To assess the use of miniaturized percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) for renal stones in children, as well as its safety and efficacy. Seventy-seven patients with more than 15 mm renal stones whose age was less than 15 years were enrolled in this prospective case-controlled study at Al-Ramadi Teaching Hospital, Ar Razi Private Hospital, and Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital for Surgical Specialties, Anbar and Baghdad, Iraq. The study was conducted from January 2020 to January 2024. The group mentioned above served as group A, and it was compared to the control group (group B), which consisted of 70 adult patients aged 18–60 years. Patients in both groups underwent mini-PCNL. Gender, stone size and location, time of operation, stone-free rate, hemoglobin drop, need for blood transfusion, postoperative fever, associated visceral injury, and need for further interventions such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy or flexible ureteroscopy (ESWL or FURS) were compared in both groups. The age of patients in group A ranged from 8 months to 15 years with a mean (4.30 ± 3.16), while in group B ranged from 18 to 60 years with a mean (36.3 ± 12.0), p-value 0.001. There were no statistically significant differences regarding gender distribution, stone size, and location, p-value > 0.05. The stone-free rate was 87.01% for group A and 88.57% for group B, with no statistical difference, p-value 0.773. Hemoglobin drop was 1.096 ± 0.412 for group A and 1.195 ± 0.110 for group B, p-value 0.046. Blood transfusion was needed in one case in each group with no statistical difference, p-value 0.946. The need for ESWL was 3 cases in group A, and 2 cases in group B, with no statistical difference between the two groups, p-value 0.729. The need for FURS was 4 cases in group A and 3 cases in group B, p-value 0.796. Operative time was 30 to 125 min in group A and 34 to 129 min in group B, p-value 0.941. Postoperative fever was seen in 23 cases in group A and 21 cases in group B, p-value 0.986. Minor liver injury was seen was seen in one case in each group. The use of mini-PCNL for treating renal stones in children is safe and effective as it is associated with a relatively low rate of significant complications and achieves a high stone-free rate.
This study investigated the outcome of Alstonia boonei stem bark on liver enzymes after inducing the Wistar albino rats with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). This effect of plant extract was compared with silymarin – a drug commonly used for the treatment of chronic hepatocyte disorder. The plant sample was extracted with ethanol; acute toxicity study of the extract was performed on eighteen Wistar mice, while 30 rats were sacrificed for liver enzymes assay. The rats were divided into six clusters: each cluster has five rats, culster 1 served as control and was given 2 mL/kg b.w - distilled water; clusters 2 – 6 were CCl4 induced. Cluster 2 was untreated but served as the negative control while cluster 3 wa
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the relationship between employing future skills during teaching from the viewpoint of students of Islamic studies at the Northern Border University, as well as their attitudes towards future professions. The researcher employed the correlational descriptive approach. The tools were a questionnaire for employing future skills, and a scale for the attitude towards the future profession. The two research tools were applied to a random sample of (242) male and female students from the department of Islamic Studies, College of Education and Arts. The findings showed that the total level of employing future skills and their three axes during teaching was average. It was also found that the attitude towards future
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to determine the mutations and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in exon 3 and 7 of estrogen receptor beta (ESR2) gene in women with breast cancer from Iraq. Different samples (blood, fresh tissue with blood from same patient, and formalin fixed paraffin embedded, FFPE) were collected from women with breast cancer. Molecular analysis exon 3 and 7 in ESR2 has been studied by using PCR. It was found exon 3 and 7 in ESR2 were revealed as a single band with size 151 and 157 bp, respectively. There was no SNP in exon 3 has been identified. While three novel polymorphisms (ACT, AGG and GCA) were detected in exon 7, the type of those polymorphisms deletion for ACT and AGG while substitution polymorphism for GCA. From this
... Show MoreBackground: The main purpose of this study is to find if there is any correlation between the level of C-reactive protein (CRP) in gingival crevicular fluid with its serum level in chronic periodontitis patients and to explore the differences between them according to the probing depth. Materials and methods: Forty seven male subjects enrolled in this study. Thirty males with chronic periodontitis considered as study group whom further subdivided according to probing depth into subgroup 1 with pocket depth ≤6mm, subgroup 2 with pocket depth >6mm. The other 17 subjects considered as controls. For all subjects, clinical examination where done for periodontal parameters plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP),
... Show MoreThe present study develops the sorption model for simulating the effects of pH and temperature on the uptake of cadmium from contaminated water using waste foundry sand (WFS) by allowing the variation of the maximum adsorption capacity and affinity constant. The presence of two acidic functional groups with the same or different affinity is the basis in the derivation of the two models; Model 1 and Model 2 respectively. The developed Bi-Langmuir model with different affinity (Model 2) has a remarkable ability in the description of process under consideration with coefficient of determination > 0.9838 and sum of squared error < 0.08514. This result is proved by FTIR test where the weak acids responsible of cadmium ions removal
... Show MoreThe way used to estimate the fuzzy reliability differs according to the nature of the information of failure time which has been dealt in this research.The information of failure times has no probable distribution to explain it , in addition it has fuzzy quality.The research includes fuzzy reliability estimation of three periods ,the first one from 1986 to 2013,the second one from 2013 to 2033 while the third one from 2033 to 2066 .Four failure time have been chosen to identify the membership function of fuzzy trapezoid represented in the pervious years after taking in consideration the estimation of most researchers, proffional geologists and the technician who is incharge of maintaining of Mosul Dam project. B
... Show MoreA comparative investigation of gas sensing properties of SnO2 doped with WO3 based on thin film and bulk forms was achieved. Thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrates. Bulk sensors in the shape of pellets were prepared by pressing SnO2:WO3 powder. The polycrystalline nature of the obtained films with tetragonal structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The calculated crystalline size was 52.43 nm. Thickness of the prepared films was found 134 nm. The optical characteristics of the thin films were studied by using UV-VIS Spectrophotometer in the wavelength range 200 nm to 1100 nm, the energy band gap, extinction coefficient and refractive index of the thin film were 2.5 eV , 0.024 and 2.51, respective
... Show MoreBackground: The polymethyl methacrylate is the most reliable material for the construction of complete and partial dentures, despite satisfying esthetic demand itsuffered from having unsatisfactory properties like impact strength and transverse strength. This study was designed to improve the impact strength and transverse strength of heat cure acrylic resin by adding untreated and oxygen plasma treated polypropylene fibers and investigate the effect of this additive on some properties of acrylic resin materials. Materials and methods: Untreated and oxygen plasma treated polypropylene fibers was added to PMMA powder by weight 2.5 %. Specimens were constructed and divided into 5 groups according to the using tests; each group was subdivided
... Show MoreBackground: The mechanical and physical properties of Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) don’tfulfill the entire ideal requirements of denture base materials. The purpose of this study was to produce new modified polymer nanocomposite (PMMA /ZrO2-TiO2) andassess itsimpact strength, transverse strength and thermal conductivity in comparison to the conventionalheat polymerized acrylic resin. Materials and Methods: Both ZrO2 and TiO2nano fillers were silanized with TMSPM (trimethoxysilyl propyl methacrylate) silane coupling agent before beingdispersed by ultrasonication with the methylmethacrylate (monomer) and mixed with the polymer by means of 2% by weight in (1:1) ratio, 60 specimens were constructed by conventional water bath processing
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