Objective: Atorvastatin therapy is now recommended for reduction of cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM), based on convincing evidence of reductions in mortality and vascular events in major clinical outcome trials. The aim is to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin on proinflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-6), HbA1c andleptin in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Sixty fivenewly diagnosed T2DM patients were randomly allocated into 2 groups; group I treated with metformin only; in group II atorvastatin was added with metformin. Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled as control group. While maintaining their usual eating habits, fasting blood samples were collected at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment. Results: HbA1c levelswere decreased significantlyonly in group I compared with baseline value; while serum levels of leptin, TNF-α and IL-6 were decreased significantly in both groups compared to baseline values. Conclusion: Atorvastatin is effective in reducing leptin and pro-inflammatory cytokines levels but associated with an increased risk of worsening HbA1c in patients with T2DM.
Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) were investigated in 143 pretreatment orthodontic patients (43 males and 102 females) whose age ranged between 10-25 years at the College of Dentistry, University of Baghdad, Iraq. The study was undertaken to elucidate the prevalence and severity of TMDs in malocclusion patients and to defme the relationships between malocclusion and TMDs. The clinical signs and subjective symptoms were recorded according to the principles introduced by Helkimo (1974b). Subjective symptoms were reported by 65.7% of the patients with 22.40/0 described as severe, and the most common symptoms were TMJ sounds and feeling offatigue. Clinical signs were observed in 81.8% of the sample with 22.4 and 6.3% described as moderate and
... Show MoreBackground: Acromegaly is an uncommon, chronic, debilitating condition characterized by hyperinsulinism, insulin resistance, diabetes and prediabetes. One possibility for managing acromegaly's questionable influence on glucose homeostasis is the somatostatin analogues. Aim: To analyze the frequency and risk factors for impaired glucose homeostasis in acromegaly patients treated with depot long-acting octreotide (octreotide LAR), as well as the relationship between risk and treatment duration. Methods: The study included 52 Iraqi adults with acromegaly receiving octreotide LAR. Demographic, anthropometric, and clinical data were collected, as well as the duration of Octreotide LAR administration. Growth hormone, IGF-1, and adenoma si
... Show MoreBackground: The COVID-19 infection is a more recent pandemic disease all over the world and studying the pulmonary findings on survivors of this disease has lately commenced.
Objective: We aimed to estimate the cumulative percentage of whole radiological resolution after 3 months from recovery and to define the residual chest CT findings and exploring the relevant affecting factors.
Subjects and Methods: Patients who had been previously diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia confirmed by RT-PCR test and had radiological evidence of pulmonary involvement by Chest CT during the acute illness were included in the present study. The radiol
... Show MoreBedside clinical teaching is a fundamental part of the medical education that offers invaluable opportunities for the students to build and improve their clinical and communication skills. However, there is a growing concern about the increasing refusal of patients to participate in clinical sessions, especially in certain settings where there are sensitive cultural traditions and decreased trust in institutions.
This paper discusses patient refusal duri
Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are increasingly being utilized in the medical field to manage and diagnose diseases, leading to improved patient treatment and disease management. Several recent studies have found that Covid-19 patients have a higher incidence of blood clots, and understanding the pathological pathways that lead to blood clot formation (thrombogenesis) is critical. Current methods of reporting thrombogenesis-related fluid dynamic metrics for patient-specific anatomies are based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, which can take weeks to months for a single patient. In this paper, we propose a ML-based method for rapid thrombogenesis prediction in the carotid artery of Covid-19 patients. Our proposed system aims
... Show MoreObjective: The study the association of procalcitonin (PCT) and c-reactive protein (CRP) levels in COVID-19 patients and it's role as a guide in progress and management of those patients. Methodology: This cross-sectional study analyzed 200 CIOVID-19 patients in a single privet center in Baghdad, Iraq from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022. Demographic data like age, sex, and clinical symptoms were recorded. High sensitivity CRP and PCT in the serum were measured via dry fluorescence immunoassay (Lansionbio-China). Results: Out of 200 patients, 50 had moderate Covid and 150 had severe disease. Mean serum PCT levels was 0.039±0.05 ng/mL in the moderate group (range 0.011-0.067) and 0.43±0.21 ng/mL in the severe group (range 0.21
... Show MoreThis study investigates the impact of spatial resolution enhancement on supervised classification accuracy using Landsat 9 satellite imagery, achieved through pan-sharpening techniques leveraging Sentinel-2 data. Various methods were employed to synthesize a panchromatic (PAN) band from Sentinel-2 data, including dimension reduction algorithms and weighted averages based on correlation coefficients and standard deviation. Three pan-sharpening algorithms (Gram-Schmidt, Principal Components Analysis, Nearest Neighbour Diffusion) were employed, and their efficacy was assessed using seven fidelity criteria. Classification tasks were performed utilizing Support Vector Machine and Maximum Likelihood algorithms. Results reveal that specifi
... Show MoreHerein, a cost-effective bio approach using extract derived from desert truffles (Tirmania nivea) is utilized to synthesize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). AuNPs were thoroughly investigated using UV–vis, XRD, SEM, and TEM analyses. It was shown that nanoparticles had an fcc structure with a smooth spherical surface, an average diameter of 9.44 ± 0.26 nm, and an SPR band observed at 548 nm. Investigations were conducted on AuNPs' antibacterial and anti-cancer properties of prostate cancer cells. The findings suggest that AuNPs showed better antibacterial effects against S. aureus compared to E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and K. pneumoniae. AuNPs’ combination with antibiotics demonstrated a synergistic effect with significant antibacterial activi
... Show MoreForty-eight aborted women (Iraqi Arab Muslims) at the first trimester with a serological evidence of toxoplasmosis were investigated. Two age- and ethnic-matched control groups were included: 40 aborted women due to accidental events (Control I), and 40 unmarried (virgin) women (Control II). The subjects were evaluated for the following parameters: HLA-class I antigens (A, B and Cw), blood groups, total and differential counts of leukocytes, lymphocyte subpopulations (CD3+, CD4+ and CD20+ cells), phagocytosis of heat-killed yeast (phagocytic index and NBT index), and total serum levels of immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG and IgM) and complement components (C3 and C4). The HLA-A2 and -Cw8 antigens were significantly increased in the patien
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