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
Thyroid disease is a common disease affecting millions worldwide. Early diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease can help prevent more serious complications and improve long-term health outcomes. However, thyroid disease diagnosis can be challenging due to its variable symptoms and limited diagnostic tests. By processing enormous amounts of data and seeing trends that may not be immediately evident to human doctors, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms may be capable of increasing the accuracy with which thyroid disease is diagnosed. This study seeks to discover the most recent ML-based and data-driven developments and strategies for diagnosing thyroid disease while considering the challenges associated with imbalanced data in thyroid dise
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to detect the level of psychological stress among unemployed individuals and the level of their wellbeing by finding the correlation between these two variables.
The research sample consisted of (99) people who are currently unemployed and registered at the Ministry of Labor Affairs.
Schafer (1996) scale for psychological stress was used and alongside Ziout's (2012) scale for wellbeing.
The results of the research showed an inverse relation between being unemployed and having wellbeing.
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... Show MoreObesity among girls can lead to physical, psychological, or social problems. Enhancing self-esteem and reducing self-stigma toward obesity can play a crucial role in girls’ health. This study aims to assess girls’ self-esteem and its association with self-stigma toward obesity.
A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to meet the study’s objective. A convenience sampling method was used to gather the sample from 24 middle and high schools in five cities across Iraq from (January
Periodontitis is one of the most prevalent bacterial diseases affecting man with up to 90% of the global population affected. Its severe form can lead to the tooth loss in 10-15% of the population worldwide. The disease is caused by a dysbiosis of the local microbiota and one organism that contributes to this alteration in the bacterial population is Prophyromonas gingivalis. This organism possesses a range of virulence factors that appear to contribute to its growth and survival at a periodontal site amongst which is its ability to invade oral epithelial cells. Such an invasion strategy provides a means of evasion of host defence mechanisms, persistence at a site and the opportunity for dissemination to other sites in the mouth. However, p
... Show MoreIntroduction: Different surgical techniques used for closure of various oral defects. While each one of these techniques has its limitation; the buccal pad of fat used in last quarter of last century as pedicle or free graft in reconstruction of small to medium, congenital and acquired defects showed good potentials for success. The present study used the BPF as pedicled flap to reconstruct intra oral defects. The study aimed to evaluate of the success of buccal pad of fat pedicled flap in the reconstruction of intra oral defects. Outlining its indications, limitations and complications. Materials and Methods: The study included 19 patients (17 males and 2 females) with age range between (1- 70 years), all patients were treated with pedic
... Show MoreObjective: This research was carried out in rats in a special place of the laboratory of histopathological diseases in the period 6/9/2018 until 23/11/2018, this study to detect effect of the addition of the alcohol extract of ginger in the reduction of fat in liver tissue of rats. Method: Eight groups and replicates for each group. The groups were homogenous in weights and were placed in 13 cages. Each group consisted of 10 rat and at 5 fares each. In the first treatment, rat were fed on regular feeding without adding and feeding rats in the second treatment sessions add to it the alcoholic extract of ginger in Turkey 150 mg/kg. The third group is the same as the normal food after adding the alcohol extract of ginger at a concentration of
... Show MoreBackground: Otitis media with effusion is characterized by accumulation of fluid in the middle ear in absence of acute inflammation and it is the most common cause of acquired hearing loss in children, and may negatively affect language development failure of medical treatment of middle ear effusion frequently require myringotomy and tympanostomy tube insertion.
Objectives: To determine tympanostomy tube complications of tube in children with chronic otitis media with effusion who were treated with Shah Grommet tube insertion.
Methods: The Medical records of 162 ears of 87 children (52 male and 35 female) were reviewed respectively, the patients ages wer
... Show MoreKE Sharquie, JR Al-Rawi, AA Noaimi, RA Al-Khammasi, Iraqi Journal of Community Medicine, 2018
Uropathogenic specific protein is a genotoxic protein targeting the DNA, leading to mutations and modifications in the normal cell's DNA and subsequently, cancer development. This study aims to determine the prevalence of the usp gene in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from females with urinary tract infections and study its correlation with biofilm formation. One hundred and five urine specimens were collected from female patients (20 to 55 years old) with urinary tract infections attending hospitals. Traditional laboratory methods using selective and differential culture media were used for initial bacterial isolation and identification, and molecular techniques that targeted a segment of the 16SrRNA gene with a specific primer pa
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