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
Back ground: Chronic total occlusion (CTO) of coronary arteries remains one of the most challenging lesion subsets in interventional cardiology even with the development of medical devices and operator expertise. Successful revascularization results in improved in angina status ,increased exercise capacity and reduces the need for lat CABG surgery .
Objectives: This study sought to determine the overall procedural success rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for CTOs and to examine the relation between variables such as; patients’ characteristics, risk factors, lesion characteristics and procedural success rate.
Methods: In this study ,clinical and coronary angiography data of (80) patients with CTO who underwent PCI
Advertisements containing images of women represent one of the most controversial topics of the advertising industry and has an impact on people and trends. This study aims to determine the typical mental image of women purveyed through visual advertising in the Arab media. It also aims to find out whether these advertisements portray women positively or negatively, in addition to investigating the reasons for the recent negative portrayal of women in commercials. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach to achieve these objectives. The results indicate that advertising designs that carry images of women displayed in the Arab media create strong mental images. Repetition reinforces these images, and they emphasize the concept
... Show MoreThis study seeks to answer urgent questions about the role of new media that have emerged recently, such as the Internet and social networking sites and information services through mobile and others to increase awareness among young people, especially university students. during a field study that took place on a sample of students in the Department of Media at the University of Petra Kingdom of Jordan during the second semester in 2013 in the study the researcher finds increased attention and follow-up by young people for many of the world events and regional and local communities through exposure to a number of new media; in the forefront of the Internet and increase the level of awareness and interests young people do many of the eve
... Show MoreThe research aimed to identify the extent to which the media offices in the ministries depend on the website of the Iraqi Council of Ministers as a source of information. Such goal includes a set of sub-goals: Knowing the reasons for media offices' reliance on the information provided by the Cabinet's website; and revealing the benefit derived from relying on the Cabinet's website.
The researcher used the survey method to screen and comprehend the extent to which the media offices in the ministries depend on the website of the Iraqi Council of Ministers as a source of information.
The mechanism of comprehensive account of the limits of research wa
... Show Moret. The current study was conducted on the umbilical cord blood of newborns in the Banks Hospital in Baghdad, Diyala, and Khalis in Diyala, where the study included 90 samples of blood, and samples were collected for the period from the 1st of October;2020 to The first of February;2021 AD, where the study included measuring levels of interleukin-6;Adiponectin,glucose and bilirubin in the blood, comparison study between the study variables with the child's weight (greater than 3 kg),(less or equal 3 kg),the mother's age (greater than 25 years, less or equal to 25 years),the sex of the child (male, female).The results of our study showed that there were no significant differences between the variables of the current study between the two sex
... Show MoreIron status can affect the outcome of
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease with chronic nature resulting from a combination of both factors genetic and environmental. The genetic contributors of T1D among Iraqis are unexplored enough. The study aimed to shed a light on the contribution between genetic variation of interleukin2 (IL2) gene to T1D as a risk influencer in a sample of Iraqi patients. The association between IL2−330 polymorphism (rs2069762) was investigated in 322 Iraqis (78 T1D patients and 244 volunteers as controls). Genotyping for the haplotypes using polymerase chain reaction test – specific sequence primer (PCR-SSP) for (GG, GT, and TT) genotypes corresponding to (G and T) alleles were performed. A significant association revealed a decreased freq
... Show MoreBackground: Insufficient sleep due to excessive media use is linked to decrease physical activity, poor nutrition, obesity, and decreased overall health-related quality of life.
Objectives: To assess the effect of using the internet and social media on the sleep of 4th-stage secondary school students.
Subjects and Methods: Cross-sectional study with the analytic element; for 500 secondary school students, obtained by choosing two schools randomly from each of the six educational directorates, by using a structured questionnaire.
Result: Secondary scho
... Show MoreMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL). The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals of this study were to compare the QoL of Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseas
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