Obstetrical Emergencies in Ouahigouya Regional Teaching Hospital (Burkina Faso) in the Context of Insecurity Linked to Armed Groups: A Comparative Study between Patients from Precarious Security Zones and Those from Safe Areas

Introduction: Insecurity can be an obstacle to access to emergency obstetric and newborn care, that is why we proposed to study obstetrical emergencies in Ouahigouya Regional Teaching Hospital, a referral hospital in a region plagued by insecurity linked to armed groups. Method: This was an analytical cross-sectional study with prospective data collection over a 4-month period, from June 10 to October 10, 2020. Patients from precarious security areas were compared to those from safer areas. The Chi squared and Fisher tests were used for comparison of variables. Results: Obstetric emergencies accounted for 38.62% of admissions, from which 25.59% came from precarious security zones. Age was similar in both comparison groups. However, patients from unsafe areas were more likely to reside in rural areas (p 0.001) and more likely to be in unpaid occupations (p 0.001). Prenatal visits were less frequent (p 0.01) and women were more often multigravidae (p 0.01) in the precarious security group of patients. Apart from the more frequent uterine rupture (p = 0.02) in the group from precarious security zones, diagnosed complications and maternal mortality were similar in the 2 groups, while perinatal mortality was higher in the group of patients from precarious security zones (p 0.01). Conclusion: The precarious security situation has negative consequences on maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Further studies are needed for better understanding of these consequences, and improvement of health system resilience strategies, to reduce related maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality.

Study of Habitat’s Thermal Performance Equipped with an Adsorption Cooling Unit by Geothermal Heat Pump

This work concerns a modeling of habitat equipped with an adsorption cooling unit powered by a geothermal heat pump in the context of the climate of the Comoros Islands. Cooling unit is a simple system consisting of an adsorber, condenser and evaporator. The modeling of the habitat-air conditioning system was based on a description of heat and mass transfers. The first law of thermodynamics on the energy conservation using the analogies between heat and electrical transfers is used to establish the equations of the model. Zeolite-methanol pair and Dubinin-Astakhov adsorption model are used to describe the amount of adsorbed mass. The finite difference method applied to a point of the considered exchange surface is used to discretize equations and resolve them. The coupling of the system takes place through a convective transfer between the air inside habitat and the evaporator’s surface. This article presents results for typical November days in Comoros. Different temperatures of habitat with and without a cooling unit show that using the adsorption cooling unit can help lower internal temperatures. We observe a temperature difference of 2.14 K in particular at 2 p.m., if the air conditioning starts at 8 a.m. The influence of the input parameters on the air inside the habitat makes it possible to assess the impact on indoor comfort. The COPth can reach 0.46. However, we can get a high performance if we optimize temperature thresholds. These show that this type of cooling unit can help improve the habitat thermal comfort in a tropical and dry climate.

Development of a Performant Method for Glucocapparin Determination in Boscia senegalensis Lam Ex. Poir.: A Study of the Variability

This study describes a glucocapparin determination method. Based on rapeseed determination of glucosinolate (GSL), the equation of the average straight regression line is Y = 100.42X – 0.03 (R2 = 0.9998). Enzymatic hydrolysis of glucocapparin extracted from leaves and fruits of B. senegalensis, analyzed by SPME-GC-MS confirmed the presence of methylisothiocyanate as the main hydrolysis glucocapparin product. Monitoring glucocapparin contents in B. senegalensis leaves and fruits collected in 4 localities in Senegal showed differences between organs according localities and periods of harvest. Glucocapparin content was very high in dry season particularly in January and the lowest rates were recorded during the rainy period between August and November.

Management of Inflammatory Breast Cancers in Subsaharian Africa Context

Objective: To report the experience of Gynecology Department of the University Hospital of Treichville in the management of the inflammatory breast cancers. Methodology: We conducted a retrospective and descriptive study on cases of the inflammatory breast cancers managed in the Gynecology Department of the University Hospital of Treichville, from January 2011 to December 2015. Results: We collected 44 cases of inflammatory breast cancer representing 17.9% of all breast cancers. The average age of patients was 46.5 years (32 - 70 years) and among them, the majority had inadequate socioeconomic level (90.9%). The risk factor for cancer found in the majority of patients was the age of first menstrual periods before the age of 12 years (52.3%). The average consultation time was long (10 months) and several patients had extensive inflammatory signs (38.6%), with lymph node involvement (84.1%) and metastases (36.4%). At the histological analysis, the most common type was invasive ductal carcinoma (81.8%), SBR grade III (54.5%). Regarding treatment, mastectomy according to Patey associated with a chemotherapy was performed in 22.7% cases. The evolution has been marked by an overall 5-year survival of 20%. Conclusion: The management of inflammatory breast cancers was late and incomplete in our service making poor prognosis.