Sonographic assessment of nerve blood flow in diabetic neuropathy.

AIMS: To undertake sonographic assessment of nerve blood flow in people with Type 2 diabetes and correlate the findings with neuropathy severity scores and electrophysiological measurements. METHODS: Median and tibial nerve ultrasound scans were undertaken in 75 people with diabetes and 30 aged-matched controls without diabetes, using a high-resolution linear probe at non-entrapment sites. Nerve blood flow was quantified using power Doppler techniques to obtain the vessel score and the maximum perfusion intensity. Neuropathy severity was assessed using a total neuropathy score. RESULTS: Diabetic nerves had higher rates of nerve blood flow detection (28%) compared to the control group (P < 0.0001). Significant correlations were found between nerve blood flow measurements and nerve size (P <0.001), reported sensory symptoms (P < 0.05) and neuropathy severity scores (P < 0.001). The cohort with diabetes had significantly larger median (8.5 ± 0.3 mm2 vs 7.2 ± 0.1 mm2 ; P < 0.05) and tibial nerves (18.0 ± 0.9 mm2 vs 12.8 ± 0.5 mm2 ; P < 0.05) compared with controls. CONCLUSION: Peripheral nerve hypervascularity is detectable by ultrasonography in moderate to severe diabetic neuropathy with prominent sensory dysfunction.

Comparing the knowledge and attitude about HIV/AIDS and the sexual behaviour of secondary school students of a missionary school and a public school.

BACKGROUND: A study of high school students attending a missionary school and a public school in Lagos was carried out to determine their knowledge and attitude about HIV/AIDS and to compare their sexual behaviour. METHODS: Self administered questionnaires, were used for the respondents, selected by multistage sampling and a response rate of 98% was obtained. The average age of the population was 13.6 years. There was no significant difference in the knowledge of students from both schools about HIV/AIDS. 90% of all the respondents knew the exact meaning of HIV/AIDS. Most of the students got their information from the mass media (66%) and the school (57%). Only 5% and 0.3% of missionary and public school students respectively were informed by their parents. RESULTS: There was no significant statistical association between the type of school and the occurrence of sexual intercourse. However, only 4% of sexually active missionary students used condoms compared to the 37% of the public school students. Condom usage was associated with the type of school (X2 = 1830; P-value = 0.0000189). There was also a statistically significant relationship between condom use and the age, sex and class of sexually active students (P-value = 0.00000006; 0.00000032; 0.00497073 respectively). 25% of the sexually public students had multiple sexual partners, compared to 2% for the missionary school students. There was a statistically significant relationship between the type of school and the number of sexual partners (X2 = 11.37; P-value = 0.003390). CONCLUSION: The study recommends that age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (including condom use) should be made available to students from both schools.