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Even though Serratia marcescens is not one of the most common causes of infection in neonates, it is associated with grave morbidity and mortality. We describe the evolution of brain parenchymal affectation observed in ...

Background. Rates of asthma, poverty and social deprivation are high among young people in South Africa (SA), yet asthma interventions largely remain focused on biomedical factors. Objective. To investigate associations ...

Individualised patient treatment approaches demand precise determination of initial disease extent combined with early, accurate assessment of response to treatment, which is made possible by positron emission tomography/computed ...

Retinal degenerative disorders (RDDs) encompass a group of inherited diseases characterised by vision loss. The genetic and clinical complexity poses a challenge in unravelling the molecular genetic aetiology of this group ...

Background. The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22qDS) has more than 180 associated phenotypic features, yet genotype-phenotype correlation remains obscure. Since many of the clinical characteristics are serious, yet treatable ...

Contradictory findings have been reported from Africa with regard to the risk of developing Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL) in sickle cell trait (AS) carriers. Haemoglobin electrophoresis was performed in 78 BL patients in the ...

Background. Genetic testing has evolved from a niche speciality for diagnosis of rare disorders and carrier screening to subtyping of complex medical conditions for targeted treatment. Genes causing monogenic disorders are ...

BACKGROUND: The escalating global pandemic of tuberculosis infections results in 8 million new cases diagnosed each year. The thoracic and thoracolumbar spine is the most prevalent area involved in musculoskeletal tuberculosis. ...

Background: In order to assess the level of transmitted and/or pre-treatment antiretroviral drug resistance to HIV-1, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that regular surveys are conducted. This study’s objective ...

Background: Imputation techniques used to handle missing data are based on the principle of replacement. It is widely advocated that multiple imputation is superior to other imputation methods, however studies have ...

Objective: Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is recommended as an additional tool to glucose-based measures (fasting plasma glucose [FPG] and 2-hour plasma glucose [2PG] during oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT]) for the diagnosis ...

Background: Cross-sectional, biomarker methods to determine HIV infection recency present a promising and cost-effective alternative to the repeated testing of uninfected individuals. We evaluate a viral-based assay ...

Background: HIV-disease progression correlates with immune activation. Here we investigated whether corticosteroid treatment can attenuate HIV disease progression in antiretroviral-untreated patients. Methods: Double-blind, ...

During Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection, the initial interactions between the pathogen and the host cell determines internalization and innate immune response events. It is established that detergents such as ...

Background: Mucins are large O-linked glycosylated proteins which give mucus their gel-forming properties. There are indications that mucus and mucins in saliva, breast milk and in the cervical plug inhibit the human ...

Abstract Background Accurately identifying individuals who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) is important to determine ART coverage and proportion on ART who are virally ...

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the commonest cause of bacteremic pneumonia among HIV-infected persons. As more countries with high HIV prevalence are implementing infant pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) ...

Setting: World Health Organization advocates for integration of HIV-tuberculosis (TB) services and recommends intensive case finding (ICF), isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT), and infection control (“Three I’s”) for TB ...

The most widely used ante-mortem diagnostic tests for tuberculosis in cattle are the tuberculin skin test and the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) release assay, both of which measure cell-mediated immune responses to Mycobacterium ...

The undifferentiated clonal cell line, H9c2, derived from left ventricular rat heart tissue, has been extensively used in cardiovascular research. In the present study, 2 independent laboratories aimed to investigate the ...

Background: It is estimated that over one billion persons worldwide have some form of disability. However, there is lack of knowledge and prioritisation of how to serve the needs and provide opportunities for people ...

ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background: This qualitative study was nested within a randomized controlled trial (RCT) where two psychotherapeutic interventions (supportive counselling and prolonged exposure for adolescents) were ...

The aim of this study was to assess and characterize Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) genotypic diversity in Tanzania, as well as in neighbouring East and other several African countries. We used spoligotyping to ...

For more than three decades, foot and musculoskeletal conditions have been documented among both Asian [Elephas maximus] and African [Loxodonta africana] elephants in zoos. Although environmental factors have been hypothesized ...

This study highlights the utility of using PheWAS in conjunction with EHRs to discover new genotypic-phenotypic associations for immune-system related genetic loci.

Introduction: Biomarkers are needed to monitor tuberculosis (TB) treatment and predict treatment outcomes. We evaluated the Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) assay as a biomarker for TB treatment during and at the end of the 24 ...

Background: Tuberculosis during pregnancy and treatment outcomes are poorly defined in high prevalence tuberculosis and HIV settings. Methods: A prospective cohort study of pregnant and postpartum women identified ...

Background: This study examined the associations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and specific host genetic variants that affect vitamin D levels or its effects on immune function, with the risk of TB or mortality in children. ...

Background: In the absence of randomized clinical trials, meta-analysis of individual patient data (IPD) from observational studies may provide the most accurate effect estimates for an intervention. However, confounding ...