[Blood biomarkers of early diagnosis for neonatal bacterial infections: back from Senegal cohort]. / Biomarqueurs sanguins du diagnostic précoce des infections néonatales bactériennes : retour d'expérience d'une cohorte sénégalaise.

In Senegal, reducing neonatal mortality remains a challenge. The management of neonatal infections remains problematic and presents a strong clinical focus. Indeed, like all developing countries, the difficulty of acquiring state-of-the-art infrastructure and the financial cost impact on the routine use of biomarkers. It is in this context that we conducted this study to identify the best biological strategy for making a reliable diagnosis. Ninety-nine newborns were recruited at the pediatric service of the Diamniadio Children's Hospital (Senegal). CRP was assayed by latex immuno-agglutination method, IL-6 and IL-8 using Luminex® technology, PCT by chemiluminescence, orosomucoid by immunoturbidimetry and SAA by ELISA technique. 20 newborns had probable infection and six established infection. Deaths and complications were significantly greater in these groups. With an optimal decision threshold of 16.3 mg/L, CRP performed better (compared to the other tested blood biomarkers) with AUC, sensitivity and specificity of 94%, 88% and 99%, respectively. With the performance obtained from CRP in the diagnosis of neonatal bacterial infections, the installation of panels with other biomarkers with advanced and expensive technology is not necessary. Thus, optimal care and within a reasonable timeframe can be done in our health facilities, with this accessible marker that is CRP.

[Management of a global health crisis: first COVID-19 disease feedback from Overseas and French-speaking countries medical biologists]. / Gestion d'une crise sanitaire mondiale : premiers retours d'expérience de biologistes médicaux d'Outre-mer et de francophonie face au COVID-19.

The French society of clinical biology "Biochemical markers of COVID-19" has set up a working group with the primary aim of reviewing, analyzing and monitoring the evolution of biological prescriptions according to the patient's care path and to look for markers of progression and severity of the disease. This study covers all public and private sectors of medical biology located in metropolitan and overseas France and also extends to the French-speaking world. This article presents the testimonies and data obtained for the "Overseas and French-speaking countries" sub-working group made up of 45 volunteer correspondents, located in 20 regions of the world. In view of the delayed spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the overseas regions and the French-speaking regions have benefited from feedback from the first territories confronted with COVID-19. Thus, the entry of the virus or its spread in epidemic form could be avoided, thanks to the rapid closure of borders. The overseas territories depend very strongly on air and/or sea links with the metropolis or with the neighboring continent. The isolation of these countries is responsible for reagent supply difficulties and has necessitated emergency orders and the establishment of stocks lasting several months, in order to avoid shortages and maintain adequate patient care. In addition, in countries located in tropical or intertropical zones, the diagnosis of COVID-19 is complicated by the presence of various zoonoses (dengue, Zika, malaria, leptospirosis, etc.).

A Twofold Approach in Loss Reduction of KTa0.5Nb0.5O3 Ferroelectric Layers for Low-Loss Tunable Devices at Microwaves.

Ferroelectric oxide films are attractive to design and fabricate reconfigurable and miniaturized planar devices operating at microwaves due to the large electric field dependence of their dielectric permittivity. In particular, KTa1-xNbxO3 (KTN) ferroelectric material presents a high tunability under moderate dc bias electric field. However, its intrinsic dielectric loss strongly contributes to the global loss of the related devices and limits their application areas at microwaves. In this paper, a twofold approach is investigated to reduce the device loss. The intrinsic loss of KTN is first reduced by doping the ferroelectric material with a low-loss dielectric material, namely, MgO. Second, the doped ferroelectric films are confined using an original laser microetching process. Both routes have been implemented here to provide a synergic effect on the total insertion loss of the microwave test device, namely, a coplanar waveguide stub resonator. The experimental data demonstrate a decrease of the intrinsic loss by a factor of ~2 and a decrease of the global loss by a factor of ~4 with a frequency tunability close to 10% at ~10 GHz under a moderate biasing (80 kV/cm).

[Prevalence of dyslipemia in Aristide le Dantec biochemistry laboratory in Dakar Senegal]. / Prévalence des dyslipidémies au laboratoire de biochimie du CHU Aristide le Dantec de Dakar, Sénégal.

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of dyslipidemias among patients who underwent assay of a lipid parameter at the Laboratory of Biochemistry of Aristide Le Dantec University Hospital in 2013. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 1356 patients between ages 10-94 years presenting at the laboratory of Biochemistry of CHU Le Dantec from January to December 2013. All patients who had undergone at least one lipid assay whose results were recorded in the laboratory register were enrolled in the study. Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides were measured using enzymatic methods (Cobas Integra 400 plus biochemistry analyzer - Roche Diagnostics). RESULTS: The prevalence of dyslipidemia in our study population was 39.30%. The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia, hyper-HDL-cholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, mixed hyperlipidemia was 30,89% ; 7,30% ; 31,19% ; 0,51% ; 7,22% respectively. The subjects aged 40 to 59 years appeared to be more exposed. Moreover, there was a female predominance in hypercholesterolemia (54.17% vs 45.82%) the hypocholesterolemia (54.54% vs45,45%), and mixed hyperlipidemia (51.08% vs 48.97%). Dyslipidemias were strongly correlated to hypertension and obesity. CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of dyslipidemias found in our study highlights the importance of studying the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, in particular dyslipidemias, in Senegalese population.