Moustafa Mijiyawa

Spondyloarthropathies in sub-Saharan Africa.

HLA-B27 is virtually absent in most of the sub-Saharan Africa populations, and ankylosing spondylitis is rare; only a few patients have been reported from central and southern Africa. HLA-B27 was present in only one of 17 patients (6%). The disease shows clinical features that are similar to those observed in white HLA-B27-negative patients with ankylosing spondylitis;ie, the disease onset is later compared with HLA-B27-positive patients, the patients rarely get acute anterior uveitis as one of the extra-articular manifestations, and familial occurrence of ankylosing spondylitis is rarely observed. There is a virtual absence of ankylosing spondylitis even in the west African countries of Gambia and Senegal, where 3% to 6% of the general population has HLA-B27. The epidemic of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, however, has been associated with a dramatic upsurge in the prevalence of spondyloarthropathies other than ankylosing spondylitis, primarily reactive arthritis and undifferentiated forms of the disease, and less often psoriatic arthritis. HLA-B27, because of its rarity and virtual lack of association with the observed cases of spondyloarthropathy in this population, cannot be used as an aid to diagnosis of spondyloarthropathy in black Africans. Conversely, HIV infection is increasingly showing such a strong association with reactive arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and undifferentiated spondyloarthropathies in sub-Saharan African populations that any patient with acute or chronic inflammatory arthritis may need to be tested for possible HIV infection. More research is needed on the evaluation of risk and protective factors in sub-Saharan African populations to better delineate the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of spondyloarthropathies.

Low back pain in hospital outpatients in Lomé (Togo).

OBJECTIVE To determine the patterns of low back pain and the conditions associated with this symptom in outpatients attending the rheumatology unit of the Lomé Teaching Hospital. METHODS Medical records of patients seen over a ten-year period were studied retrospectively. RESULTS Among the 9,065 patients seen during the study period, 3,204 (35.34%; 1,850 women and 1,354 men) had low back pain. Mean age at onset was 41 years, and mean duration of low back pain was three years. Diseases associated with low back pain were as follows: degenerative spinal disease, N = 3,054 (95.32%); spinal infections, N = 79 (2.47%); spondyloarthropathies, N = 44 (1.37%); and tumors, N = 27 (0.84%). The patterns of degenerative spinal disease included low back pain (N = 1,535, 47.91%), low back pain with nerve root pain suggestive of disk herniation (N = 1,108, 34.58%), and low back pain with nerve root pain and claudication suggestive of lumbar spinal stenosis (N = 411, 12.83%). Schöbers index was abnormal in 831 of the 1,408 patients (59%) with acute pain or disk herniation. Most patients with lumbar spinal stenosis were women (72.26%) and were aged 35 to 64 years. Findings suggestive of tuberculosis were present in 62 of the 79 patients with lumbar spinal infection. Among the 44 patients with spondyloarthropathies, 15 had ankylosing spondylitis and 11 had infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Multiple myeloma was present in ten patients and metastatic tumors in eight. CONCLUSION Low back pain seems to be as common in sub-Saharan Africa as in occidental countries, with a prevalence of one-third among rheumatology outpatients. Lumbar spinal stenosis seems more common than in the occident and is mainly observed in woman. Schöbers index is not useful for measuring forward bending of the lumbar spine in Africans. The epidemiology of spondyloarthropathies in sub-Saharan Africa has been changed by the expanding HIV epidemic, despite the low prevalence of the HLA B27 phenotype.

Access to Immunological Markers for the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Togo with Regard to 2010 ACR/EULAR Classification

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatism with an autoimmune component and destruction of synovial joints, leading to severe disability and premature mortality [1]. It is the most common chronic inflammatory rheumatism in the world with a prevalence of 0.5 to 1% [2]. For a long time, it was assumed that RA was rare in black Africa, but more recently, studies and systematic reviews of the literature have shown that this disease is not uncommon. According to these recent studies, the prevalence of RA in Africa is about 0.1 to 0.6% [3-5].

Prévalence de la douleur neuropathique chez des patients souffrant de lomboradiculalgie commune en consultation rhumatologique à Lomé (Togo)

Objective: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with neuropathic pain in patients with non-specific low back pain. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted from May to July 2016 in the Rheumatology, Neurology and Neurosurgery departments of Lome. The DN4 questionnaire was used for the diagnosis of neuropathic pain in the 200 patients with low back pain included in this study. Results: Of the 200 patients (147 women and 53 men) included in the study, neuropathic pain European Scientific Journal August 2017 edition Vol.13, No.24 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 18577431 268 was present in 92 (46%). The average age of the 92 patients (67 women vs 25 men, p = 0.04) was 55.5 ± 12.4 years (women 55.2 ± 12.8 vs. men 54.6 ± 11.4, p = 0.5). The characteristics of neuropathic pain mainly found were: burning sensation (n = 67, 72.8%); electrical discharges (n = 64, 69.6%); tingling (n = 90; 97.8%); tickling (n = 57; 62%); numbness (n = 89; 96.7%); hypoesthesia (n = 52; 56.5%). Factors significantly associated with the presence of neuropathic pain in LBP were age (p = 0.005), duration of LBP (p = 0.04), high blood pressure (p = 0.001), radicular pain (p = 0.00002) and the past history of the LBP (0.000000). Conclusion: Neuropathic pain is common in patients with LBP at Lome. The duration of LBP, past history of LBP, previous NSAID use, BMI, pain severity and radicular pain appear to be predictive of the occurrence of these neuropathic pains.