Background: Masseter muscle is a jaw closing muscle of the mandible involved in Para functional habits; which include lip and cheek chewing, fingernail biting, and teeth clenching or bruxism which can be classified as awake or sleep bruxism. Patients with sleep bruxism are three to four times more likely to experience jaw pain and limitation of movement than people who do not experience sleep bruxism. The aim of this study is to measure the thickness of the masseter muscle in bruxist subjects and compare it with non-bruxist subjects by using sonography. Materials and Method: Forty Iraqi subjects with age ranged (20-40) divided into two groups according to the presence of bruxism. Clinical examination was made and masseter muscle thickness measured for both groups using sonography. Results: For bruxist subjects the mean thickness of masseter muscle in relaxation and clenching were (11.7 ± 1.4 mm) and (16.4 ± 1.3 mm). For non bruxist subjects were (11.2 ± 0.4 mm) and (13 ±0.3 mm) respectively. There was an extremely high statistical significant difference in masseter muscle thickness under clenching between bruxist and non bruxist subjects ( it was higher in bruxist group). Masseter muscle thickness under relaxation was significantly lower than that under clenching for both groups. Also there was a positive correlation between masseter muscle thickness and muscle function in bruxism situation. Conclusion: Masseter muscle in bruxist subject was thicker when compared to non-bruxist subject. Masseter muscle thickness was found to be positively correlated with increasing muscle function. The findings of this study indicate that the functional capacity of the masseter muscle affected by bruxism and may be considered as one of the factors influencing muscle thickness.
advancing age. The risk of cardiovascular disease in adults is lowest with systolic BP <120 mm Hg and diastolic BP < 80 mm Hg and increases progressively with higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Acupuncture (from the Latin word acus, “needle”, and pungere, meaning “prick”) is a technique in which the practitioner inserts fine needles into specific points on the patient’s body. Accupuncture could be used as a nonpharmacological way of controlling high readings of blood pressure among cases with essential hypertension. This study aimed to investigate the effects of acupuncture on essential hypertension.
Patients and Methods: 51 hypertensive patients of both genders and 30 normotensive control subjects were inv
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of chronic liver and defines by fat accumulation ≥5% in liver which can progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NAFLD related to obesity as well as non obese individuals. Adiponectin is a cytokine secreted from adipose tissue involved NAFLD pathogenesis and liked with obesity. Irisin is a myokine, has a convenient effect against metabolic diseases such as obesity, disylipemia diabetes type 2 and reversed liver steatosis and may be related with NAFLD.
Vitamin D is one of the fat soluble vitamins and more precisely as a pro-hormone through its metabolite (1,25(OH)2 cholecalciferol) the major steroid hormone. After the skin exposure to the light, vitamin D un
... Show MoreNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of chronic liver and defines by fat accumulation ≥5% in liver which can progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NAFLD related to obesity as well as non obese individuals. Adiponectin is a cytokine secreted from adipose tissue involved NAFLD pathogenesis and liked with obesity. Irisin is a myokine, has a convenient effect against metabolic diseases such as obesity, disylipemia diabetes type 2 and reversed liver steatosis and may be related with NAFLD. Vitamin D is one of the fat soluble vitamins and more precisely as a pro-hormone through its metabolite (1,25(OH)2 cholecalciferol) the major steroid hormone. After the skin exposure to the light, vitamin D undergoes to
... Show MoreBackground Uric acid an independent risk factor for cardiovascular mortality is still disputed as several studies have suggested that hyperuricemia is merely associated with cardiovascular diseases because of confounding factors such as obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, use of diuretics and insulin resistance .Moreover, there is still no well-established pathophysio-logical link between hyperuricemia and the development of cardiovascular complications
Objectives: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the prevalence and the clinical correlation of hyperuricemia with cardiovascular risk factors in Karbalaa city in Iraq.
Subjects and method: The investigations were performed between October 200
Background: Physical exercise is essential for performance of the immune system. The integrity of immune response is dependent on the intensity and duration of the exercise performed. During exercise the metabolic and hormonal changes that occurred can induce lymphocyte apoptosis. Dehydroepiandrosteron sulphate (DHEAS) is one of the hormones that is affected by exercise, it is an androgen released from the adrenal cortex in response to adrenocortiocotropin releasing hormone (ACTH). DHEAS is regarded as an anti-aging hormone; it is primarily immune enhancing, providing some degree of counterbalance to the potentially detrimental effects of catecholamine and cortisol which are immunosuppressive if chronic
... Show MoreAfter 2003 Iraq witnessed a rapid development in the number and kind of non-governmental organizations in addition to the increase in their sources.A lot of obstacles and constraints hinder the development of the said organizations and one of the most important and prominent obstacles is their administrative and accounting structure that affect directly on the existence, continuity and survival of these organizations.This research discussed the concept the non-governmental organizations and reaching the assessment of internal control System in these organizations. Therefore, the researcher has assessed the internal control System applied National Olympic Committee of Iraq. The study showed vulnerabilities in the internal control the said
... Show MoreAnemia is a major significant public health issue that affects both pregnant and non-pregnant women throughout the world. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and severity of anemia, as well as its classification, based on MCV values in non-pregnant women residing in the Garmian province in the east of Iraq. Blood samples were collected from non-pregnant women between the ages of 16 and 49 years. Anemia is classified as mild, moderate and severe, and as microcytic, normocytic and macrocytic depending on the level of Hb or mean corpuscular volume (MCV) respectively. In this study sociodemographic and hematological characteristics were also evaluated. The results showed that 56% of the study samples were anemic, and of the
... Show MoreObjective: The descriptive study was used to evaluate nursing staff performance in cardiac care units at teaching
and non teaching hospitals in kirkuk city: A comparative study.
Methodology: A descriptive study was used to evaluate nursing staff performance in cardiac care units. The study
was conducted from December 29th
, 2013 up to the 27th of Apr. 2014. A non-probability (purposive) sample of
(44) nurses who work in cardiac care unit at Azady teaching Hospital and Kirkuk general Hospital was evaluated by
a questionnaire which consisted of two parts; the first part is concerned with the demographic characteristics of
the nurses and the second part concerned Observation check list for evaluation nursing staff Perfo
Flexible pavement design and analysis were carried out in the past with semi-experimental methods, using elastic characteristics of pavement layers. Due to the complex interferences between various layers and their time consumption, the traditional pavement analysis, and design methods were replaced with fast and powerful methods including the Finite Element Method (FEM) and the Discrete Element Method (DEM). FEM requires less computational power and is more appropriate for continuous environments. In this study, flexible pavement consisting of 5 layers (surface, binder, base, subbase, and subgrade) had been analyzed using FEM. The ABAQUS (6.14-2) software had been utilized to investigate the influence of the base layer depth on ver
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