Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38024811›Full record

ReviewResearch and reports in tropical medicine2023

Using Clinical Vignettes to Understand the Complexity of Diagnosing Type 1 Diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Enora Le Bec, Madibele Kam, Sigiriya Aebischer Perone, Philippa Boulle, Justin Cirhuza Cikomola, Maria Eugenia Gandur, Mario Gehri, Sylvia Kehlenbrink, David Beran

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Research and reports in tropical medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.

Enora Le BecInternal Medicine, Etablissements Hospitaliers du Nord Vaudois, Yverdon, Switzerland.
Madibele KamPediatric University Hospital Charles de Gaulle, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Sigiriya Aebischer PeroneDivision of Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
Philippa BoulleMédecins sans Frontières, Geneva, Switzerland.
Justin Cirhuza CikomolaFaculty of Medicine, Université Catholique de Bukavu, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Maria Eugenia GandurMédecins sans Frontières, Geneva, Switzerland.
Mario GehriFaculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sylvia KehlenbrinkDivision of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
David BeranDivision of Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-7229-3920
Médecins Sans Frontières · CHBrigham and Women's Hospital · USUniversité Catholique de Bukavu · CDUniversité Joseph Ki-Zerbo · BFUniversity Hospital of Geneva · CHUniversity of Geneva · CHUniversity of Lausanne · CH

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Lack of awareness, access to insulin and diabetes care can result in high levels of morbidity and mortality for children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Improvements in access to insulin and diabetes management have improved outcomes in some settings. However, many people still present in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in parallel to misdiagnosis of children with T1DM in contexts with high rates of communicable diseases. The aim of this study was to highlight the complexity of diagnosing pediatric T1DM in a healthcare environment dominated by infectious diseases and lack of adequate health system resources. This was done by developing clinical vignettes and recreating the hypothetico-deductive process of a clinician confronted with DKA in the absence of identification of pathognomonic elements of diabetes and with limited diagnostic tools. A non-systematic literature search for T1DM and DKA in SSA was conducted and used to construct clinical vignettes for children presenting in DKA. A broad differential diagnosis of the main conditions present in SSA was made, then used to construct a clinician's medical reasoning, and anticipate the results of different actions on the diagnostic process. An examination of the use of the digital based Integrated Management of Childhood Illness diagnostic algorithm was done, and an analysis of the software's efficiency in adequately diagnosing DKA was assessed. The main obstacles to diagnosis were low specificity of non-pathognomonic DKA symptoms and lack of tools to measure blood or urine glucose. Avenues for improvement include awareness of T1DM symptomatology in communities and health systems, and greater availability of diagnostic tests. Through this work clinical vignettes are shown to be a useful tool in analyzing the obstacles to underdiagnosis of diabetes, a technique that could be used for other pathologies in limited settings, for clinical teaching, research, and advocacy.

Indexed as

clinical vignettesub-Saharan Africatype 1 diabetesunderdiagnosis

Identifiers

PMID38024811
PMCPMC10656429
OpenAlexW4388636213

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.