The burden of acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and stroke among emergency department admissions in Tanzania: A retrospective observational study.

Abstract

Introduction:The prevalence of cardiovascular disease in sub-Saharan Africa is substantial and growing. Much remains to be learned about the relative burden of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), heart failure, and stroke on emergency departments and hospital admissions. Methods:A retrospective chart review of admissions from September 2017 through March 2018 was conducted at the emergency department of a tertiary care center in northern Tanzania. Stroke admission volume was compared to previously published data from the same hospital and adjusted for population growth. Results:Of 2418 adult admissions, heart failure and stroke were the two most common admission diagnoses, accounting for 294 (12.2%) and 204 (8.4%) admissions, respectively. ACS was uncommon, accounting for 9 (0.3%) admissions. Of patients admitted for heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension was the most commonly identified etiology of heart failure, cited in 124 (42.2%) cases. Ischemic heart disease was cited as the etiology in only 1 (0.3%) case. Adjusting for population growth, the annual volume of stroke admissions increased 70-fold in 43 years, from 2.9 admissions per 100,000 population in 1974 to 202.2 admissions per 100,000 in 2017. Conclusions:The burden of heart failure and stroke on hospital admissions in Tanzania is substantial, and the volume of stroke admissions is rising precipitously. ACS is a rare diagnosis, and the distribution of cardiovascular disease phenotypes in Tanzania differs from what has been observed outside of Africa. Further research is needed to ascertain the reasons for these differences.

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Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1016/j.afjem.2019.07.001

Publication Info

Hertz, Julian T, Francis M Sakita, Alexander T Limkakeng, Blandina T Mmbaga, Lambert T Appiah, John A Bartlett and Sophie W Galson (2019). The burden of acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and stroke among emergency department admissions in Tanzania: A retrospective observational study. African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence, 9(4). pp. 180–184. 10.1016/j.afjem.2019.07.001 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20603.

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Scholars@Duke

Hertz

Julian T Hertz

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Julian Hertz, MD, MSc, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Global Health. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and attended medical school at Duke University, where he received the Dean's Merit Scholarship and the Thomas Jefferson Award for leadership. He completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and his fellowship in Global Health at Duke.

Dr. Hertz's primary interests include global health, implementation science, and undergraduate and graduate medical education. Dr. Hertz's research focuses on using implementation science methods to improve cardiovascular care both locally and globally. His current projects involve developing interventions to improve acute myocardial infarction care in Tanzania, to improve management of hypertension among Tanzanians with HIV, and to improve post-hospital care among patients with multimorbidity in East Africa.

Dr. Hertz has received numerous awards for clinical, educational, and research excellence, including the Duke Emergency Medicine Faculty Teacher of the Year Award, the Duke Emergency Medicine Faculty Clinician of the Year Award, and the Duke Emergency Medicine Faculty Researcher of the Year Award. He has also received the Golden Apple Teaching Award from the Duke medical student body, the Duke Master Clinician/Teacher Award, and the Global Academic Achievement Award from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine.

Limkakeng

Alexander Tan Limkakeng

Professor of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Alexander T. Limkakeng, Jr., MD, MHSc, FACEP is a Professor of Emergency Medicine, Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Director of the Acute Care Research Team, and Director of the Resident Research Fellowship for the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

Dr. Limkakeng has served as chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Research Committee, and been the Course Director of the ACEP Research Forum from 2016-2018, the largest emergency medical research platform in the nation. He is also the Assistant Director of ACEP’s Emergency Medicine Basic Research Skills course. He was elected to the Nominating Committee of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine.

As a researcher, Dr. Limkakeng has led multiple clinical trials and interdepartmental sponsored projects and is author on over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. These include studies in emergency conditions such as COVID-19, traumatic brain injury, hypertension, heart failure, thrombosis, stroke, envenomations, and septic shock. His research has been funded by grants and contracts totaling over $9 million dollars. He has lectured internationally on acute coronary syndrome, responsible conduct of research, design of clinical trials, and precision medicine in emergency care. He has led Duke’s involvement in NIH-funded research networks and in industry-funded work that led to FDA approval for multiple high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays and point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic tests. He has servesd as Co-PI for the Duke U24 Hub in the NIH Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) (1U24NS114416) and now serves as a co-PI on the Duke U24 Hub award (1U24NS129498) in the NIH Strategies to Innovate Emergency Care Clinical Trials (SIREN) Network and in the NIH NINDS Strokenet network (1U24NS135250)

His personal research interest is finding new ways to diagnose acute coronary syndrome. In particular, he is interested in novel biomarkers and precision medicine approaches to this problem. The common element throughout this work is a focus on time-sensitive health conditions.

Blandina Mmbaga

Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health
Bartlett

John Alexander Bartlett

Professor of Medicine

My clinical investigation is focused on the pathogenesis and treatment of HIV infection and its complications, especially in resource-limited settings.

Key Words: HIV infection, AIDS, treatment strategies, treatment failure, co-infections, resource-limited settings

Galson

Sophie Wolfe Galson

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Galson graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona. She has always had a love for global health and has worked in India, Madagascar and Tanzania during her medical training. She completed the Global Health Emergency Medicine Fellowship in 2018.  
Dr. Galson's research is focused on non-communicable diseases in the emergency department and linkage to care in Moshi, Tanzania. She is interested in the intersection of public health and emergency care and hopes to promote the development of emergency medicine globally. Additionally, she loves to teach and instructs both residents and medical students in the classroom and clinically in the emergency department.  She joined Duke Emergency Medicine as faculty after the completion of her fellowship.


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