85 research outputs found
Case Report: Swallowed toothbrush in the stomach of a 56 year female at St Mary’s Hospital Lacor, Uganda
No full textToothbrush swallowing is a rare occurrence. Toothbrush swallowing presents a risk of impaction and perforation along the gastrointestinal tract. This case report describes a 56 year old female that presented to the emergency unit of St Mary’s Hospital Lacor with a 1 day history of chest pain after a toothbrush was pushed down her throat by a traditional healer who was managing her for pharyngitis. The chest pain was associated with difficulty in breathing. She also reported dull abdominal pain. There was no history of vomiting or drooling of saliva. On examination, we found that she was in pain and had respiratory distress with a respiratory rate of 32 breath/ min and was using accessory muscles. There was no oedema, aneamia or jaundice. Blood pressure of 120/80 mmHg and pulse rate of 87 beats/ min. The abdominal findings were normal, but ultrasound scan suggested that the toothbrush was in the stomach. The plain erect abdominal x-ray was inconclusive. She was admitted to the ward for conservative management. After 2 weeks we decided to do exploratory laparotomy and we found the toothbrush in the stomach, that we removed and closed the abdomen in layers. Post-operatively the patient recovered uneventfully on the ward. Toothbrush swallowing is a rare occurrence. The commonest foreign bodies ingested by adults are bones, spoons and dentures. Toothbrush ingestion occurs commonly among patients with psychiatric conditions like bulimia or anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia and bezoar. Most swallowed toothbrushes have been found in the esophagus or the stomach of affected patients. Most people who swallowed their toothbrushes did so entirely without erotic intent, as with this case where the patient had the brush pushed down her throat by a traditional healer. This is the first case of toothbrush swallowing in this hospital.</ns4:p
Extending influenza surveillance to detect non-influenza respiratory viruses of public health relevance: analysis of surveillance data, 2015-2019, Belgium
No full textinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Contribution to the Numerical Modeling of the VKI Longshot Hypersonic Wind Tunnel
No full textThe numerical modelling of the VKI-Longshot facility remains a challeng-ing task as it requires multi-physical numerical methods in order to simulate all the components. In the current dissertation, numerical tools were developed in order to study each component of the facility separately and a deep investigations of each stage of the shot were performed. This helped to better understand the different processes involved in the flow development inside this hypersonic wind tunnel. However the numerical computation of different regions of the facility treated as independent from each others remains an approximation at best.The accuracy of the rebuilding code for determining the free stream conditions and the total enthalpy in the VKI-Longshot facility was investigated by using a series of unsteady numerical computations of axisymmetric hypersonic flow over a heat flux probe. Good agreement was obtained between the numerical results and the measured data for both the stagnation pressure and the heat flux dur- ing the useful test time.The driver-driven part of the Longshot facility was modelled using the quasi one-dimensional Lagrangian solver L1d2. The three main conditions used for the experiments —low, medium and high Reynolds number —were considered.The chambrage effect due to the junction between the driver and the driven tubes in the VKI-Longshot facility was investigated. The computation showed great ben- efit of the chambrage in increasing the speed of the piston and thus the final compression ratio of the test gas.Two dimensional simulations of the flow in the driver and the driven tube were performed using Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) solver in COOLFLuiD. A parallel multi-domain strategy was developed in order to integrate the moving piston within the computational domain.The computed pressure in the reservoir is compared to the one provided by the experiment and good agreement was obtained for both con- editions.Finally, an attempt was made to compute the starting process of the flow in the contoured nozzle. The transient computation of the flow showed how the primary shock initiates the flow in the nozzle before reaching the exit plan at time of 1.5 [ms] after the diaphragm rupture. The complex interactions of the reflected shocks in the throat raise the temperature above 9500 [K] which was not expected. Chemical dissociation of Nitrogen was not taken into account during this transient investigation which may play a key role considering the range of temperature reached near the throat.Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieurinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe
Partiële oxidatie van methaan tot synthesegas bij lage temperaturen over een NiO-CaO katalysator
No full textDocument(en) uit de collectie Chemische Procestechnologie.DelftChemTechApplied Science
Simulation of airflow in a realistic CTscan derived lung geometry
No full textNowadays various studies utilizing computational techniques are trying to contribute to the medical world. In this light Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques are already used for some time to simulate flow behavior in the human airway system. This was mostly done for idealized and simplified airway models as it is only recently that truly realistic geometry models are made available. It is believed that improving CFD techniques with respect to these realistic lung geometries may improve medical practice and help lung surgeons. In this thesis the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations are used to simulate airflow in a realistic human airway model derived from Computed Tomography (CT) scan data ranging up to 7 generations. This is done for inhalation at three different breathing rates. Due to the transitional nature of the flow, the _-_ SST model is chosen to predict turbulence. For solving the flow equations the Fine/Hexa software (Numeca, Brussels, Belgium) is employed.Aerospace Engineerin
Effects of tracheal stenosis on flow dynamics in upper human airways
No full textIn order to investigate the tracheal pressures for different percentages of stenotic constriction, flow simulations are performed on a realistic geometry based on CT-scans of a patient for sedentary breathing (15 l/min) and normal breathing (30 l/min) conditions using a Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes approach for unstructured hexahedral meshes. Turbulence modeling is based on low Reynolds number Yang-Shih k-e model. The realistic airway model in itself is highly irregular and the presence of stenosis adds to its geometrical complexity, resulting in very complex flow patterns with flow separations and skewed velocity profiles. Detailed analysis of these flows is presented for 0%, 49%, 75%, 84% and 91% stenotic constrictions. The pressure drop shows modest increases with the degree of narrowing up to 75% constriction, beyond which it steeply rises. Such a pattern agrees with the appearance of breathing symptoms only when patients already show a very marked stenosis. In order to temporarily ease work of breathing, a decrease of the pressure drop is sometimes induced by having the patient inhale heliox. An additional flow analysis is performed with heliox as the working fluid
Soluble tau species, not neurofibrillary aggregates, disrupt neural system integration in a tau transgenic model
No full textNeurofibrillary tangles are a feature of Alzheimer disease and other tauopathies, and although they are generally believed to be markers of neuronal pathology, there is little evidence evaluating whether tangles directly impact neuronal function. To investigate the response of cells in hippocampal circuits to complex behavioral stimuli, we used an environmental enrichment paradigm to induce expression of an immediate-early gene, Arc, in the rTg4510 mouse model of tauopathy. These mice reversibly overexpress P301L tau and exhibit substantial neurofibrillary tangle deposition, neuronal loss, and memory deficits. Using fluorescent in situ hybridization to detect Arc messenger RNA, we found that rTg4510 mice have impaired hippocampal Arc expression both without stimulation and in response to environmental enrichment; this likely reflects the combination of functional impairments of existing neurons and loss of neurons. However, tangle-bearing cells were at least as likely as non-tangle-bearing neurons to exhibit Arc expression in response to enrichment. Transgene suppression with doxycycline for 6 weeks resulted in increased percentages of Arc-positive cells in rTg4510 brains compared with untreated transgenics, restoring enrichment-induced Arc messenger RNA levels to that of wild-type controls despite the continued presence of neurofibrillary pathology. We interpret these data to indicate that soluble tau contributes to impairment of hippocampal function, although tangles do not preclude neurons from responding in a functional circuit
Clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 in people living with HIV in Belgium: A multicenter, retrospective cohort
No full textThe aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Belgium. We performed a retrospective multicenter cohort analysis of PLWH with either laboratory-confirmed, radiologically diagnosed, or clinically suspected COVID-19 between February 15, 2020 and May 31, 2020. The primary endpoint was outcome of COVID-19. Secondary endpoints included rate of hospitalization and length of hospital stay and rate of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and mechanical ventilation. One hundred and one patients were included in this study. Patients were categorized as having either laboratory-confirmed (n = 65), radiologically-diagnosed (n = 3), or clinically suspected COVID-19 (n = 33). The median age was 51.3 years (interquartile range [IQR] 41.3-57.3) and 44% were female. Ninety-four percent of patients were virologically suppressed and 67% had a CD4+ cell count more than or equal to 500 cells/µl. Overall, 46% of patients required hospitalization and the median length of hospital stay was 6 days (IQR 3-15). Age more than or equal to 50 years, Black Sub-Saharan African patients, and being on an integrase strand transfer inhibitor-based regimen were associated with being hospitalized. ICU admission and mechanical ventilation was required for 15% and 10% of all patients respectively. Overall, 9% of patients died while 78 (77%) patients made a full recovery. HIV patients with COVID-19 experienced a high degree of hospitalization despite having elevated CD4+ cell counts and a high rate of virologic suppression. Matched case-control studies are warranted to measure the impact that HIV may have on patients with COVID-19.status: Publishe
“HIV Changed My Life Forever”: An Illustrative Case of a Sub-Saharan African Migrant Woman Living with HIV in Belgium
No full textLiving with HIV and AIDS changes everything for people diagnosed with HIV and it can be the most difficult experience in life. Like most people who have chronic diseases, these individuals have to deal with living a normal and quality life. Globally, more women (51%) than men are HIV positive. The main aim of this paper was to describe a sub-Saharan African migrant woman’s lived experience, and also to use the individual’s story to raise questions about the larger context after a HIV diagnosis. A qualitative study consisting of a personal story of a HIV-infected sub-Saharan African living in Belgium was conducted. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The main themes that emerged from the data included relational risks, personal transformation and the search for normality, anxiety, depression, fear of stigma, societal gender norms, and support. The participant reported that marriage was no guarantee of staying HIV-free, especially in a male-dominant culture. This case further illustrates that married and unmarried African women are often at high risk of HIV and also informs us how HIV could spread, not only because of cultural practices but also because of individual behaviour and responses to everyday life situations. The participant also emphasized that she is faced with physical and mental health problems that are typical of people living with HIV. The vulnerability of sub-Saharan African women to HIV infection and their precarious health-related environments wherever they happen to be is further elucidated by this case
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