Background: The occurrence of seizures in bacterial meningitis is important, as it has been reported to increase the risk of complications; however, its frequency and predictors are not well studied yet. Objective: To assess the frequency, clinical, and biochemical predictors of seizures in children with acute bacterial meningitis. Method: A cross-sectional study recruited confirmed acute bacterial meningitis cases based on positive CSF culture and sensitivity among children aged 2 months to 15 years admitted to the Central Child Teaching Hospital emergency department in Iraq. Patients were divided into two groups based on seizure at presentation time. Demographic characteristics [age, gender, residence, duration of fever and disease, presenting complaints and antibiotic intake]; hematological [WBC, neutrophils] Lymphocyte, N/L ratio, packed cell volume, platelets, blood sugar, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices were compared between groups. Results: Seizures had a frequency of 18% among the 122 children and were significantly higher in younger cases with female predominance. By multivariate analysis and odds ratio (OR), predictors for seizure were as follows: CSF lymphocytes (OR=0.25, 95%CI=0.08–0.26), lethargy (OR=8.15, 95%CI=1.03-68.65), headache (OR=0.09, 95%CI=0.02-0.45), neck stiffness (OR=0.07, 95% CI=0.01-0.61) and poor feeding (OR=4.8, 95%CI=1.21–18.97). Conclusions: CSF lymphocytes reliably predicted seizure with good sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 73%. Lethargy and poor feeding had the highest odds as clinical predictors of seizures. Together, those results can help with risk stratification and allocate resources for high-risk cases to improve patient outcomes
A cervical screening by Pap test is necessary in recognizing precancerous and cancerous cases to reduce mortality due to cervical cancer among women. Regular screening and follow up can make it easier to early diagnose and eventually, to treat and control cervical cancer.
This study aimed to detect atypical pathological changes of the vagina and uterine cervix of a sample of Iraqi women by macro- and micro-examination, and to determine the link with the demographic features. Also the study aimed to evaluate the two Pap smear techniques; the conventional and the base liquid methods.
The study included 50 women with genital health problems (18-50 years old) who were referred to&nb
... Show MoreBackground: Little is known about asymmetry of children's dental arches, the purpose of this study was to verify the presence of asymmetry of dental arches among Iraqi children in the mixed dentition stage. Materials and methods: The sample included 52 pairs of dental casts, 27 pairs belong to males and 25 pairs for females. Three linear distances were utilized on each side on the dental arch: Incisal-canine distance, canine-molar distance and incisal-molar distance, which represent the dental arch segmental measurements using the digital sliding calipers, which is accurate up to 0.02 mm. Results: No significant sides' differences with high correlation coefficient were found between the right and left incisal-canine, canine-molar and in
... Show MoreBackground/Aim: The timing of a tooth's eruption can be affected by a variety of factors. The nutritional status has an impact on the development of a child's body. The purpose of the study was to analyse the number of children aged 6 to 9 in an Iraqi Arab population who had erupted permanent first molars and to examine how nutritional status affected the timing and level of emergence. Methods: A total of 330 boys and girls, in first grade elementary school, made up the sample. First molars that had erupted were noted, along with the level of the eruption. Each child's nutritional status was evaluated by recording their height and weight and body mass index (BMI) value was compared to the 2007 WHO reference. Results: Girls had highe
... Show MoreThe Harmonic Oscillator (HO) and Gaussian (GS) wave functions within the Binary Cluster Model (BCM) were employed to investigate neutron, proton and matter densities of the ground state as well as the elastic proton form factors of one neutron 8Li and 22N halo nuclei. The long tail is a property that is clearly shown in the neutron density. The existence of a long tail in the neutron densities of 8Li and 22N indicates that these nuclei have a neutron halo structure. Moreover, the matter rms radii and the reaction cross section of these nuclei were calculated using the Glauber model.
Background: Any child with Down's syndrome does not develop in the same manner as normal child. Therefore, the child should not be viewed as being like everyone else. Developmental enamel defects in primary teeth have been found at least twice as frequently in disabled children as in control children. Down's syndrome consumed protein more than the recommended daily allowance compared to other disabled groups. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate developmental defects of enamel and their relations to nutrient intake among Down's syndrome children in comparison to normal children. Materials and Methods: A sample consisted of fifty institutionalized Down's syndrome children (study group) and 50 normal children (control group)
... Show MoreThis study designed to evaluate the deleterious effects of iron overloaded on organs weights , enzyme activity of liver and bilirubin, iron concentration, total iron binding capacity in serum and on bone marrow cells proliferation in mice.
The obtained results showed non significant differences in organ weights (spleen and kidney) in group 1 that treated with three parts extracts of pomegranate except the decreasing in spleen weight subgroup 1-4 , significant increasing in liver and kidney weight in all animals treated with iron dextran (group 2) in comparison with their weights of organs in negative control (group 1). While significant increasing in iron concentrations in serum of animal administrated peel and juice in comparison wit
A pap test is a simple technique which can detect pre-cancerous and cancerous cells in the vagina and cervix. Cervical cancer is the easiest gynecologic cancer we could prevent it, with regular screening tests and follow-up this screening may avoid cervical cancer or detact it early.This study aims to estimate cytological changes and precancerus lesions during Pap smear test and visual inspection of the cervix on Iraqi women and determine the relationship with demographic characteristics. The study included 50 women aged 18-56 years (mean 39 ±10) in National Cancer of Research Center (NCRC) belong to Baghdad University. These women suffered from genital problems or
... Show MoreLeaf samples of Lawsonia inermis were collected from Basrah city, South of Iraq to examine their antimicrobial activity . The effects of water and chloroform crude extracts of the leaves in different concentrations were obtained and bioassayed in vitro for its bioactivity to inhibit the growth of six types of bacteria . The extract of water was clearly superior for all bacteria especially the bacteria Staphlylococcus aureus (inhibition zone was 21mm in concentration 70mg/ml) from gram positive bacteria, and Klebsiella pneumoniae (inhibition zone was 20mm in the same concentration) , and the growth of all bacteria was inhibited to varying degrees by increasing the concentration of the henna leaves and are commonly known to possess a
... Show MoreMelanoma, a highly malignant form of skin cancer, affects individuals of all genders and is associated with high mortality rates, especially in advanced stages. The use of tele-dermatology has emerged as a proficient diagnostic approach for skin lesions and is particularly beneficial in rural areas with limited access to dermatologists. However, accurately, and efficiently segmenting melanoma remains a challenging task due to the significant diversity observed in the morphology, pigmentation, and dimensions of cutaneous nevi. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach called DenseUNet-169 with a dilated convolution encoder-decoder for automatic segmentation of RGB dermascopic images. By incorporating dilated convolution,
... Show MoreNasiriyah oilfield is located in the southern part of Iraq. It represents one of the promising oilfields. Mishrif Formation is considered as the main oil-bearing carbonate reservoir in Nasiriyah oilfield, containing heavy oil (API 25o(. The study aimed to calculate and model the petrophysical properties and build a three dimensional geological model for Mishrif Formation, thus estimating the oil reserve accurately and detecting the optimum locations for hydrocarbon production.
Fourteen vertical oil wells were adopted for constructing the structural and petrophysical models. The available well logs data, including density, neutron, sonic, gamma ray, self-potential, caliper and resistivity logs were used to calculate the
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