Bébène Bandzouzi-Ndamba

Contribution of CT scan on epidemiology and management of stroke in a Central African country

Stroke represents a public health problemwith a high mortality rate. In recentyears, significant progress has been madein improving the diagnosis and treatmentof stroke. In developing countries, withan epidemiological transition in terms ofmortality, stroke passed to infectious dis-eases such as respiratory infections, diar-rheal diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS,and malaria (1). In Congo, for a longtime the diagnosis of stroke was basedprimarily on clinical grounds. The firstCT scanner machines were installed inthe early 2000s. We report the contribu-tion brain CT scanner on the epidemiol-ogy and management of stroke inBrazzaville.This is a retrospective study in Depart-mentof Neurologyof theUniversityHos-pitalof Brazzavillefrom1January2006to31 December 2011. We included, allpatients with the diagnosis of stroke per-formed by CT scan. The study variableswere age,sex,type of stroke,the mortalityrate, and the implementation of the CTscanner. Data were analyzed using epi-info 6 6·04dfr. The level of significancewassetat

First thrombolysis in acute stroke with tenecteplase in Congo

Thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke remains the only effective treatment. Alteplase or recombinant tissue Plasminogen Activator (rt-PA) is the only drug approved and widely used. The use of tenecteplase is still studied (1,2). In subSaharan Africa, many patients, although eligible for thrombolysis, do not benefit for many reasons including accessibility to medical imaging, the lack of stroke unit, and the cost of thrombolytic drug. We report the first Congolese case of intravenous thrombolysis, using tenecteplase.