use of gamma ray transmission method should be encouraged