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
In order to find the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and hematological disease are disorders which primarily affect the blood and blood-forming organs. One hundred and three blood samples were taken for people aged (20-68) years for the period from 10/1/2021 to 1/3/2022, divided into three groups. The first group included 44-person H. pylori-infected with symptoms of infection, the second group had 19-person H. pylori-infected but without symptoms, and the third group included 40 people without H. pylori infection. All studied groups were carried out to measure anti-IgG Ab, Vac A and Ferritin by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. The statistical analysis indicates a non-significant difference in Vac A (p
... Show MoreBackground: Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) is a chemokine expressed by inflammatory and endothelial cells. It has a crucial role in initiating, regulating, and mobilizing monocytes to active sites of periodontal inflammation. Its expression is also elevated in response to pro-inflammatory stimuli and tissue injury, both of which are linked to atherosclerotic lesions. Aim of the study: To determine the serum level of MCP-1 in patients with periodontitis and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in comparison to healthy control and evaluate the biomarker's correlations with periodontal parameters. methods: This study enrolled 88 subjects, both males and females, ranging in age from 36-66 years old, and divided into four groups: 1<
... Show MoreThis article aims to identify the views of media elites on citizen journalism, a new media genre that strays away from the foundations and ethics of professional journalism, thus calling for in-depth exploration and scrutiny into the genre and its commitment to the professional standards of journalism.
For this purpose, the researcher opted for the survey method by distributing a questionnaire to a purposive sample consisting of 407 media elites. The research is also based on Habermas' public sphere theory.
ST segment, T wave changes, QT interval changes, and QTc dispersion are among the parameters used to diagnose ischemic heart disease. The increase in the QT dispersion can be caused by myocardial ischemia, among other heart diseases, whereas cardiac diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD) can be diagnosed by observing an abnormally high QTc dispersion. This study aimed to evaluate the variations in the QTc dispersion (depolarization and repolarization) of surface electrocardiography as a result of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with chronic total occlusion. This study took place in the Iraqi Center for Heart Disease from October 2020 to February 2021. 110 patients who suffered from chronic occlusion of t
... Show MoreBackground: Giant middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysms are surgically challenging lesions. Because of the complexity and variability of these aneurysms, a customized surgical technique is often needed for each case. In this article, we present a modified clip reconstruction technique of a ruptured complex giant partially thrombosed middle cerebral artery aneurysm.
Case description: The aneurysm was exposed using the pterional approach. Following proximal control, the aneurysm sac was decompressed. Then, we applied permanent clips to reconstruct the aneurysm neck. The configuration of the aneurysm mandated a tailored clipping pattern to account for resi
... Show MoreBackground : Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of chronic gastrointestinal diseases in which patient may be asymptomatic or was complained from heartburn and regurgitation or pulmonary symptoms. Aim of the study : Examine the serum level of sHLA-G in GERD patients and can be used as a biomarker for early detection of GERD disease. Materials and methods : The design of the study was a case- control prospective enrolled forty patients consulted Gastroenterology Unit- Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital, were diagnosed as GERD by their physician, and compared to second forty control healthy group form January-2023 to May-2024. Serum used for quantitative assessment of soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent a
... Show MoreBack 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
Abstract: The aim of this study was to identify the Distress Tolerance among the Employees in Media and Communication in Baghdad.and to identify the significance of the differences between sex ,scientific specialization ,age,and marital status. and the researcher used the Distrees Tolerance measure for Simon &Gahar 2005. The sample of the study consisted of(37)Employees.The Scale of Distrees Tolerance were used as the study tools after being checked for their Validity and Reliability. The research results indicated that employees have high scores on the scale of stress tolerance and that there are statistically significant differences between the age groups and between married and unmarried people a
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