The rapid increase in the number of older people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other forms of dementia represents one of the major challenges to the health and social care systems because of a large number of people affected. Early detection of AD makes it possible for patients to access appropriate services and to benefit from new treatments and therapies, as and when they become available, and to plan for the future. The onset of AD starts many years before the clinical symptoms become clear. A biomarker that can measure the brain changes in this period would be useful for early diagnosis of AD. Potentially, the electroencephalogram (EEG) can play a valuable role in early detection of AD. Damage caused to the brain due to AD leads to changes in the information-processing activity of the brain which can be quantified by the EEG and used as a biomarker of AD.EEG provides useful insight into brain functions and can play a useful role as the first line of a decisionsupport tool for early detection and diagnosis of dementia. It is non-invasive, low-cost and has a high temporal resolution. EEG is suitable to develop a tool can be used in general practice to detect people at high risk of AD. Tsallis Entropy (TsEn) [1], changes in the EEG amplitude (ΔEEGA) [2], and Higuchi fractal dimension (HFD) [3] have been shown to be the most promising methods for quantifying changes in the EEG due to AD. In this study, we analyzed the efficacy of using EEG biomarkers of AD extracted from these three promising methods. The results show that AD patients have a significant reduction in TsEn, ΔEEGA, and HFD values. This reduction is significant enough to allow the discrimination between AD patients and normal subjects based on these biomarkers
Leishmaniasis is a global illness that is endemic in many countries, including Iraq. The characteristic of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the development of skin ulcers that are controlled by the immune system. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), a cytokine generated by the innate immune response to CL infection, can influence disease clearance in the human host. The effect of this pro-inflammatory cytokine in CL ulcer development during the infection is not well established. In this study TNF-α level was detected in the patients who suffered from cutaneous leishmaniasis. This level was also assessed in the newly diagnosed patients and others who were undergoing different stages of pentostam treatment. Notably the result
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Background: Arterial functional changes reflected by vascular stiffness might occur at early stages of cardiovascular disease before the morphological alterations reflected by increasing the intima media thickness and it is widely used as a very sensitive indicator of functional vascular damage.
Objectives: This study is aimed to correlate ultrasound detected vascular functional changes with the severity and extent of coronary artery disease.
Patients and methods: Sonographic scans were performed on 100 Patients (61males, 39 females) with an age range of (40-65years) for measuring carotid and brachial arteries end diastolic and end systolic diameters to calculate vascular stiffness index . Coronary CT angio
Background: Atherosclerosis is a diffuse disease process, being present in one vascular bed predicts its presence in the others. Ankle –brachial pressure index (ABI) is a non invasive test proved to be sensitive and specific in detecting and assessing the severity of peripheral arterial disease.
Patients and Methods: One hundred fifty patients (150) were enrolled in this study, from January - June 2007; all were referred to the Iraqi Centre for Heart Diseases (I.C.H.D.) for further evaluation, with request for further assessment of CAD or lower extremity peripheral arterial disease. Clinical data and physical examination were performed; ABI was calculated by measurement of systolic pressure on both ankl
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Background: The COVID-19 virus outbreak had a massive effect on many parts of people's lives, as they were advised to quarantine and lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading, which had a big impact on people's mental health, anxiety, and stress. Many internal and external factors lead to stress. This negatively influences the body's homeostasis. As a result, stress may affect the body's capacity to use energy to defend against pathogens. Many recent investigations have found substantial links between human mental stress and the production of hormones, prohormones, and/or immunological chemicals. some of these researches have verified the link between stress and salivary cortisol levels. The aim of this study is to measure salivary corti
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The climate parameters of rainfall, and average of maximum and minimum temperature were investigated for the period of 2000-2019 in three stations in central and eastern Iraq (Baghdad, Diyala, and Kut provinces). Evidence of climate change was noticed from the results, reflected by decreased mean values of annual rainfall with increased mean of maximum and minimum temperature. In addition, the water balance and the climatic conditions were determined for Khanaqin station for the years 1981-2019. The analysis of Khanaqin climate parameters demonstrated total annual mean values of rainfall of 260.86mm and evaporation of 3119.59mm. The mean monthly relative humidity was 46.65%, sunshine was 8.39h/day, temperature was 23.36C
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Objective: To determine the ability of uVDBP to discern SRNS from steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) in Iraqi children. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled children with SRNS (n=31) and SSNS (n=32) from the pediatric nephrology clinic of Babylon Hospital for Maternity and Pediatrics over three months. Patients' characteristics in terms of demographics, clinical data, and urinary investigations were collected. Quantitative analysis of uVDBP levels was undertaken via a commercially available ELISA kit. Results: The median uVDBP values were significantly higher (p-value<0.001) in the SRNS group (median=10.26, IQR=5.91 μg/mL) than in the SSNS group (median=0.953, IQR=4.12 μg/mL). A negative correlati
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