Notification of rheumatic fever in South Africa -- evidence for underreporting by health care professionals and administrators.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether under-reporting of rheumatic fever occurs at hospital, municipal, provincial and national levels of the South African health system. BACKGROUND: Information on the incidence of rheumatic fever (RF) and the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is required for the prevention of valvular heart disease in developing countries. In South Africa, RF was made a notifiable condition in 1989. It has recently been suggested that the reporting of RF cases may be incomplete, possibly because of underreporting by health care professionals and deficient administration of the disease notification system in South Africa. METHOD AND RESULTS: We assessed whether underreporting of RF cases occurs by comparing the numbers of RF cases reported per year at hospital, municipal, provincial and national levels from 1990 to 2004. There was a fall in the number of RF cases reported per year at national and provincial level over the 15 years of observation. A detailed analysis of the number of RF cases reported at hospital, municipal and provincial level for a 5-year period showed that more cases were diagnosed in one hospital (serving a smaller population) than were captured at municipal and provincial level (serving a larger population), suggesting underreporting by health care professionals. There were discrepancies in the number of cases reported at municipal, provincial and national level, suggesting poor administration of the notification system. CONCLUSION: There appears to be underreporting of RF cases by health care professionals, and poor administration of the RF notification system. Health care professionals need to be educated about the statutory requirement to notify all RF cases in South Africa. An effective national disease notification system is required.     

Social phobia, fear of negative evaluation and harm avoidance.

This naturalistic, prospective investigation examined the role of fear of negative evaluation and the personality trait of harm avoidance in the anxiety levels of treated social phobia patients. One hundred and fifty-seven patients with DSM-IV social phobia were assessed before starting treatment and were then followed for up to two years. As expected, greater fear of negative evaluation and higher scores of harm avoidance were associated with greater anxiety at the 6 month follow-up, and harm avoidance remained a significant predictor at 24 months. However, no evidence was found for an interaction between the personality and cognitive variables examined. The findings are discussed in terms of the relative independence of these factors, as well as their potential implications for the treatment of this disorder.     

Effects of long-term treatment with resveratrol and subcutaneous and oral estradiol administration on the pituitary-thyroid-axis.

The lack of estrogen during menopause is associated with various symptoms including osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, and menopausal symptoms. For many years, conventional hormone replacement therapy has been successfully used to treat these conditions. However, in light of recent studies that draw attention to potential hazards of conventional HRT, various attempts were undertaken to search for alternatives of classical HRT. Phytoestrogens are supposed to ameliorate various discomforts associated with menopause. Resveratrol (RES) is present in red wine, grapes and peanuts and has been implicated in cardioprotection and prevention of adverse side effects observed after regular HRT. As the pituitary-thyroid axis is a target of estrogen action, we first assessed the effects of E2 administration on thyroid hormone stimulating hormone releasing hormone (TRH)-induced thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) secretion from pituitary cell cultures in vitro. Our data reveal that E2 treatment augments the TRH-induced TSH secretion. We furthermore designed a long-term study of three months to assess the effects of subcutaneous and oral administration of 17beta-estradiol (E2), as well as the actions of RES on the pituitary-thyroid axis in ovariectomized (OVX) female rats. Our results demonstrate that serum levels of 1.0 and 8.1 microM RES lead to a significant increase in total serum triiodthyronine (T3) levels. OVX induces TSHbeta mRNA in the adenohypohysis and E2 treatment attenuates this effect. Treatment of rats with subcutaneous implants of E2 does not affect the pituitary-thyroid axis, whereas orally applied E2 benzoate (E2B) increases plasma TSH and total thyroxine (T4) in OVX rats. In all animals, we could not detect changes in thyroid morphology as assessed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and Perjod-Acid Schiff's (PAS) staining.     

Incidence of asthma and net change in symptoms in relation to changes in obesity.

The incidence of asthma has been reported to be associated with obesity. An alternative analysis, of net change in prevalence, does not require exclusion of those with asthma at baseline. Follow-up data were obtained from 9,552 participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey and the Swiss cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Disease in Adults. Incidence of asthma was analysed by proportional hazards regression, and net changes in symptoms and asthma status by generalised estimating equations, by obesity group. Incidence and net change in ever having had asthma were greater in females than in males, and in participants who remained obese compared with those who were never obese (hazard ratio 2.00, 95% confidence interval 1.25-3.20; excess net change 2.8%, 0.4-5.3% per 10 yrs). The effect of being obese on net change in diagnosed asthma was greater in females than in males, but for net change in wheeze without a cold it was greater in males. The present results are consistent with asthma being more frequently diagnosed in females, especially obese females. These findings may help to explain the reports of a stronger association between asthma and obesity in females than in males.     

Primary hypothyroidism presenting as ovarian tumor and precocious puberty in a prepubertal girl.

We report a case of a prepubertal girl with juvenile primary hypothyroidism presenting as ovarian cysts and precocious puberty. The 7-year-old female was referred to our clinic because of a pelvic/abdominal mass and vaginal bleeding. Besides these findings, on physical examination we noticed the thyroid gland globally increased and the presence of secondary sexual characteristics. Based upon the clinical profile and investigations, the patient was diagnosed with juvenile primary hypothyroidism due to autoimmune thyroiditis. The cysts and precocious puberty resolved spontaneously after the simple replacement of thyroid hormone. It is important to bear in mind hypothyroidism in cases of girls presenting ovarian cysts and precocious puberty in order to avoid unnecessary surgery on the ovaries.