Background: stress test (EST) is one of the main diagnostic and prognostic tests for ischemic heart disease. However, its usefulness depends on achieving target heart rate, then chronotropic incompetence and poor exercise capacity limits its utility. We evaluated the usefulness of atropine administration during the EST to decrease the number of tests with inconclusive results in these patients.
Patients &Methods: We carried out this study in Ibn AI-Bitar Teaching Hospital from September 2007 to December 2008 and comprised of 210 patients undergoing EST. In subjects experiencing fatigue when they achieved 50-75% of target heart rate (THR), or those who failed to achieve their THR, atropine was administered in doses of 0.5 mg per minute until the test conclusion (positive test results or target heart rate achieved) or until a maximum dose of 2 mg was administered.
Results: Forty-one (19.5%) of the 210 patients required atropine (mean dose: 1.1 mg) during the study. Among patients who received atropine, conclusive test was achieved in 38 cases (92.7%). Atropine administration resulted in a mean increase in heart rate of 38 beats/min (range 8-71 beat/min). Atropine injection resulted in a trend towards more positive results of EST in comparison to non-atropine group (31.7% versus 18.3%, /?=0.053). There was no difference in response to atropine in subjects with chronotropic incompetence or poor exercise capacity (p=0.5).
Conclusion: Use of atropine as an adjunct to standard EST can help decrease the number of inconclusive tests. Larger studies are necessary to define the role of atropine in EST and also to
evaluate the accuracy of conclusive EST after atropine administration
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a public health problem and many studies support the link between kidney dysfunction and cardiovascular events. Aldosterone has been shown for decades that a plasma aldosterone concentration is elevated in CKD. Whilst, Osteoprotegerin (OPG), after its capacity to protect bone, also osteoprotegerin is elevated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), where it could predict the deterioration of kidney function, cardiovascular, vascular events and all-cause mortality. On the other hand, fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), in patients with CKD, its levels seem to increase progressively as kidney function worsens. The aim of the present study is to assess the correlations between serum osteoprotegerin
... Show MoreThe objective of this work was to determine and compare the physiological changes in some: blood components (packed cell volume and hemoglobin) and plasma biochemical parameters (glucose, total protein, albumin, cholesterol and triglycerides) under 3 day of different types of stress: water deprivation, starvation, overcrowding and handling stress. Twenty five male Wister rats weighted 100-120 gm, were divided randomly into five groups: control, water deprivation, starvation, overcrowding and handling stress. On the third day of stress the animals anesthetized for blood collection; the results of blood component revealed a significant increase in PCV and a significant decrease in Hb of water deprivation group and starva
... Show MoreBackground: Stress urinary incontinence is a frequent urological disease in women; it has a great influence on an individual’s wellbeing and places a significant economic strain on any health service. The placement of urodynamic diagnostic tests in the evaluation route is an important clinical research concern in this field.
Objective: to find out whether the duration of stress urinary incontinence is associated with the finding of bladder outlet obstruction in urodynamic study or not.
Subjects and Methods: A descriptive study. With enrolled female patients had symptomatic Stress urinary incontinence as their primary complain. All the included patients w
... Show MoreRenal failure is a disease of the kidney, in which the renal excretory function is failed to process due to depression of the GFR. Renal failure is divided into acute and chronic depending on the period of the disease. The study was designed to investigate the level of oxidative stress in RF patients. Seventy-five subjects had enrolled in the study, who divided into three groups equally, in which they are healthy control, ARF patients, and CRF patients. The results had shown a significant
Systemic lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology affecting multiple organ system. Reactive nitrogen and oxygen species are claimed to play a role in this disease. However, the potential of Nitrosative/Oxidative Stress to elicit an autoimmune, response remain till now largely unexplored in humans. This study was done to investigate the status and contribution of nitrosative/oxidative stress in Iraqi patients for systemic lupus erythematosus. Blood samples from 19 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 19 age-and sex- matched apparently healthy controls were evaluated for serum levels of nitrosative/oxidative stress markers including nitric oxide, peroxynitrite and malondialdehyde. Nitric oxide levels were
... Show MoreResearch deals the crises of the global recession of the facets of different and calls for the need to think out of the ordinary theory and find the arguments of the theory to accommodate the evolution of life, globalization and technological change and the standard of living of individuals and the size of the disparity in income distribution is not on the national level, but also at the global level as well, without paying attention to the potential resistance for thought the usual classical, Where the greater the returns of factors of production, the consumption will increase, and that the marginal propensity to consume may rise and the rise at rates greater with slices of low-income (the mouths of the poor) wi
... Show MoreIn this study, the possible protective effects of daidzein on ifosfamide-induced neurotoxicity in male rats were examined by the determination of changes in selected oxidant–antioxidant markers of male rats’ brain tissue.
Twenty-eight (28) apparently-healthy Wistar male rats weighing (120-150gm) allocated into 4 groups (n=7) were used in this study. Rats orally-administered 1% tween 20 dissolved in distilled water/Control (Group I); rats were orally-administered daidzein suspension (100mg/kg) for 7 days (Group II); rats intraperitoneally-injected with a single dose of ifosfamide (500 mg/kg) (Group III); rats orally-administered for 7 days with the daidzein (100mg/
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal stem disease with distinctive clinical course which is ultimately fatal. It is characterized by the presence of Philadelphia
chromosome (t 9:22).Tyrosine kinase inhibitors like imatinib mesylate as targeted therapy had revolutionized the management of CML with significant prolongation of overall survival and
decreased rate of blastic transformation.
Objective:This study will describe the experience of treating 44 Iraqi patients with chronic myeloid leukemia by imatinib at the National Hematology Centre in Baghdad.
Patients and Methods:This study included 44 Iraqi patients diagnosed in Chronic phase CML at the National Centre of Hematology in Baghdad fr
Background: Iraqi people were exposed to mass disasters for long periods of time. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be of particular interest following a mass disaster. Evidence of poor school outcomes among adolescents affected by violence has been reported.
Objectives: To study the effect of PTSD on school achievement among secondary school children in Baghdad, Iraq.
Materials and methods: A total of 240 secondary school students from 4 secondary schools (2 for boys and 2 for girls) from Baghdad city were included. Multistage random sampling was carried out. Each student was interviewed and a questionnaire (consisted of demographic information, Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, and academic failure) was filled. Academic failur