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
Background: Non-atherosclerotic spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is defined as a non-traumatic and non-iatrogenic separation of the coronary arterial wall. SCAD is a highly uncommon cause of myocardial infarction (0.1 to 0.4 %).
Case presentation: 40-year-old African American woman, G1T1P0A0L2, with a past medical history of tobacco abuse and obesity who had uncomplicated cesarean section delivery for healthy twins two weeks prior presented with substernal, sudden onset chest pain. The pain radiated to left arm and back, pressure-like, and is associated with nausea, vomiting, and dyspnea.
On examination she was within normal limits except for a well-healed C-section wound. An electrocardiogr
... Show MoreIn this study, Epoxy Resin plates was prepared by mixing epoxy(A) and hardner(B)with ratio(A:B) (3:1) with different thickness (0.3-0.96)cm. The effect of thickness on optical properties have been studied (absorption ,transmission ,reflectance) also the optical constant were found like (absorption coefficient, extenuation coefficient and refraction index) for all of the prepared plates. The results have shown that by increasing the thickness of plates., the absorption intensity increase in which at plates thickness (0.3-0.96)cm the absorption intensity were(1.54-1.43) respectively, and since absorption peak for epoxy occur in ultraviolet region and exactly at wavelength(368)nm and energy gap(Eg=3.05 eV) thus their good transmittance in the
... Show MoreBackground: Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) is a lipid mediator appeared as a powerful activator that regulates the T-helper2 (TH2) and Type-2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2), and functions as diagnostic marker and it has probable therapeutic targets for asthma.
Objectives: To define the role of Prostaglandin D2 biomarkers in disease severity, and to forecast disease risk and progression.
Patients and methods: A case control study was conducted on Forty four Iraqi asthmatic patients and 44 apparently healthy controls who were age and sex matched. Four ml of blood samples was taken from the study groups for the detection PGD2 using ELISA.
Results: The se
... Show MoreBackground: One of the major health concerns and possible risk factors in open heart surgery is the increasing prevalence of obesity among patients.
Methodology: Over a period of sixteen months (February 2017 to June 2018), 246 patients underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) in Slemani Cardiac Hospital (SCH). The patients were divided according to the WHO classification into two groups: The obese (BMI ≥ 30) and the non-obese (BMI < 30) and were compared in regard to the rate of occurrence of early postoperative complications.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of obesity [body mass i
... Show More
Background: Neuropathy stands out as the highest-prevalence diabetes-related complication, impacting no less than 50% of individuals with diabetes throughout their lifespan. As The most common reason for disability due to walking difficulties, foot ulcerations, and limb loss, DPN is worthy of study, and early diagnosis of DPN signs is required.
Objectives: This study aims to aid in the identification of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) by determining the muscle thickness of the lower extremities in patients with DPN.
Patients and Methods: The study included 24 subjects with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and 25 individuals as a co
... Show MoreVascular injury is still common in countries such as Iraq where both military and urban violence are endemic.
This is a report of a thirty eight year old civilian patient who had been inflicted with shrapnel injury during the 3rd. Gulf war, which had caused two different types of vascular injury with minimal evidence of vascular injury with evidence of only two small wounds in the neck and upper chest at the time of injury but presented few months later with a pulsatile neck mass and palpable thrill across the right supraclavicular area and upper chest.
Preoperative investigations were done including Doppler study and angiography which confirmed the presence of right common carotid artery aneurysm and
Background: Duplex ultrasound is inexpensive, non-invasive and can provide functional and anatomical information about vessel stenosis and plaque morphology. Color duplex flow ultrasonography has thus become the most widely used noninvasive method of assessing extra cranial cerebrovascular occlusive disease.
Objectives:To find the relation of the severity of carotid artery stenosis, intima media thickness, and atheromatous plaque morphology with the size of cerebral infarction.
Patients and Methods: A prospective study, conducted from September 2010 to May 2011, in Department of Radiology in Baghdad Teaching Hospital. A total of 62 Patients with clinical & radiological (brain CT) diagnosis of acute stroke, (42 males & 20 fe
Hall effect measurements have been made on a-As2Te3 thin films different thickness film in the range (200-350) nm. The Hall mobility in a-As2Te3 thin films decreases with increasing annealing temperature but the carrier concentration increases. When increasing the film thickness increases the Hall mobility decreases, while the carrier concentration increases.
Background :Atherosclerosis is the most
frequent underlying cause of ischemic heart
disease and a major cause of death all over the
world. This study was carried out to analyze and
compare the angiographic findings in patients
with diabetes mellitus versus non diabetics with
coronary heart disease , and to correlate these
findings with some risk factors for coronary
heart disease.
Methods: A total of 100 patients were studied,
50 with diabetes mellitus, and 50 non diabetics.
This study was carried out at Al-Sadr teaching
hospital in Basrah, Southern Iraq during the
period April 2009- September 2009. All patients
were known to have coronary heart disease. Risk
factors for coronary heart disease
Different coating layers of fluorescent agent (FCA) on the solar cells were used. An increase of 35% in the energy conversion efficiency of the solar cell have been obtained. This increase is attributed to the reduction ofthe reflected light, eflection spectra show low values at higher thickness which explained the increase ofthe conversion efficiency with increases of layer thickness.