The histological findings in renal biopsy specimens obtained from 41 children with the nephrotic syndrome in Ibadan, Nigeria, between July, 1989 and June, 1996 are presented. The patients consisted of 26 male and 15 female children and their ages ranged from 2-13 years. The predominant histological type was membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) which occurred in 21 (51.2%). Membranous nephropathy and minimal change nephropathy (MCN) accounted for 4 (9.8%) patients each. The prevalence of MPGN was 33.3% in children less than 5 years of age compared with 56.2% amongst children who were > or = 5 years. All the three patients with MCN who were treated with a course of prednisolone had complete remission of the disease. It is concluded that MPGN is the predominant histological lesion seen in childhood nephrotic syndrome in Ibadan and that MCN remains an uncommon lesion. Therefore, renal biopsy is recommended as a prelude to a trial of steroid therapy in these patients since MCN (which is generally associated with steroid-responsiveness) is an uncommon finding among them.
Black men have higher blood pressure (BP) levels and consequently higher prevalence of hypertension compared with men from other ethnic groups in the United States. Socio-familial factors in childhood have been found to play an important role in hypertension, but few studies have examined this relationship among black men. We investigated whether childhood family living arrangements are independently associated with mean BP and hypertension in a cross-sectional sample of 515 unrelated black male participants aged ≥20 years enrolled in the Howard University Family Study between 2001 and 2008. Black men who lived with both parents compared with the reference group of men who never lived with both parents during their lifetime had lower systolic BP (-4.4 mm Hg [95% confidence interval {CI}, -7.84 to -0.96]), pulse pressure (-3.9 mm Hg [95% CI, -6.28 to -1.51]), and mean arterial BP (-2.0 mm Hg [95% CI, -4.44 to 0.51]). This protective effect was more pronounced among men who lived with both parents for 1 to 12 years of their lives; they had decreased systolic BP (-6.5 mm Hg [95% CI, -10.99 to -1.95]), pulse pressure (-5.4 mm Hg [95% CI, -8.48 to -2.28]), mean arterial pressure (-3.3 mm Hg [95% CI, -6.56 to 0.00]), and a 46% decreased odds of developing hypertension (odds ratio=0.54; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.99). No statistically significant associations were found for diastolic BP. These results provide preliminary evidence that childhood family structure exerts a long-term influence on BP among black men.
Abstract Data on the monthly clinical episodes of malaria and prevalence from laboratory diagnosis of patients for malaria infection was obtained from an array of data gathered from malaria parasite tests conducted on patients clinically diagnosed for malaria in health centers within the study area in Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan city in Nigeria, for years 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005 (6years) which falls between years 1997-2005. Also, data was gathered for climatic factors (rainfall, relative humidity, temperature and sunshine hours) for all years between years 1997 and 2005 (9years complete) from Geospatial Laboratory of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture IITA in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Thereafter, we engaged statistical methods with computational support from Microsoft Excel version 2007, to generate a climate based- simulation to predict periods of the years for which there were high malaria intensity for malaria. We could not retrieve complete data for prevalence (laboratory positive results for tests) the month for October. So, we proceeded to determine the correlation between clinical episodes and prevalence for the 6 years for which we retrieved data. The Pearson moment correlation coefficient “r” between clinical symptomatic episode and positive outcomes of tests (prevalence of infection) as computed from Microsoft Excel was + 0.986265 This shows a high enough positive correlation, upon which we could use the clinical episodes to compute of simulations to predict periods of high intensity of clinical symptomatic episodes and which can then be related to the intensity for prevalence of malaria. The statistical computations indicated high intensity of clinical episodes to correlate (correspond) with rise for the climatic factors, and low intensities for lowered levels of most of the climatic factors for years 2002 and 2004, as they both recorded positive ranges of correlation “r” values between clinical episode and climatic factors. This can be used to predict periods of the year with high intensity of clinical episodes of malaria as our simulated prediction. Then we conducted two test-runs using two observed variants in the climate based-yearly periods of high intensity (those of years 1998 and 2001). The predictions indicated matches for periods of high intensity transmission using statistical tool of Pearson’s moment correlation analysis derived relationships and other descriptive statistical attributes. These range of correlative value matches were between the precise values of correlation coefficients of the obtained laboratory data and that of calculated predictive ranges of these values. Since the Pearson correlation between clinical episode and prevalence of malaria was high (close to 1.0), these simulation can assist to predict prevalence of infection obtained from the laboratory diagnosis. From our analysis and predictive simulations we suggest future extraction of additional related data by other scientists to input into this simulation and run more tests with other support statistical tools to further see how it perform. If successful, this simulative prediction of malaria transmission intensity can be built into algorithm involving use of machine learning platforms.
Hypertension is a leading cause of global disease, mortality, and disability. While individuals of African descent suffer a disproportionate burden of hypertension and its complications, they have been underrepresented in genetic studies. To identify novel susceptibility loci for blood pressure and hypertension in people of African ancestry, we performed both single and multiple-trait genome-wide association analyses. We analyzed 21 genome-wide association studies comprised of 31,968 individuals of African ancestry, and validated our results with additional 54,395 individuals from multi-ethnic studies. These analyses identified nine loci with eleven independent variants which reached genome-wide significance (P < 1.25×10−8) for either systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypertension, or for combined traits. Single-trait analyses identified two loci (TARID/TCF21 and LLPH/TMBIM4) and multiple-trait analyses identified one novel locus (FRMD3) for blood pressure. At these three loci, as well as at GRP20/CDH17, associated variants had alleles common only in African-ancestry populations. Functional annotation showed enrichment for genes expressed in immune and kidney cells, as well as in heart and vascular cells/tissues. Experiments driven by these findings and using angiotensin-II induced hypertension in mice showed altered kidney mRNA expression of six genes, suggesting their potential role in hypertension. Our study provides new evidence for genes related to hypertension susceptibility, and the need to study African-ancestry populations in order to identify biologic factors contributing to hypertension.
This paper describes the preparation of genetic materials and the recruitment and initial characterization of a nested Family Study within the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) METHODS: Genomic DNA was prepared from all consenting JHS participants. In addition, family members of a subset of JHS participants were recruited to the JHS Family Study to allow heritability and linkage analyses and family-based association studies. Family Study participants completed the same questionnaires, measures, and procedures as all other JHS participants and provided blood samples for lymphocyte cryopreservation and transformation.
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)