Background: Tetralogy of Fallot is the most common cyanotic congenital heart disease which represents about 8-10% of all congenital heart diseases. It is characterized by four morphological features, large malalignment ventricular septal defect, Pulmonary stenosis, Overriding of aorta, and Right ventricular hypertrophy. The infant with TOF does well for the first few months of life with minimal or no cyanosis. The cyanosis begins to increase with secondary slow increase in polycythemia as well. Hypercyanotic spells are the most common complicating features of TOF
Patients and methods: This is a retrospective study of 200 patients with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) referred to Ibn Al-Bitar Center for Cardiac surgery from April 1993 to May 1999. The
diagnosis was established by echocardiography, catheterization and angiographic study. For each patient, clinical history, physical examination, O2 saturation and hematocrit level had been reviewed.
Results: The patients' ages ranged from 11 months to 37 years. The weight of 42 patients (22%) and the height of 38 patients (20.5%) were below 3rd centile. There were 60 patients (30%) were polycythemic (hematocrit above 65%). Only 7 patients (14%) had low cyanosis (pink TOF) and one third of the patients had history of hypercyanotic spells. The CNS complications were the most common complications.
Conclusions: The study revealed that most of our patients had been delayed in their presentation for proper medical and surgical management. The study showed that most of TOF patients had normal growth pattern and the most important factor affecting the growth was the level of oxygen desaturation and we found high incidence of both infective endocarditis and CNS complications.
Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1) is an essential marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but its relationship with pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and inflammatory markers has been scantily covered in extant literature. To evaluate the level of CTHRC1 protein in the sera of 100 RA patients and 25 control and compare levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 10 (IL-10), RA disease activity (DAS28), and inflammatory factors. Higher significant serum levels of CTHRC1 (29.367 ng/ml), TNF-α (63.488 pg/ml), and IL-10 (67.1 pg/ml) were found in patient sera as compared to that in control sera (CTHRC1 = 15.732 ng/ml, TNF-α = 33.788 pg/ml, and IL-10 = 25.122 pg/ml). There was no significant correlation be
... Show MoreIntroduction: With the advent of era of targeted cancer therapy, the serious side effects of chemoradiotherapy have been minimised. Considering the success story of anti-HER2/neu drugs in breast cancer oncology, the present study was conducted. The study evaluates the immunohistochemical expression of HER2/neu in endometrioid cancer among Iraqi patients. Aim: To assess the immunohistochemical expression of HER2/neu in endometrioid carcinoma of uterus and to find the relationship of this expression with FIGO stage and grade and with patient age. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of 62 hysterectomy specimens that were diagnosed as endometrioid carcinoma in the teaching labora
... Show MoreOne of the important objectives of the varistor is for a sustainable environment and reduce the pollution resulting from the frequent damage of the electrical devices and power station waste. In present work, the influence of Al2O3 additives on the non –linear electrical features of SnO2 varistors, has been investigated, where SnO2 ceramic powder doped with Al2O3 in three rates (0.005, 0.01, and 0.05), the XRD test improved that SnO2 is the primary phase, while CoCr2O4, and Al2O3 represent the secondary phases. The electrical tests of all prepared samples confirmed that the increasing of Al2O3 rates and sintering temperature improves and increase the electrical features, where the best results obtained at Al2O3 (0.05) and 1000℃, the non
... Show MoreBackground: Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction that results in fluctuating muscle weakness as well as significant fatigue. Disease exacerbation is a critical condition, and the predisposing factors for it need to be identified to improve preventive measures.
Objectives: Our study aims to determine the predisposing factors for myasthenia gravis exacerbations in a group of Iraqi patients.
Subjects and Methods: A total number of 30 myasthenia gravis patients were admitted to the hospital with an exacerbation of their symptoms, determined as the development of functional disability, dysphagia, or respiratory fai
... Show MoreThe objective of this study was to evaluate the alteration in levels of gonado trophins hormones i.e.,Leutizing (LH),Follicular(FSH) in sera of patients with thyroid disorders and molecular binding study of (LH ,FSH) with their antibodies The study was conducted at the specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes from January / 2009 to March / 2010.Two hundreds and twenty three Iraqi subjects, 109 patients with thyroid disorders at age range between (40-50) years and 114 healthy individuals as control group were included in this study.The majority of patients were female with hyperthyroidism and (49.54 % ) were at age range between(40 - 50) years. The levels of hormones(LH,FSH.tri iodothyronine(T3).thyroxine(T4), thy
... Show MoreCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a systemic disease with a substantial impact on the hematopoietic system and hemostasis. Neutrophilia is an early indicator of SARS-CoV-2 infection, while lymphopenia acts as a biomarker of the severity of infection, and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is the main indicator of cytokine storms. Thus, this study aimed to provide local data about hematological parameters among COVID-19 patients and estimate their correlation with viral load and other factors in severe cases. A total of 99 nasopharyngeal swabs and whole blood specimens were collected from individuals suspected with COVID-19 between October and December 2020. Samples were tested by real time reverse transcript
... Show MoreBackground: coronavirus-19 disease recently emerged as a global pandemic affecting the respiratory system. However, during the course of the illness, the disease can directly or indirectly involve other body organs including the liver.
Objectives: This study aimed to determine the incidence of hepatic involvement and its clinical significance in COVID-19 patients.
Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional single-center study was conducted on 112 patients who have an infection with Covid 19 (proved by polymerase chain reaction). Depending on infection severity, patients were categorized into three groups (according to the guidelines of the Chinese National Health Committee)
... Show MoreTopic management is the awareness of how speakers deal with initiating, developing, changing, and ending a topic and how they fix the relationship when a misunderstanding occurs. It is such an important unit of conversation as it includes the transition from one strategy to the other to be accomplished in a systematic and orderly manner. These strategies are impaired in dementia patients thus lead to communication breakdown. This study aims at detecting the dementia patients' topic management strategies in selected speeches and answering the questions of which of these strategies are fully or partially detected in these speeches. The researchers use a qualitative method to examine the speeches of those patients and they adopt an eclectic
... Show MoreOsteoarthritis is the most prevalent arthritic disease and a leading cause of disability. The pathogenesis of osteoarthritis involves multiple etiologies, including variable degree of synovial inflammation. Metformin and pioglitazone could potentially reduce the levels and activity of inflammatory mediators. This may consider as a new therapeutic approach added to the current used drugs in an attempt to decrease the pain, inflammation, and improve daily activity and quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
This study designed to evaluate the clinical utility of using metformin or pioglitazone as anti-inflammatory agents in combination with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) of selective type of cyclooxygen
... Show MoreBackground: Cardiovascular diseases are among the most common cause of death in Developed countries. In addition to traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, nowadays, accumulating evidence indicates that a variety of infectious agents may contribute to pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease.
Patients and methods: 125 patients (25 females and 100 males) attending the department of cardiology, Baghdad, teaching hospital over the period December 2008- June 2009were enrolled. Their age range between (39-75 years) compared with 50 healthy individuation (Age & sex matched). The sera were tested for H. pylori antibodies using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results: 80% of pa