Prevalence and Sensitization and Intestinal Parasitic Infestation of Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis in School Children of Kinshasa

Background: There is no study that estimates the prevalence of vernal keratoconjunctivitis and the association between vernal keratoconjunctivitis and intestinal parasitic infestation in our setting. Purpose: This study aimed to estimate the vernal keratoconjunctivitis prevalence, describe the profile of sensitization and determine the association between vernal keratoconjunctivitis disease and intestinal parasitic infestation in school children of Kinshasa during the scholar year from 2022 to 2023. Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study was performed from September 2022 to June 2023. The children with vernal keratoconjunctivitis were recruited by using the four-stage probability sampling technique. Children attending in the school children of Kinshasa with vernal keratoconjunctivitis were enrolled in the classroom and underwent a clinical examination and skin prick test for 11 allergens and stool examination direct with microscope in the Laboratory. Data were entered in Microsoft Sheets using SPSS version 20.0. The Chi-square test was used to compare the sex, age groups, home environment (grow trees and/or flowers around the yard), dampness in the house, keeping pets (cat and/or dog), number of people per household, number of people sharing a bedroom and intestinal parasitic infestation. The significant level was set to a value of p Results: A total of 28,800 students from four-stage probabilist sampling technique in school of Kinshasa were included, and 2100 students had symptoms according to the vernal keratoconjunctivitis-related symptom questionnaire. Children with vernal keratoconjunctivitis were enrolled and the mean age ± standard was 7.2 ± 3.7 years, with a prevalence of 7.2% and gender was three boys for one girl. All vernal keratoconjunctivitis children recruited in urban and rural part had 33.1% positive skin prick test (SPT) and 67.9% showed polysensitization. Children an urban part was more sensitized than rural respectively with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus 28.1% vs 28.9%, p = 0.00001, Blomia tropicalis. 15.9% vs 14.9%, p = 0.00001 and cockroach 12% vs 13%, p = 0.00001 in both parts. Vernal keratoconjunctivitis children in rural part were more affected to the intestinal parasite than urban with Ascaris lumbricoides 14% vs 18.3%, p = 0.0006, followed by Ancylostoma duodenale 9.5% vs 12.5%, p = 0.003, Anguillule 7.9% vs 10.1%, p = 0.001, Oxyure 5.7% vs 8.2%, p = 0.0001 and Trichuris trichiura 2.6% vs 3.3%, p = 0.0009. Conclusion: This study outlines that the prevalence of vernal keratoconjunctivitis was 7.2% and 33.1% of children attending for vernal keratoconjunctivitis in school children had a positive skin prick test to at least one allergen, in particular for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Blomia tropicalis and cockroach. The most common intestinal parasitic infestation was Ascaris lumbricoides, Ancylostoma duodenale, Anguillule and Trichuris trichiura.

Feasibility of iFISH patterns in hematologic malignancies among Congolese patients at Kinshasa University clinics

Objective: To analyze the feasibility of detecting Ph1 in leukemia patients in the Kinshasa University Clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at KU Leuven, Belgium.Methods: Bone marrow and peripheral blood samples with chronic myeloid leukemia,acute myeloid leukemia or acute leukocytes leukemia were obtained from 32 patients in Kinshasa University clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo and transferred to KU Leuven in Belgium for i FISH feasibility. Ph^1 was detected by using a remote analysis of interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization(i FISH).Results: Out of the 32 patients involved in this study, 65.6%(n = 21) of the cases were successfully tested, of which 52.4%(n = 11) were i FISH positives for the variant t(9;22)(presence of Ph^1) in chronic myeloid leukemia samples and 47.6%(n = 10) negatives in all subtypes of hematological malignancies. However, there was a female predominance in chronic myeloid leukemia samples Ph^1-positives by i FISH, whereas no sexual influence was observed on acute subtypes of leukemia.Conclusions: i FISH analysis is feasible on samples obtained from remote sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, the optimization of the sample storage is necessary to further improve i FISH's performance.

Diagnostic Performance of SD Bioline, Accurate, Fortress and Encode Compared to the Mindray CLIA 1200i Test in Volunteer Blood Donors at Kinshasa University Hospital

Background and Purpose: The hepatitis C prevalence rate is among the highest the world. Thus, in the context of transfusion safety, WHO has made it compulsory to screen blood bags by rapid diagnostic orientation tests (TROD) validated in regions that do not have the capacity to use more sophisticated technologies. The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of the TRODs commonly used in Kinshasa. Methods: This was a cross-sectional and analytical study carried out from August 26, 2019 to January 20, 2020 in 200 voluntary blood donors at the University Clinics of Kinshasa (CUK). The detection of anti-HCV antibodies was carried out by Mindray (gold standard) and the SD Bioline, Encode, Fortress and Accurate tests. The diagnostic performance of TRODs was evaluated compared to the Mindray test. Results: Of a total of 200 donors, 112 (56.0%) were male versus 88 (44.0%) female with a sex ratio of 1M: 1F. HCV seroprevalences by Mindray, and other tests were 29.5%, 28.0%, 27.0%, 27.0% and 31.5%, respectively;the Se, Sp, VPP, VPN, SD Bioline, Accurate, Fortress and Encode were 74.6%, 92.9%, 81.5%, 89.7%, respectively;74.6%, 92.9%, 81.5%, 89.7%;74.6%, 91.4%, 78.6%, 89.6%;69.5%, 70.0%, 65.1%, 84.4%. Conclusion: The diagnostic performance of TRODs evaluated in this study does not meet European Union standards (Se = 100%;Sp > 99.5%). The Ministry of Health should promote large-scale validation of TRODs based on World Health Organization guidelines.