Human milk is recommended for feeding preterm infants. The current pilot study aims to determine whether breast-milk lipidome had any impact on the early growth-pattern of preterm infants fed their own mother’s milk. A prospective-monocentric-observational birth-cohort was established, enrolling 138 preterm infants, who received their own mother’s breast-milk throughout hospital stay. All infants were ranked according to the change in weight Z-score between birth and hospital discharge. Then, we selected infants who experienced “slower” (n = 15, −1.54 ± 0.42 Z-score) or “faster” (n = 11, −0.48 ± 0.19 Z-score) growth; as expected, although groups did not differ regarding gestational age, birth weight Z-score was lower in the “faster-growth” group (0.56 ± 0.72 vs. −1.59 ± 0.96). Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry lipidomic signatures combined with multivariate analyses made it possible to identify breast-milk lipid species that allowed clear-cut discrimination between groups. Validation of the selected biomarkers was performed using multidimensional statistical, false-discovery-rate and ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) tools. Breast-milk associated with faster growth contained more medium-chain saturated fatty acid and sphingomyelin, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA)-containing phosphethanolamine, and less oleic acid-containing triglyceride and DGLA-oxylipin. The ability of such biomarkers to predict early-growth was validated in presence of confounding clinical factors but remains to be ascertained in larger cohort studies.

BackgroundMédecins Sans Frontières is supporting comprehensive HIV care and treatment for Kaposi Sarcoma (KS) in Guinea, where antiretroviral coverage is low and access to KS treatment is very limited. We aimed to evaluate treatment response and survival outcomes of epidemic KS in this setting.MethodsRetrospective survival analysis of routinely collected clinical data of HIV-infected patients with clinically diagnosed KS, receiving ART and chemotherapy consisting of a combination of bleomycin and vincristine at the Donka National Hospital in Conakry between 2012 and 2015.ResultsA total of 225 patients were enrolled for KS treatment within the three-year period. Late presentation with stage T1 disease was common (82.7%). At the end of a median of 8 cycles of chemotherapy (IQR: 2–12), complete remission was observed in 65 (28.9%), partial remission in 53 (23.6%), stable disease in 15 (6.7%) and unknown response for all 92 (40.9%) patients who dropped out of care. The chances of achieving complete remission doubled after each additional cycle of chemotherapy (aOR = 2.09 95% CI: 1.44–3.01) but were reduced by about two-thirds for each additional month delay between treatment and onset of KS (aOR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.11–0.86). Treatment response was seriously compromised in patients with woody skin oedema (aOR = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.01–0.38) and those with prior chemotherapy (aOR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.05–0.80). The median survival time was 7.6 months (95% CI: 5.9–9.8). Attrition from care was reduced by 22% for every additional cycle of chemotherapy administered (aH0R = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.71–0.84) and was lower in those with complete remission compared with those with partial or no response (aHR = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.007–0.43).ConclusionThere has been an increased access to KS treatment. The overall response rate is 52.4%, which is considered a satisfactory result. Poor outcomes were common and were largely due to late presentation and defaulting on treatment. Efforts towards early HIV/KS diagnosis and adherence to a full round of chemotherapy are needed for optimising outcomes. Newer drugs may be required for patients previously exposed to chemotherapy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-017-3771-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

IntroductionLe suicidé est le sujet mort par suicide et le suicidant est la personne ayant fait des tentatives de suicide. L'objectif de cette étude porte sur l'analyse épidémiologique des suicides dans la région de Dakar.MéthodesPar une étude rétrospective portant sur les registres du service d'anatomie pathologique de l'Hôpital Aristide Le Dantec, nous rapportons 143 suicides sur 10 ans. Le traitement et l'analyse des données ont été faits sur Epidata version 2.1 b pour la saisie et Epiinfo version 6.04 fr pour l'analyse.RésultatsA Dakar, les morts par suicide restent peu fréquentes au regard de la mortalité générale. Les hommes se suicident deux fois plus que les femmes et le suicide reste l'apanage de l'adulte jeune dont l'âge se situe entre 21 et 30 ans. Les suicidés résident le plus souvent en zone périurbaine et ils commettent cet acte dans la majorité des cas en période de froid (pendant les mois de janvier, février et mars), plus avant midi et en soirée qu'en après-midi. Aussi 97.2% des suicidés ont utilisé un seul moyen pour se suicider et le suicide complexe (utilisation de plusieurs moyens) a concerné seulement un cas dans notre étude. La pendaison reste le mode le plus utilisé.ConclusionLes hommes préfèrent donc des moyens de suicides violents (pendaison, arme à feu et arme blanche) alors que les femmes et les adolescents (tout sexe confondu) utilisent les intoxications. Le recueil des facteurs concourant au suicide permettrait une prévention de ce dernier.

BackgroundAbscess formation is a frequent local complication of leg erysipelas. In this study we aimed at identifying factors associated with abscess formation of leg erysipelas in patients in sub-Saharan African countries.MethodThis is a multicenter prospective study conducted in dermatology units in eight sub-Saharan African countries from October 2013 to September 2014. We performed univariate and multivariate analysis to compare characteristics among the group of patients with leg erysipelas complicated with abscess against those without this complication.ResultsIn this study, 562 cases of leg erysipelas were recruited in the eight sub-Saharan African countries. The mean age of patients was 43.67 years (SD =16.8) (Range: 15 to 88 years) with a sex-ratio (M/F) of 5/1. Out of the 562 cases, 63 patients (11.2 %) had abscess formation as a complication. In multivariate analysis showed that the main associated factors with this complication were: nicotine addiction (aOR = 3.7; 95 % CI = [1.3 – 10.7]) and delayed antibiotic treatment initiation (delay of 10 days or more) (aOR = 4.6; 95 % CI = [1.8 – 11.8]).ConclusionDelayed antibiotics treatment and nicotine addiction are the main risk factors associated with abscess formation of leg erysipelas in these countries. However, chronic alcohol intake, which is currently found in Europe as a potential risk factor, was less frequent in our study.

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