Background: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most commonly encountered valve lesion in modern clinical practice. Severe mitral regurgitation may cause systolic dysfunction. Left ventricular ejection fraction may not be an accurate measurement of LV function in patients with mitral insufficiency. Myocardial performance index (MPI) is a simple non invasive measure of myocardial function. Methods: The study involved 50 patients with valvular mitral regurgitation and 50 healthy subjects as a control group. Transthoracic echocardiography was carried out for all patients and control group. The echocardiographic measurements included left ventricular end diastolic and end systolic dimensions, left atrial diameter, ejection fraction (EF), and myoca

In this work, Kinetic Phosphorescence Analyzer (KPA) has been used to measure the concentrations of uranium (UC) and Amorphous crystals (AMO) in urine samples of breast cancer patients in Baghdad. Additionally, a relation between UC and AMO with respect to patient's age has been deduced and studied.
Forty one urine samples of patients and five for healthy were taken from females lived in different residential area of Baghdad. The measured maximum UC value for urine samples of patients was 2.35 ± 0.053, the minimum value was 0.86 ± 0.034 μg/L, and an overall average was 1.6 ± 0.027 μg/L while the average UC for healthy females was 1.03 ± 0.020 μg/L.
From these results, AMO concentrations were found for all breast cancer patie

Background: Dysfunction of sinoatrial node is a set of abnormal rhythms which are resulted from the sinoatrial node malfunctionof the sinus node, the chief natural cardiac pacemaker. The common, and occasionally, the single method for treatment of heart arrhythmias wasimplantation of pacemaker, which reduce symptoms exactly occurs after implantation. Aim: To detect the association between red cell width diameter (RDW) and some cardiac electrophysiology parameters in sinus node dysfunction in Iraqi patients such as SNRT and AH. Methods: A cross sectional study, was conducted on 59 patient ranging between 20-50 years old and involving 35 female and 24 male patients, suffering from an unexplained symptoms of sinoatrial node dysfunction (SND).

            Colon cancer is an abnormal growth of cells that occurs in the large intestine. Sometimes growth remains restricted for a relatively long time before it becomes a malignant tumor and then spreads through the intestinal wall to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body. The study aims to estimate the effectiveness and partial purification of lipoxygenase (LOX) enzyme and measure gamma-glutamyle transferase (GGT) activity in serum patients of colon cancer in Baghdad. The study included (80) case male patients with colon cancer with (50) samples of apparently healthy males (control) as comparison group. The result displayed a noteworthy increase in lipoxygenase effectivene

Background: Hypothyroidism is the most abundant thyroid disorder worldwide. For decades, levothyroxine was the main effective pharmacological treatment for hypothyroidism. A variety of factors can influence levothyroxine dose, such as genetic variations. Studying the impact of genetic polymorphisms on the administration of medications was risen remarkably. Different genetic variations were investigated that might affect levothyroxine dose requirements, especially the deiodinase enzymes.  Deiodinase type 2 genetic polymorphisms’ impact on levothyroxine dose was studied in different populations.

Objective: To examine the association of the two single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)s of deiodinase t

Background. Neutrophils play an important role in maintaining periodontal status in conditions of healthy homeostasis. They achieve their surveillance function by continuously migrating to the gingival sulcus and eradicating periodontal pathogens. In addition, neutrophils are considered an integral element in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. Among several neutrophil subsets, low‐density neutrophils (LDN) have recently received attention and are linked with cancer, immunological, inflammatory, and infectious diseases. However, the presence, phenotypes, and potential role of LDN in the pathogenesis of periodontitis have not yet been investigated. Objectives. To investiga

Background: Oral mucositis is regarded as one of the major complications of radiation therapy especially in patients with head and neck cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of glutamine in preventing or minimizing the development of mucositis of the oral cavity. Subjects and methods: Forty-six participants were randomly selected amongst those who were planned to receive radiation therapy for head and neck region cancers. They were randomly divided into two groups of 23 subjects, one group received glutamine and the second group received a placebo. Results: Glutamine had a statistically significant effect in reducing the occurrence and/or severity of oral mucositis in the treated patients compared to patients in the con

ASTRACT

The current study aimed to identify the quality of health services provided by the Omani health sector through the comparison between public and private hospitals in Dhofar Governorate, Oman. A questionnaire has been developed to collect data from 360 patients who received health services in one public Hospital (Sultan Qaboos) and three private Hospitals (Badr Al-Sama, Lifeline, and Al-Hakeeim). The data were analyzed using independent samples T-Test and One Way ANOVA. The results of the study showed that the quality levels of health services offered in private hospitals were better than public hospitals. The study results also reveled that there are significant differences between public hospitals and private hos

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di