Background: The median nerve in paraplegic patients, who must rely on increased hand activities including transfer and wheel-chair propulsion, may be subjected to increased pressure, so that the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) may be higher than that in the normal population.
Objectives: To study the prevalence and the severity of carpal tunnel syndrome in Iraqi paraplegic patients and to identify the effect of duration of the injury as a possible factor related to its occurrence to avoid any chronic problems which interfere with the hand functions since these patients are greatly dependent on their hands for their daily activities.
Patients and Methods: Fifty paraplegic patients (100 hands), whose level of spinal cord injury was below D2, and fifty normal control subjects were included in this study. All patients studied in this work had complete spinal cord injury and were stabled medically and neurologically.
Clinical examination for the signs and symptoms of CTS as well as nerve conduction studies were carried out in both median and ulnar nerves for their sensory and motor components eliciting values for distal latencies for all patients and the control groups.
Results: Thirty percent of the paraplegic patients (15 patients) had signs and symptoms consistent with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), and all of them had electrodiagnostic confirmation of this injury.
Seventy percent of these paraplegic patients (35 patients) had no signs and symptoms suggestive of CTS, and only nearly about forty eight percent (17 patients) of them had only electrodiagnostic confirmation of CTS. Overall, 64% of the 50 paraplegic patients had CTS (32 patients). Nine paraplegic patients (18%) exhibiting bilateral CTS. Eight paraplegic patients (16%) had abnormal electrophysiological findings involving the ulnar nerve at the wrist and all of them had electrophysiological findings of CTS.
There was a sharp increase in incidence of occurrence of CTS from 6.3% in the group 1 to 5 years from injury to 13.7% in the group 6 to 10 years, and to 25% in the group 11 to 15 years, and again a very big increase to 50% in the group 16 years and over from injury.
Conclusion: Early testing of the median and ulnar nerve function, even in asymptomatic patients within the first 5 years of the injury, is recommended so for early detection, preventive and/or curative measures to be undertaken considering the fact that these patients are greatly dependent on their hands for their daily activities.
Background: type 1diabetes (T1DM) is a form of diabetes mellitus that results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, leading to permanent insulin deficiency ,categorized as either being positive or negative for various auto antibodies related to pancreatic function .An anti glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody(Anti-GAD) is recognized as one of the major serological markers for type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Objectives: to determine the prevalence of the immunological marker (Anti-GAD) among a sample of type1diabetus mellitus patients and to identify some factors that might be associated with its seroposivity.
Method:
... Show MoreBackground: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women worldwide and in Iraq. Proliferation rates of neoplastic process can be useful in predicting prognosis, aggressiveness of cancers and to guide treatment protocols in clinical practice.
Objectives: To evaluate the role of Ki67 as a proliferative marker through analysing the associations between Ki67 with the clinic-pathological parameters, hormone receptors and Her2/neu expression.
Patients and methods: Forty paraffin blocks belonging to patient with breast carcinoma and ten blocks with benign diseases were included in this retrospective cross-sectional study and used for the immunohistochemical assessment of hormone receptors, Her2/neu and Ki67.
Results: Mean age of
All over the world and in different societies and cultures , people are always looking for different ways of favourable , gentle smooth and soft communication .The 'powerful linguistic devices ' that are embedded in the daily English language is called "euphemism". It plays an important and vital role in daily communication. It represents a significant part of English . It is used to express any aspect of everyday realities such as the business world , mass media , etc. The comprehension of such realities can not be verified unless a reasonable command of euphemism is achieved.
Euphemism is defined according to various perspectives and views. It is " that figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of c
Fusobacterium are compulsory anaerobic gram-negative bacteria, long thin with pointed ends, it causes several illnesses to humans like pocket lesion gingivitis and periodontal disease; therefore our study is constructed on molecular identification and detection of the fadA gene which is responsible for bacterial biofilm formation. In this study, 10.2% Fusobacterium spp. were isolated from pocket lesion gingivitis. The isolates underwent identification depending on several tests under anaerobic conditions and biochemical reactions. All isolates were sensitive to Imipenem (IPM10) 42.7mm/disk, Ciprofloxacin (CIP10) 27.2mm/disk and Erythromycin (E15) 25mm/disk, respectively. 100% of
This study investigated the prevalence of quinolones resistance proteins encoding genes (qnr genes) and co-resistance for fluoroquinolones and β-lactams among clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Out of 150 clinical samples, 50 isolates of K. pneumoniae were identified according to morphological and biochemical properties. These isolates were collected from different clinical samples, including 15 (30%) urine, 12 (24%) blood, 9 (18%) sputum, 9 (18%) wound, and 5 (10%) burn. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) assay revealed that 15 (30%) of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin (≥4µg/ml), 11 (22%) of isolates were resistant to levofloxacin (≥8 µg/ml), 21 (42%) of isolates were re
... Show MoreThe aim of human lower limb rehabilitation robot is to regain the ability of motion and to strengthen the weak muscles. This paper proposes the design of a force-position control for a four Degree Of Freedom (4-DOF) lower limb wearable rehabilitation robot. This robot consists of a hip, knee and ankle joints to enable the patient for motion and turn in both directions. The joints are actuated by Pneumatic Muscles Actuators (PMAs). The PMAs have very great potential in medical applications because the similarity to biological muscles. Force-Position control incorporating a Takagi-Sugeno-Kang- three- Proportional-Derivative like Fuzzy Logic (TSK-3-PD) Controllers for position control and three-Proportional (3-P) controllers for force contr
... Show MoreBackground: Fibromyalgia is a functional disorder of growing importance characterized by chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain. It frequently affects women of child bearing age. Infertility is failure to achieve pregnancy within a 12 month period for sexually active individuals under 35 years of age and failure to conceive within a 6 months period for those over 35 years, which can have a major psychosocial impact on the affected person’s life.
Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of fibromyalgia among a sample of infertile women; and to study its relationship with age, length of marriage, duration and type of infertility.
Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional stu
... Show MoreBackground: Obesity is an evolving major health problem in both developed and developing countries. Traditional obesity indices as body mass index, waist circumference, waist-hip-ratio are well known measures to identify obese subjects, however, neck circumference as an index of upper-body obesity was found to be a simple and time-saving screening measure that can be used to identify obesity and the likelihood of developing metabolic syndrome in type 2 diabetic patients.
Aim: to investigate the relationship of neck circumference (NC) to obesity and metabolic syndrome in Iraqi subjects with type 2 diabetes.
Methods: The study group included 90 type 2 diabetic subjects (48 men and 42 women) aged 30-68 years. The subjects were those w
Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasite in immune-compromised persons. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in psoriasis patients is investigated. In addition, the treatment effect on psoriasis patients infected with toxoplasmosis through evaluating Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) cytokine levels is studied. Blood samples were collected from 130 individuals who involved 60 control samples and 70 samples with psoriasis. They attended Medical City Hospital in Baghdad province from October 2017 - February 2018. Then, the anti- T. gondii antibodies (IgM and IgG) and TNF- α in the sera were determined via the enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay. The highe
... Show MoreBackground: Diabetes is one of the common and costly chronic health issues and a major cause of morbidity and mortality among other non-communicable diseases. Diabetes patients’ literacy about their diseases is to be addressed as an active factor of the disease outcome.
Objectives: The objectives of the current study were to determine the overall health literacy level among diabetic patients attending the PHC centers and to test the association between the measured health literacy and their glycemic control.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of randomly selected diab
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