Until today, one of the leading predominant infections is Urinary tract infection (UTI). It exerts a huge burden on health systems worldwide each year. Treating UTIs empirically with antimicrobials improves morbidity rates. This study aims to assess the prevalence of UTI-associated bacteria in adult patients and to determine their antibiotic susceptibility profile. A retrospective study was conducted for adult outpatients who visited Al-Diwaniya tertiary hospitals from January 2020 till February 2022 to review their medical and lab records in addition to sociodemographic data. A total of 256 patients’ records were included of which 204 (79.7%) belong to females and 52 (20.3%) were males with an average age of 39.22±17.10 years. The predominant organisms’ isolates were Staphylococcus spp. found in 100 records (39.1%), Escherichia coli (E. coli) demonstrated in 90 records (35.2%), and Klebsiella spp. (K. spp.) revealed in 23 records (9%). Staphylococcus spp. (Staph. spp.) showed high resistance to ampicillin (92.9%) followed by ceftazidime (87.5%), and were highly sensitive to vancomycin. The higher resistance profile of E. coli was to ampicillin (97.9%) and ceftriaxone (81.3%) while was highly susceptible to meropenem (97.9%) and amikacin (97.6%). Additionally, Klebsiella spp. was highly susceptible to nitrofurantoin (78.6%), while was completely resistant to ampicillin. This study presents Staphylococcus spp. as the most prevalent gram-positive uropathogen and E. coli as the most prevalent gram-negative bacteria with a multidrug resistance profile to commonly used antimicrobials which is an alarming situation to implement an immediate effective stewardship program.
Background: migraine is a chronic neurovascular disorder characterized by intermittent attacks of sever headache with or without aura that can include various combinations of neurological, gastrointestinal tract (G.I.T), and autonomic changes, without evidence of primary structural abnormalities. The Autonomic nervous system involvement suggested by many symptoms and signs including nausea, diarrhea, constipation, coldness in the extremities, paroxysmal tachycardia and chest pain.
Objectives: To evaluate autonomic functions in patients with migraine and to clarify the autonomic dysfunction weather its sympathetic, parasympathetic, or combined. Also to assess the severity of this dysfunction and its relation to age, gender and type of
Background: Osteoporosis is an extra-articular complication of rheumatoid arthritis that results in increased risk of fractures and associated morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Objective: To evaluate changes in bone mineral density in a sample of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients on biological (anti tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha) and non-biological agent disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Patients and Methods: A cross sectional study enrolled 60 RA patients diagnosed by rheumatologist according to the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (2010 ACR/EULAR) classification criteria for RA. Thirty patient on biological agent (anti TNF alpha) and 30 patient on non-biological agent (D
... Show MoreBackground: Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) occurs in the presence of chronic infection, inflammatory conditions or neoplastic conditions despite of adequate iron and vitamins storage. Gingivitis is the inflammation of the gingiva, periodontitis is the inflammation in the periodontium that extend deeper with loss of connective tissue attachment and supporting bone. The main pathogenesis of periodontal diseases and ACD is immune activation. Aims of study: Determine and compare the clinical periodontal parameters (plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP), probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL)). Evaluate the hematocrit (Hct) level, red blood cells (RBCs) count and white blood cells (WBCs) c
... Show MoreExogenous levothyroxine dose modulation and euthyroidism achievement is a persistent challenge in clinical settings. This study strives to assess the adequacy of treatment and identify the patients’ factors that can be used to estimate the euthyroid levothyroxine dose. A secondary objective was to assess vitamin D supplementation impact on thyroid status.
A review of a prospectively collected information from 142 female patients from Baghdad Center of Nuclear Medicine from June 2019 until March 2020 who were receiving levothyroxine for different causes was done. After a follow-up period, the patients’ thyroid tests were assessed and the euthyroid doses for each cause category were statistically analyzed. Thyroid function was
... Show MoreBackground: Sex variations in coronary artery disease (CAD) are well documented. However, sex differences in coronary artery calcium (CAC) and its role in the detection of coronary artery stenosis remain controversial. Objective: To assess the impact of sex variation on coronary artery calcification and its efficacy in predicting coronary artery stenosis. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study including 230 consecutive patients with suspected CAD (120 men and 110 women) referred for coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). The study analyzed sex-based differences in the sensitivity and specificity of coronary artery calcification (CAC) for detecting moderate to severe stenosis across various coronary arteries
... Show MoreThe Growth Differentiation Factor -15 (GDF-15) is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily. İt represents an example of the stress response cytokines. It's mostly found in cardiac myocytes, adipocytes, macrophages, endothelial cells, and vascular endothelial cells, whether they're generated normally or not. GDF-15 levels have increased and are associated with cardiovascular risk. Aim of the study: To investigate the correlation between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) with the level of plasma GDF-15 in a group of hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: A case-control study involved 90 individuals, 60 hypertensive patients (36 on ACE inhibitors and 24 on ARBs)
... Show MoreThe goal of this study was to investigate the protein peroxidation role by measuring serum levels of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) in type 2 diabetic patients with or without retinopathy and comparing them to controls to see if circulating AOPP levels can be used as a detection biomarker for DR. And see which of the two widely used antidiabetic treatment groups had the most impact on this oxidative stress marker. The groups were divided into two subgroups: 1) 70 type 2 diabetic patients (36 male, 34 female), 35 with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and 35 with no evidence of DR, and 2) non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were chosen from Ibn AL-Haitham Hospital for Ophthalmology and a Specialized Center for Endocrinology and Dia
... Show MoreThis research includes the application of non-parametric methods in estimating the conditional survival function represented in a method (Turnbull) and (Generalization Turnbull's) using data for Interval censored of breast cancer and two types of treatment, Chemotherapy and radiation therapy and age is continuous variable, The algorithm of estimators was applied through using (MATLAB) and then the use average Mean Square Error (MSE) as amusement to the estimates and the results showed (generalization of Turnbull's) In estimating the conditional survival function and for both treatments ,The estimated survival of the patients does not show very large differences
... Show MoreThe research specified with study the relation between the market share for the sample research banks and the amount of the achieved revenues from the investment, where the dominated belief that there potentiality enhancing the revenue on investment with the increase of the banks shares in their markets after their success in achieving rates of successive growth in their sales of sales and to a suitable achieve market coverage for their products and they have dissemination and suitable promotion activity, the market share represented the competition for the banks, and the markets pay attention to the market share as a strategic objective and to maintain them also increasi
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