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.
In order to investigate the levels of reduced glutathione GSH and α1-antitrypsine in the sera of 20 type 2 diabetic patients and 10 healthy subjects, were enrolled in this study. A significant reduction in GSH level was found in the patient group compared with control. On the other hand a significant elevation in α1-antitrypsine in patient compared with control was observed. Correlation between α1-antitrypsine and reduced glutathion was found to be positive (+Ve) for diabetes mellitus type2 patients and negative (-Ve) for healthy control with r values 0.257 and – 0.339 respectively. In conclusion the depletion of GSH as antioxidant defense insured higher free radical generation in diabetic patients
... Show MoreBenign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most common disease and major cause of morbidity in elderly men which may lead to bladder outflow obstruction and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Although sex steroid hormones play fundamental roles in prostate growth, their clinical significance is not completely clear. In the present study we assessed whether serum hormones levels as markers of prostate disease. This study includes (40) patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy and (40) control group with age rang (41-79) and (42-71) years respectively. The following biochemical investigations have been studied: Testosterone, Estradiol (E2), and Prostatic Specific Antigen (PSA) levels using ELISA method which correlated with t
... Show MoreThe aim of this study was to establish the existence and interaction of TMPRSS2 – ERG gene fusion status with clinicopathological features of prostate cancer patients. This research consisted of 123 embedded formalin-fixed tissues obtained from the prostate tumor patients. The above gene fusion is detected through the technique of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) by means of a triple color probe. Seven samples have not been scored due to technical difficulties and 46 patients have fusion (39.6%), while the remaining (70) have not been seen with fusion. Of the 46 fusion-positive, 17 (36%) were caused by ERG-translocation, of the other 29 (63%) were caused by the interstitial segment deletion between the two genes due to the
... Show MoreThis study aims to investigate the relationship between thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO) and thyroid function tests (TSH, T3 and T4) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Ninety women and men, with ages ranging between 35-65 years and weighing 60-80 kgs, were selected for this study. They were classified into three groups: G1 included 15 healthy control group, G2 had15 patients with T2DM and G3 had 60 patients with T2DM and hypothyroidism. Blood samples were collected from each individual via vein puncture to assess thyroid hormone and TPO-Ab. The results showed highly significant (p < 0.01) increase in TSH level in the diabetic group with hypothyroidism when compared to the other groups. There was no significant
... Show MoreBackground: Because of its clinical and surgical importance and lack of precise information about this rare and important anatomical landmark, this study was designed to detect the presence, configurations and length of Mandibular Retromolar Canal (MRMC) with aid of CBCT visualization. Materials and methods: In this retrospective study the data was obtained from Specialist Health Center in AL-Sadder city in Baghdad for (100) patients with 200 inferior dental canal, all of them referred to CBCT scan (Kodak 9500, French origin). The scanning was done with tube voltage 90 kVp, tube current with 10mA and exposure time was 10 s., the field of view was measured with 5cm x 3.7cmwith 0.03mm voxel size Results: In the present study the prevalence of
... Show MoreThe present study was performed to evaluate the level of some risk factors (biochemical and immunological) in hypothyroid Iraqi patients considering the different thyroid functional states (hypothyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism).The study includes 82 patients clinically diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Three study groups have been investigated: (47 clinical hypothyroid patients, 12 subclinical hypothyroid patients 23 healthy individuals) of different ages. This study, show that the proportion of females (83.3 %), (87.2%) in subclinical and clinical hypothyroidisim respectively higher than the proportion of males (16.7%),(12.8%) in subclinical and clinical hypothyrodism respectively of the total patients.The majority of subclinical hyp
... Show MoreBackground: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine that has several functions, including stimulating growth and inhibiting cell death. It has the potential to operate as a biomarker for the accurate prediction of disease severity and activity, platelets-rich plasma was used in the treatment of oral lichen planus and can change the salivary IL-6 level.
Objectives: To study the clinical outcome of intralesional platelets-rich plasma in patients with oral lichen planus and to measure salivary IL-6 levels before and after the treatment with platelets-rich plasma were the aims of this study.
Subjects and Methods: In this clinical trial, for each patient a standardi
... Show MoreBackground: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is caused of 85% of all lung cancers. Among the most important factors for lung tumor growth and proliferation are the tyrosine kinase receptors that coded by the epidermal growth factor recep-tor (EGFR) gene. Activation of EGFR ultimately leads to developing of lung cancer. The present study was undertaken with an objective to detect EGFR mutations in bronchial wash from Iraqi patients with NSCLC before treatment. Methods: DNA was extracted from bronchial wash samples collected from 50 patients with NSCLC by using a Qiamp DNA Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Then, EGFR mutations were determined by using real-time RCR combined with two technologies, Amplification Refractory Mutation System (
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the most diagnosed form of malignant tumour in Iraqi women. Tamoxifen and trastuzumab are highly effective adjuvant therapy for breast cancer.
This study's objectives were to define the patient's belief in tamoxifen or trastuzumab when used as adjuvant therapy and to determine the variation in belief between the two medications in a sample of Iraqi breast cancer patients.
The cross-section survey was conducted using the BMQ-Specific questionnaire. Ninety-seven participants (sixty-seven tamoxifen, thirty trastuzumab) participated in this study.
The mean of specific-necessity scale for tamoxifen was (3.7) and for trastuzumab (4). The findings showed a high necessity for both medicines, and there wer
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