Effects of cooking fuel smoke on respiratory symptoms and lung function in semi-rural women in Cameroon

Background:

Indoor air pollution is a major health problem in the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa more than 90% of people rely on biomass to meet their domestic energy demands. Pollution from biomass fuel ranks 10th among preventable risk factors contributing to the global burden of diseases.

Objectives:

The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and the factors associated with reduced lung function in a population of women exposed to cooking fuel smoke.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a semi-rural area in Cameroon. We compared forced respiratory volume between women using wood (n = 145) and women using alternative sources of energy (n = 155) for cooking.

Results:

Chronic bronchitis was found in 7·6% of the wood smoke group and 0·6% in the alternative fuels group. We observed two cases of airflow obstruction in the wood smoke group. Factors associated with lung function impairment were chronic bronchitis, use of wood as cooking fuel, age, and height.

Conclusion:

Respiratory symptoms and reduced lung function are more pronounced among women using wood as cooking fuel. Improved stoves technology should be developed to reduce the effects of wood smoke on respiratory health.     

Large intramedullary abscess of the spinal cord associated with an epidermoid cyst without dermal sinus. Case report

An intramedullary abscess of the spinal cord (IASC) represents a rare disease associated with a potentially devastating outcome. Few cases involving children suffering from an IASC have been reported in the neurosurgical literature. In the majority of the reported pediatric cases there were either congenital abnormalities, such as a dermal sinus, or signs of local infections leading to a secondary hemopoietic spread. The authors report the case of an 18-month-old girl with an extensive IASC associated with an epidermoid cyst extending from T-11 to S-2 without evidence of a dermal sinus or history of clinically apparent systemic infection. To their knowledge, this is the first case report of an IASC without a condition facilitating either direct contamination via a dermal sinus or hemopoietic spread from an infectious focus outside the central nervous system. Signs and symptoms, the clinical course, and imaging features are discussed and the relevant literature is reviewed.     

Antioxidant capacity in postmortem brain tissues of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases

Oxidative stress has been associated with damage and progressive cell death that occurs in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant capacity in postmortem motor cortex (MC), nucleus caudatus (NC), gyrus temporalis (GT) and substantia nigra (SN) from controls (C) and patients with PD and AD. The initial samples consisted of 68 subjects of PD, AD and C. Brains were matched for age, sex and postmortem time. Brain tissue was homogenized in a phosphate buffer pH 7.3 and separated with two-step centrifugation at 15,000rpm for 30 min and 15,000 rpm for 10 min at 4 degrees C. Antioxidant capacity in the supernatants was measured using the oxygen radical absorbance assay (ORAC). The results showed that in the SN of parkinsonian's brain the balance between production of free radicals and the neutralization by a complex antioxidant system is disturbed. No changes in the antioxidant capacity of postmortem MC and NC of parkinsonian's brain in comparison with C were found. In the SN of parkinsonian's brain, antioxidant capacity seems to be lower in comparison with C (p < 0.05). Antioxidant capacity against peroxyl radical showed that MC of AD patients was lower than in the MC of C (p < 0.005). In NC of AD patients the antioxidant capacity against hydroxyl radical was increased in comparison with C (p < 0.04). No changes in the antioxidant capacity were found in brain tissues of AD in comparison with C, when CuSO4 was used as a free radical generator.     

Antioxidant capacity in rat brain after ICV treatment with streptozotocin and alloxan — a preliminary study

Intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of betacytotoxic drug streptozotocin (STZ) produces long-term and progressive cognitive deficits in rats, as well as deficits in cerebral glucose and energy metabolism. These changes resemble those found in the brain of patients with sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD), and therefore, STZ-icv treated rats have been proposed as an experimental model of sAD. In this study the antioxidant capacity (AC), using manual oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, was measured in the rat brain frontoparietal cortex (FC) and brainstem-cerebellum region (BS-CB) after administration of STZ and another betacytotoxic drug alloxan (AL). Region-specific differences of AC were found, which were more expressed when hydroxyl radical (ORAC(-OHo)) generator was used in the assay. AC against ORAC(-OHo) was significantly lower in BS-CB than in FC of the control rats. Furthermore, ORAC(-OHo) significantly decreased in BS-CB 3-months following the icv administration of AL, but significantly increased following the TG+AL combined treatment in comparison with the controls. However, 3-months following the icv treatment of AL combination with a different glucose transport inhbitor, 3-O-methyl-D-glucose, ORAC(-OHo) values in BS-CB and ORAC(-ROOo) values in FC were significantly decreased in comparison to the controls. Our results suggest that betacytotoxic-icv treatment alters antioxidant defense systems in the brain, which particularly regarding the STZ-icv treatment, could be a useful tool in search for possible new antioxidant treatments of the neurodegenerative disorders such as sAD.     

Accumulation of persistent organochlorine contaminants in milk and serum of farmers from Ghana

In the present study, the concentrations of persistent organochlorine (OC) pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and dieldrin in pooled samples of human breast milk (n=109), and serum (n=115) from vegetable farmers in Ghana, during 2005, were determined. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry was used to quantify residue levels on a lipid basis of the OCs. The pattern of OCs in human fluid showed that DDTs was consistently the prevalent OC in milk and blood. The levels of DDTs, HCHs, and dieldrin in the breast milk samples were found to correlate positively with age of the milk sample donors (r(s)=0.606, 0.770, and 0.540, respectively). When blood serum levels of the OCs were compared between male and female farmers, no pronounced relationship for HCHs and HCB (p>0.05) was observed. However, DDTs and dieldrin residues were significantly higher (p<0.05) in males than in females. There was association between breast milk and serum residues. When daily intakes of DDTs and HCHs to infants through human breast milk were estimated, some individual farmers (in the case of DDTs) and all farmers (in the case of HCHs) accumulated OCs in breast milk above the threshold (tolerable daily intake, TDI, guidelines proposed by Health Canada) for adverse effects, which may raise concern on children health.     

Glycemic control in diabetic children: role of mother’s knowledge and socioeconomic status

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of mother’s knowledge and socioeconomic status (SES) of the family on glycemic control in diabetic children. Our sample was taken from successive admissions to the outpatient’s diabetes clinics in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Diabetes knowledge was assessed using the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center Diabetes Knowledge Test. Glycemic control was assessed by glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1C). The mother’s demographics were obtained by self-report. To categorize families’ SES, parents’ level of education, and current employment were recorded and analyzed using the Hollingshed two-factor index of social position. As expected, higher mother’s knowledge was significantly associated with lower HbA_1C (r = −0.2861705, p = 0.0442). Also, a significant correlation was found between the families’ SES and HbA_1C levels (r = 0.4401921; p = 0.0015). Mothers with more knowledge have children with better metabolic control, and low SES is significantly associated with higher levels of HbA1c. Improvement of mothers’ knowledge and family SES may improve glycemic control and ultimately decrease acute and chronic complications of diabetes in children.