Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation that is preventable but not curable. It is associated with persistent symptoms that cause a considerable burden on individual productivity at work, and daily activities, and reduced quality of life, also burdening the healthcare system and society. Objectives: The study aims to measure the burden of COPD on patients in terms of daily activities and work productivity. It also seeks to investigate some inflammatory biomarkers' levels and their correlation with selected outcomes. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated according to the GOLD guidelines at Kirkuk General Hospital's chest and Internal Medicine consultation clinics, and in private internist clinics in Kirkuk City, Iraq between January and April 2023. The Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI-COPD) measured the Burden of COPD. The symptom burden was assessed by the COPD assessment test (CAT). The level of IL-6 monoclonal antibodies was measured via a Roche Cobas 6000 analyzer and TNF-α using the ELISA sandwich technique. All these devices and machines were authorized by the Ministry of Health, Iraq. Results: The mean age was (54.1 ± 8.12) years, 62.5% being males and 37.5% being females; 41.7% were public sector employees, and 39.2% were self-employed. Due to COPD, the overall work loss was (45.9±18.91) days, the mean percentage of absenteeism was (10.9% ± 12.31%), activity impairment was (47.5% ±17.79%) among all patients, presenteeism was (40.8 ± 15.05%,) and COPD-related retirees were 14.2% of the study group. The mean CAT score (19.3±5.63) was high and the most troubling symptom among patients was chest tightness. WPAI-COPD scores were higher in older age and longer disease duration. The levels of biomarkers were above the reference ranges, the mean IL-6 level was (69.4 ± 35.29) pg/ml, and the mean TNF-α was (72.3 ± 22.45) pg/ ml. Conclusions: COPD patients exhibit a disease burden in terms of productivity loss at work and activity impairment that increases with aging and disease duration. COPD patients with low BMI are more prone to a decline in lung functions and to worse symptoms.
this study deals with effect of diabetes and hypertension on quality of life
Diagnosing heart disease has become a very important topic for researchers specializing in artificial intelligence, because intelligence is involved in most diseases, especially after the Corona pandemic, which forced the world to turn to intelligence. Therefore, the basic idea in this research was to shed light on the diagnosis of heart diseases by relying on deep learning of a pre-trained model (Efficient b3) under the premise of using the electrical signals of the electrocardiogram and resample the signal in order to introduce it to the neural network with only trimming processing operations because it is an electrical signal whose parameters cannot be changed. The data set (China Physiological Signal Challenge -cspsc2018) was ad
... Show MoreMercifulness is a trait of civilization, humanity, and a moral value in society, because it has an impact on social life and its role in spreading interdependence, joint liability, and solidarity among people. Mercifulness means spreading mercy, synergy, sympathy, and cooperation. Generally, a society that enjoys strong ties tends to have a kind of stability and development, as well as, is able to face the economic, political, and security crises. Conversely, a weak society leads to weak social cohesion and weak community infrastructure that is more vulnerable to social, economic, and political instability. Thus, this is the aim of the research that has used a social survey method applied to a sample of respondents who have reached (300)
... Show MoreOur dear country faces many and varied challenges aimed at its history, civilization, its people, the scourge of drugs and psychotropic substances and their misuse. Therefore, we have a historical, ethical and professional responsibility to coordinate efforts and cooperation between all concerned to protect the Iraqi society from the threat of this scourge. Creative sources have varied in the variety of expressive means in politics, literature and the arts, in their style and technical treatment of various topics with innovative manifestations and intuitive interactive with visions as well as influences Psychological expressive descriptions of visual scene, it is one of the media and propaganda that contribute to the raising and developm
... Show MoreBackground: Crohn's disease (CD) is an immunological disorder associated with chronic inflammatory process of several unspecific regions of gastrointestinal tract but frequently detected in the terminal Ilium and proximal colon or both. This disease frequently presented with various oral manifestations as a consequence of inflammatory process of the disease, nutritional deficiency or medications side effects. Several therapeutic approaches have been developed for CD management that are targeting the inflammatory process and directed at controlling the host immune response. Immunosuppressants such as Azathioprine and anti-TNF α agents as well as the combination of them have been widely used as an effective therapeutic modality with a bett
... Show MoreThis study aims to explore the relationship between the degree of application of digital leadership and the development of administrative work at the University of Tabuk. It further aims to examine the presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of faculty members and employees at the University of Tabuk regarding the study axes that are attributed to the following variables: (scientific rank, gender, and job), the study used the descriptive approach in its correlative style, and the questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection, as it was applied to a simple random of (310) members of the faculty and staff. University of Tabuk. The results showed that the degree of digital leadership applicatio
... Show MoreBackground: Obesity is considered an important risk factor for periodontal disease. It has been reported that reactive oxygen species linking both diseases, systemic melatonin supplementation as antioxidant therapy, was addressed as an adjuvant to scaling and root surface debridement (SRP) to enhance the treatment of periodontitis. Objective: To investigate the efficacy of systemic melatonin administration in periodontitis-obese patients as an adjuvant to scaling and root surface debridement (SRP). Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted at a dental-specialized center. Eighty subjects were included and allocated into group-I: twenty periodontium-healthy, normal-weight people; group-II: 30 obese patients with stage-III tre
... Show More