Background: Coronary artery disease remains the main cause of death despite several preventive programs. Epicardial adipose tissue is a visceral fat depot of the heart located along the large coronary arteries and on the surface of ventricles and apex. Intima media thickness is commonly recognized as the initial stage in the development of atherosclerosis. The development of ultrasound machines, advances in echocardiographic devices and high resolution transducers facilitate comprehensive analysis of epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT).
Aim: To investigate the relationship of echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT) with the severity of coronary artery disease.
Methods: A cross sectional multicenter diagnostic accuracy study carried out at Ibn Al-Nafis Cardiovascular Hospital, Ibn Al- Bitar Cardiology Center and Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital –Iraqi Center for Cardiology during the period between October 2016 and May 2017 assessing. History regarding demographic data and risk factors was taken. Two dimensional transthoracic echocardiographic measurements were done. EFT was measured from parasternal long axis view perpendicular to the right ventricular free wall. C-IMT was measured according to that recommended by the American society of echocardiography (ASE).
Results: The current study demonstrated that the EFT has a direct and significant correlation with the number of involved vessels (P value ˂ 0.001, r= 0.770). The validity of EFT to discriminate between multiple vessels disease and no vessel involvement is excellent (AUC= 0.984, cut point > 8mm, sensitivity=92.9%, specificity= 93.3%). There is inverse and significant correlation between ejection fraction (EF) and three vessels disease (P value ˂ 0.001, r= -0.507). Also there is a direct and significant correlation between C-IMT and severity of CAD. ROC analysis for validity of C-IMT to discriminate between multiple vessels disease and no vessel involvement is excellent (AUC= 0.961, cut point > 1.04mm, sensitivity=92.9%. specificity=86.7%). C-IMT is fair to discriminate between single vessel disease and no vessel involvement (AUC=0.738, cut point ˃ 0.84mm, sensitivity 100%), so if correlated with age, C-IMT above 0.84 can be used as a cut off point for the prediction of CAD. Finally, EFT and C-IMT are more likely to reflect severity of CAD than their ratio.
Conclusions: C-IMT and EFT are simple and reproducible parameters that can be used as a screening tool for the presence and severity of CAD especially before symptoms appearance in high risk patients
Chronic periodontitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease affecting tooth supporting structures in response to bacterial dental plaque causing irreversible tissue destruction. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an effective mediator in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Polymorphisms in the COX-2 gene may contribute to its overexpression and increased disease susceptibility. To evaluate the association between -1195 A/G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promotor area of the cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) gene and severity of chronic periodontitis in a sample of Iraqi population. -1195A/ G COX-2 SNP was investigated in 70 chronic periodontitis (CP) cases and 30 healthy controls. CP cases composed of 2 subgroups (35 moderate CP cases and 35 severe CP
... Show MoreIn This paper, CuO thin films having different thickness (250, 300 , 350 and 400) nm were deposited on glass substrates by thermal vacuum evaporator. The thermal oxidation of this evaporated film was done in heated glass at temperature (300 in air at one hour. The study of X-ray diffraction investigated all the exhibit polycrystalline nature with monoclinic crystal structure include uniformly grains. Thin film’s internal structure topographical and optical properties. Furthermore, the crystallization directions of CuO (35.54 , 38.70 ) can be clearly observed through an X-ray diffraction analysis XRD, Atomic Force Microscope AFM (topographic image) showed that the surface Characteristics , thin films crystals grew with increases in either
... Show MoreA thin CdS Films have been evaporated by thermal evaporation technique with different thicknesses (500, 1000, 1500 and 2000Å) and different duration times of annealing (60, 120 180 minutes) under 573 K annealing temperature, the vacuum was about 8 × 10-5 mbar and substrate temperature was 423 K. The structural properties of the films have been studied by X- ray diffraction technique (XRD). The crystal growth became stronger and more oriented as the film thickness (T) and duration time of annealing ( Ta) increases.
A thermal evaporation technique was used to prepare ZnO thin films. The samples were prepared with good quality onto a glass substrate and using Zn metal. The thickness varied from (100 to 300) ±10 nm. The structure and optical properties of the ZnO thin films were studied. The results of XRD spectra confirm that the thin films grown by this technique have hexagonal wurtzite, and also aproved that ZnO films have a polycrystalline structure. UV-Vis measurement, optical transmittance spectra, showed high transmission about 90% within visible and infrared range. The energy gap is found to be between 3.26 and 3.14e.V for 100 to 300 nm thickness respectivly. Atomic Force Microscope AFM (topographic image ) shows the grain size incre
... Show MoreZinc Oxide transparent thin films (ZnO) with different thickness from (220 to 420)nm
±15nm were prepared by thermal evaporation technique onto glass substrates at 200 with
the deposition rate of (10 2) nm sec
-1
, X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the proper phase
formation of the material. The investigation of (XRD) indicates that the (ZnO) film is
polycrystalline type of Hexagonal and the preferred orientation along (002) plane. The Optical
properties of ZnO were determined through the optical transmission method using ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer with wavelength (300 – 1100) nm. The optical band gap values of
ZnO thin films were slightly increased from (2.9 - 3.1) eV as the film thickn
To compare the corneal epithelial thickness profile in patients with dry eyes and keratoconus suspect with normal healthy eyes.
The study involved 120 eyes with an age range from 19 to 30 years. Forty eyes had normal corneal topography and no dry eyes. Forty eyes had dry eyes but had normal corneal topography. The last 40 eyes were keratoconus suspect and had no symptoms or signs of dry eyes.
Central epithelial thickness was not different statistically for all eyes. ( p-value: 0.1). The superior epithelial thickness was 53.5 µm ±3.1 in the control
Background: The highest concentrations of
blood glucose during the day are usually found
postprandialy. Postprandial hyperglycemia (PPH)
is likely to promote or aggravate fasting
hyperglycemia. Evidence in recent years suggests
that PPH may play an important role in functional
& structural disturbances in different body organs
particularly the cardiovascular system.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of (PPH) as a
risk factor for coronary Heart disease in Type 2
diabetic patients.
Methods: Sixty-three type2 diabetic patients
were included in this study. All have controlled
fasting blood glucose, with HbA1c correlation.
They were all followed for five months period
(from May to October 2008)
Background: This in vitro study was carried out to evaluate the effects of various veneering dentin ceramic thicknesses and repeated firings on the color of lithium disilicate glass-ceramic (IPS e.max Press) and zirconium-oxide (IPS ZirCAD) all-ceramic systems, measured by clinical spectrophotometers (Easyshade Advance 4.0) . Materials and methods: The 72specimens cube-shaped have the dimension of about 11 mm in width, 14 mm in length, 1mm in thickness, these cores divided into 3 groups according to the type of material each group have (24)core specimens. Each group had been divided into three sub-groups (each having 8 specimens) according to veneering with dentin ceramic thicknesses: as 0.5, 1, or 2 mm (n=8). IPS e.max press and ZirCAD c
... Show MoreBack ground: Skin grafting is the most common form
of reconstructive surgery, and regeneration of
sensations in skin grafts is a complex process
influenced by many factors such as , the thickness of
the graft, the depth of the grafted bed, meshing of the
graft, the condition of the bed and the surrounding
area. So many studies performed on this subject, some
of them clinically based on subjective type of sensation
tests, and others histological to detect the presence of
nerve fibers in the grafted skin
Objectives: To detect return of sensations to split
thickness skin grafts by clinical methods.
Methods: From Oct. 1995 to Oct. 2010, a clinical
prospective study performed in Al wasity Hospital for