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.
Abstract
The common types of movement disorders are ; dystonia which is a syndrome of repetitive muscle contractions. While , Huntington disease is autosomal dominant progressive neurodegenerative disorder, which is characterized by involuntary movements (“chorea”).
Tetrabenazine therapy has been shown to effectively control this movements compared with placebo.
Design the proper dosing approach for patients treated with tetrabenazine with genotype polymorphisms and their hepatic effect on patients.
A prospective case controlled study was carried on 50 patients whom divided into 2 groups :first group involved 25 patients who had cho
... Show MoreBack ground: Diabetic nephropathy is rapidly becoming the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The onset and course of DN can be ameliorated to a very significant degree if intervention institutes at a point very early in the course of the development of this complication.
Objective: The aim of this study was to characterize risk factors associated with nephropathy in type I diabetes and construct a module for early prediction of diabetic nephropathy (DN) by analyzing their risk factors.
Methods: Case control design of 400 patients with type I diabetes mellitus (IDDM), aged 19-45 years. The cases were 200 diabetic patients with overt protein urea while the controls were 200 diabetic patients with no protein urea or micr
Microbial activity of Ellagic acid when mixed with some types of candy toward Streptococcus mutans microorganism was studied. The main purpose of carrying out this study is to produce a new type of candy that contains Ellagic acid in addition to xylitol instead of sucrose to prevent dental caries. The results show that the inhibitory action of Ellagic acid was more effective when mixed with this type of candy for the purpose of reducing Streptococcus mutans microorganisms, while sensory evaluation was applied in this study to 20 volunteers to that candy sample evaluated which contain (5 mg/ml) Ellagic acid with 100g xylitol to determine consumers acceptability of this sample of candy. The results were expressed as mean value, slandered d
... Show MoreLeigh's syndrome, or sub acute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy, is a rare inherited neurometabolic disease of infancy and early childhood with variable course and prognosis. Rarely, it occurs in juveniles and adults. The diagnosis is difficult and still remains to challenge the clinicians on the basis of history; hence the role of imaging is very essential. It is the neuroimaging, chiefly the Magnetic Resonance Imaging showing characteristic symmetrical necrotic lesions in the basal ganglia and/or brain stem that leads to the diagnosis. Late-onset varieties are rare and only few cases were reported all over the world. Here, I report a case of late onset (juvenile) Leigh syndrome presenting with an acute polyneuropathy. Neuroimaging confi
... Show MoreThis study was carried out to describe the gene expression of the micro RNA 122a gene with the development of diabetes in Iraq. The difference in gene expression between patients and healthy controls was properly considered. In this study, blood was isolated from 121 individuals divided into two groups as follows: 80 samples of diabetic patients and 41 samples from a healthy control. miRNA was isolated and transformed into cDNA, and the expression of mi122a was measured by qRT-PCR. The researchers looked at the relationship between age and gender and the occurrence of diabetes, as well as how they compared to controls. When comparing the mean gene expression level (Ct) of patient groups to the corresponding Ct means in the control group, th
... Show MoreBackground: Globally, breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women in Iraq. Several genetic and environmental factors are associated..
Background: The hepatitis G virus( HGV), also called hepatitis GB virus, as a member of the Flaviviridae family distantly related to hepatitis C virus (HCV), Little is known about the frequency of HGV infection, the nature of the illness, or how to prevent it. What is known is that transfused blood containing HGV has caused some cases of hepatitis. They infect humans, but are not known to cause human disease. This virus can be transmitted efficiently by blood transfusion and by other parenteral mechanisms. Transient and long lasting infections with HGV have been documented in man.
Patients and methods: HBs Ag, Anti-HCV IgG and Anti-HGV IgG were detected by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).HCV RNA
Background: Asthma is an allergic hypersensitivity disease in which many mediators play a role in its pathogenecity. One of these etiological agents is the mediators such as Interleukin-5 (IL-5).
The aim of this study to demonstrate the association between IL-5 and obesity in asthma development.
Materials & Methods: One hundred and four sera samples for asthma cases have been studied in comparison with 41 non-asthmatic bronchitis as a patient controls beside 30 apparently healthy controls. Cytokine has been estimated using ELISA method in correlation with Body Mass Index (BMI).
Results: This study revealed a significant correlation between IL-5 concentration and BMI (P<0.05), part
In this study the activities of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) were evaluated, in addition to total protein and albumins in sera of sixty one subjects whose ages were ranged between(4-16) years. These subjects were, twenty eight major thalassemic patient (12 with splenectomy and 16 non splenectomy ) and fifteen with minor thalassemia. eighteen healty subjecte as control. The result revealed a significant elevation in the activities of both aminotransferases enzymes (AST and ALT) in the sera of all the alassmic patient groups compared with control. Also a significant increase in the activity of ALT in sera of non-splenectomy compared to splenectomy major thalassemic patient , which could be an indicative of th
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