Schistosomiasis: A Rare Cause of Acute Appendicitis in the African American Population in the United States

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalyana Nandipati ◽  
Vellore Parithivel ◽  
Masooma Niazi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Acute Appendicitis ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Lower Abdominal Pain ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sudden Onset ◽  
American Population ◽  
African American Population

Schistosomal appendicitis is rarely reported in developed countries. In this article we report a case series of schistosomal appendicitis at our community teaching hospital. In this retrospective study, we conducted a thorough database search for schistosomiasis in patients who had undergone appendectomy for acute appendicitis from 1995 to 2005. Of 1690 total appendectomies performed during this period, three cases of schistosomal appendicitis were identified. Data obtained included patient demographics, laboratory investigations, and pathological specimen. All patients belong to the African American race, are between the ages of 20 and 40 (mean 29.3 ± 9.5) years, and had onset of symptoms <24 hours in duration. Sudden onset of right lower abdominal pain with leucocytosis (14.1 ± 1.4 x 103) is a common feature. All patients underwent appendectomy and each was found to have an enlarged and inflamed appendix intraoperatively. Histopathology revealed transmural inflammation predominantly with neutrophils and scanty eosinophils. Schistosomal granulations are present in all layers of appendix including serosa. All patients had an uneventful postoperative recovery. Schistosomal appendicitis is an uncommon condition especially in developed countries like the United States. However, with recent changes in global migration, schistosomiasis should be considered as one of the causes for appendicitis, especially in the African American population.

scholarly journals Becoming Me: Journey from the ‘South’

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Celia Ceby ◽  
Dr Cynthia Catherine Michael
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Population ◽  
The South ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
African American Population ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Document ◽  
The U.S

The rallying cry of “Black Lives Matter” that reverberated all through the U.S. after the George Floyd murder case brought to light the reality that racism is a living reality in the American soil. It is no legend of the past. It is not a bygone history. Therein lies the significance of the inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States. Michelle Obama’s Becoming is more than a memoir. It is a social document that faithfully portrays the ground reality of ‘Being Black’ and ‘Becoming Black' in a “White Society”. In her memoir, while recounting her rise from modest origins to the closest this country has to nobility, Michelle is taking the readers on an intimate tour of everyday African-American life. Her book illustrates how all Americans must part with the idea of post-racial society, the quaint notion that race and racism are relics of the United States’ long-ago past. In the memoir, she establishes that prejudice is so woven into the fabric of America that it won’t be gone in her lifetime, or even longer. The article“Becoming Me: Journey from the ‘South” traces the early stages of her life as a “striver”, residing in the ‘South’ side of Chicago, identified with the city’s African American population

Colonial and Revolutionary United States

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Littlefield
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
African American ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
American Population ◽  
American Institution ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Low Country

This article reviews scholarship on the history and historiography of slavery in colonial and revolutionary United States. Slavery was a southern American institution associated primarily with cotton and a divinely ordained labour force of blacks. Southerners in the Chesapeake might realize that slaves once produced tobacco, and in low-country South Carolina and Georgia that they once grew rice, and in southern Louisiana that they once raised sugar cane, but most people, when they thought about slavery at all, thought about the growing of cotton and reckoned that an African workforce required no explanation. Few knew that at one time slavery lived in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, that it had been vibrant in New York and Pennsylvania, and that slaves still worked in New Jersey in 1860. Even in the South, where the presence of a significant African-American population made the heritage of slavery undeniable and people generally recognized the meaning of that fact, most understood neither slavery's age nor its origins.

Predictive factors for plasma cell disorders in African American patients: A community practice perspective.

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e19508-e19508
Author(s):  
Nay Min Tun ◽  
Gardith Joseph ◽  
Aye Min Soe
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Plasma Cell ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Screening Tests ◽  
American Population ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Spearman's Rho ◽  
Spearman’S Rho ◽  
Plasma Cell Disorders

e19508 Background: African Americans have over two-fold higher incidence of multiple myeloma (MM) compared to other ethnic groups in the United States. Screening tests for MM are most often done when patients present with features suggestive of anemia, renal impairment, hypercalcemia, hypergammaglobulinemia or lytic bone disease, although MM may present with other manifestations. We carried out a retrospective study to investigate the potential clinical variables predictive of plasma cell disorders (PCD) in African American population. Methods: We reviewed the charts of African American patients who had serum protein electrophoresis, immunofixation and serum free light chain levels from 2007 to 2012. We defined traditional triggers for MM workup as hemoglobin (Hb) < 11 g/dL, serum creatinine (Cr) > 1.3 mg/dL, corrected serum calcium (Ca) > 10.5 mg/dL, albumin to globulin ratio (A:G ratio) < 1, and osteopenia or lytic lesion on DEXA scan/X-ray. PCD was defined as monocloncal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS), smoldering MM, MM, light chain MGUS or light chain only MM. Results: 254 patients were eligible. Mean and range of age, Cr, Ca, A:G ratio, Hb, total white blood cell, absolute neutrophil and platelet counts were 60 years (21 - 95), 1.05 mg/dL (0.49 - 9.6), 9.5 mg/dL (8.5 - 11), 1.07 (0.31 - 3.08), 11.7 g/dL (5.7 - 16.5), 6 x 103/mm3 (1.9 - 26), 3675 x 103/mm3 (192 - 11765) and 237 x 103/mm3 (22 - 1262), respectively. Twelve (13%) out of 92 patients without traditional trigger variables had PCD. In contrast, 50 (31%) out of 162 patients with trigger variables had PCD (composed of 48% MGUS, 8% smoldering MM, 14% MM, 25% light chain MGUS and 2% light chain only MM). There is a significant association between the presence of trigger variables and PCD (χ2= 9.16, p = .002). The number of trigger variables is positively correlated with the likelihood of a PCD (Spearman’s rho = .22, p < .001). So is increasing age (Spearman’s rho = .29, p < .001) in patients with trigger variables. However, age is not predictive of PCD in patients without trigger variables (rho = .1, p = .34). Conclusions: The number of traditional trigger variables and increasing age (especially over 50 years) are predictive of PCD in African American population.

Convergence of Mortality Among African Americans

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahdad Naghshpour ◽  
Sediq Sameem
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Lower Cost ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
County Level ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Implementation And Dissemination

The purpose of this study is to explore any possible convergence in African American mortality rates in the United States. Using county-level data of the United States over a period of nearly five decades (1968-2015), the findings indicate that β-convergence has occurred in mortality rates of African American population implying that their mortality rates are getting closer to their means. The results are particularly stronger for females and the elderly. The findings reflect lower cost of implementation and dissemination of strategies that would target the health of such population. JEL Classifications: II0, I30, R10

The Washington Consensus, liberal ideas and terms of the military-technological policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 2103-2123
Author(s):  
V.L. Gladyshevskii ◽  
E.V. Gorgola ◽  
D.V. Khudyakov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Production Management ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Quality ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
Industrial Complexes ◽  
The Military

Subject. In the twentieth century, the most developed countries formed a permanent military economy represented by military-industrial complexes, which began to perform almost a system-forming role in national economies, acting as the basis for ensuring national security, and being an independent military and political force. The United States is pursuing a pronounced militaristic policy, has almost begun to unleash a new "cold war" against Russia and to unwind the arms race, on the one hand, trying to exhaust the enemy's economy, on the other hand, to reindustrialize its own economy, relying on the military-industrial complex. Objectives. We examine the evolution, main features and operational distinctions of the military-industrial complex of the United States and that of the Russian Federation, revealing sources of their military-technological and military-economic advancement in comparison with other countries. Methods. The study uses military-economic analysis, scientific and methodological apparatus of modern institutionalism. Results. Regulating the national economy and constant monitoring of budget financing contribute to the rise of military production, especially in the context of austerity and crisis phenomena, which, in particular, justifies the irrelevance of institutionalists' conclusions about increasing transaction costs and intensifying centralization in the industrial production management with respect to to the military-industrial complex. Conclusions. Proving to be much more efficient, the domestic military-industrial complex, without having such access to finance as the U.S. military monopolies, should certainly evolve and progress, strengthening the coordination, manageability, planning, maximum cost reduction, increasing labor productivity, and implementing an internal quality system with the active involvement of the State and its resources.

Clinical Characteristics of Patients Diagnosed with Strongyloidiasis in a United States Urban Outpatient Dermatology Department: A Case Series

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Watchmaker ◽  
Sean Legler ◽  
Dianne De Leon ◽  
Vanessa Pascoe ◽  
Robert Stavert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Case Series ◽  
The United States ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Dermatology Department ◽  
Cutaneous Manifestations ◽  
Serologic Testing ◽  
Patient Reported ◽  
History Of ◽  
Endemic Areas

Background: Although considered a tropical disease, strongyloidiasis may be encountered in non-endemic regions, primarily amongst immigrants and travelers from endemic areas.  Chronic strongyloides infection may be under-detected owing to its non-specific cutaneous presentation and the low sensitivity of commonly used screening tools. Methods: 18 consecutive patients with serologic evidence of strongyloides infestation who presented to a single urban, academic dermatology clinic between September 2013 and October 2016 were retrospectively included.  Patient age, sex, country of origin, strongyloides serology titer, absolute eosinophil count, presenting cutaneous manifestations, and patient reported subjective outcome of pruritus after treatment were obtained via chart review.  Results: Of the 18 patients, all had non-specific pruritic dermatoses, 36% had documented eosinophila and none were originally from the United States. A majority reported subjective improvement in their symptoms after treatment. Conclusion:  Strongyloides infection and serologic testing should be considered in patients living in non-endemic regions presenting with pruritic dermatoses and with a history of exposure to an endemic area.Key Points:Chronic strongyloidiasis can be encountered in non-endemic areas and clinical manifestations are variableEosinophilia was not a reliable indicator of chronic infection in this case series Dermatologists should consider serologic testing for strongyloidiasis in patients with a history of exposure and unexplained pruritus

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