Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unknown etiology. Different techniques and magnetic resonance image sequences are widely used and compared to each other to improve the detection of multiple sclerosis lesions in the spinal cord. Objective: To evaluate the ability of MRI short tau inversion recovery sequences in improvementof multiple sclerosis spinal cord lesion detection when compared to T2 weighted image sequences. Type of the study: A retrospective study. Methods: this study conducted from 15thAugust 2013 to 30thJune 2014 at Baghdad teaching hospital. 22 clinically definite MS patients with clinical features suggestive of spinal cord involvement, patients were imaged with sagittal short tau inversion recovery sequences and sagittal T2 weighted. Results: The mean age of the patients was 32.5 ± 6.7years; female to male ratio was 2.7:1. The total number of spinal cord MS lesions was 44 of them 86.4% in the cervical spine, 68.2%of the lesions had less than one vertebra extension,79.6% of the lesions did not show changes in the spinal cord morphology. There was a significant upgrading in the lesions conspicuity at short tau inversion recovery sequence comparing to T2 weighted image, P<0.001. A significant difference had been found in artifact grading between both sequences; P<0.001. Conclusions: short tau inversion recovery magnetic resonance image sequences improve detection of MS spinal cord plaques compared with T2 weighted image and itincreasesthe conspicuity of the visualized T2weighted image lesions, but also it accentuates theartifacts more than T2weighted image.
Background: Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that mostly involves the spine and sacroiliac joints. It is associated with a decreased quality of life. Biological medicines such as infliximab and its biosimilar are the mainstay treatments for active ankylosing spondylitis.
Objective: The study objective was to conduct a pharmacoeconomic study comparing the cost-effectiveness of the reference infliximab with its biosimilar in ankylosing spondylitis patients visiting public hospitals.
Subjects and Method: This is a two-center pharmacoeconomic study performed at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, which s
... Show MoreAbstract This research scrutinizes the impact of external magnetic field strength variations on plasma jet parameters to enhance its performance and flexibility. Plasma jets are widely used for their high thermal and kinetic energy in both medical and industrial fields. The study employs optical emission spectroscopy to measure electron temperature, electron density, and plasma frequency in a plasma jet subjected to varying magnetic field strengths (25, 50, 100, 150, and 250 mT). The results indicate that a stronger magnetic field results in higher electron temperature (1.485 to 1.991 eV), electron density (5.405 × 1017 to 7.095 × 1017), and plasma frequency 7.382 × 1012 to 8.253 × 1012 Hz. As well as the research investigates the influ
... Show MoreThis study was done to evaluate a new technique to determine the presence of methamphetamine in the hair using nano bentonite-based adsorbent as the filler of extraction column. The state of the art of this study was based on the presence of silica in the nano bentonite that was assumed can interact with methamphetamine. The hair used was treated using methanol to extract the presence of methamphetamine, then it was continued by sonicating the hair sample. Qualitative analysis using Marquish reagent was performed to confirm the presence of methamphetamine in the isolate.The hair sample that has been taken in a different period confirmed that this current developing method can be used to analyzed methamphetamine. This m
... Show MoreIntrusion detection systems (IDS) are useful tools that help security administrators in the developing task to secure the network and alert in any possible harmful event. IDS can be classified either as misuse or anomaly, depending on the detection methodology. Where Misuse IDS can recognize the known attack based on their signatures, the main disadvantage of these systems is that they cannot detect new attacks. At the same time, the anomaly IDS depends on normal behaviour, where the main advantage of this system is its ability to discover new attacks. On the other hand, the main drawback of anomaly IDS is high false alarm rate results. Therefore, a hybrid IDS is a combination of misuse and anomaly and acts as a solution to overcome the dis
... Show MoreBackground: Errors of horizontal condylar inclinations and Bennett angles had largely affected the articulation of teeth and the pathways of cusps. The aim of this study was to estimate and compare between the horizontal condylar (protrusive) angles and Bennett angles of full mouth rehabilitation patients using two different articulator systems. Materials and Methods: Protrusive angles and Bennett angles of 50 adult males and females Iraqi TMD-free full mouth rehabilitation patients were estimated by using two different articulator systems. Arbitrary hinge axis location followed by protrusive angles and Bennett angles, estimation was done by a semiadjustable articulator system. A fully adjustable articulator system was utilized to locate th
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy among the Iraqi population. Affected patients exhibit different clinical behaviours according to the molecular subtypes of the tumour. AIM: To identify the clinical and pathological presentations of the Iraqi breast cancer subtypes identified by Estrogen receptors (ER), Progesterone receptors (PR) and HER2 expressions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The present study comprised 486 Iraqi female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. ER, PR and HER2 contents of the primary tumours were assessed through immunohistochemical staining; classifying the patients into five different groups: Triple Negative (ER/PR negative/HER2 negative), Triple Positive (ER/PR positive/HER2 positive), Luminal A (ER
... Show MoreBack ground: Several devices with different physical bases have been developed for the clinical measurement of corneal thickness, they classified into 4 categories: Scheimpflug photography based, Slit –Scanning topography, optical coherence tomography (OCT) based and ultrasound (US) based.Objective:To evaluatethe precision of the new Scheimpflug –Placido disc corneal topography in measurement of corneal thickness and to compare the measured values with that obtained by US pachymetry.Methods: Setting of this study is Lasik center in Eye Specialty Private Hospital. Baghdad. Iraq.Eyes of healthy subjects were examined with the Sirius topography.3 consecutive measurements of central (CCT)and thinnest (TCT) corneal thicknesses were obtain
... Show MoreIn this research, the semiparametric Bayesian method is compared with the classical method to estimate reliability function of three systems : k-out of-n system, series system, and parallel system. Each system consists of three components, the first one represents the composite parametric in which failure times distributed as exponential, whereas the second and the third components are nonparametric ones in which reliability estimations depend on Kernel method using two methods to estimate bandwidth parameter h method and Kaplan-Meier method. To indicate a better method for system reliability function estimation, it has be
... Show MoreThe research seeks to identify the impact of fraud detection skills in the settlement of compensatory claims for the fire and accident insurance portfolio and the reflection of these skills in preventing and reducing the payment of undue compensation to some who seek profit and enrichment at the expense of the insurance contract. And compensatory claims in the portfolio of fire and accident insurance in the two research companies, which show the effect and positive return of the detection skills and settlement of the compensation on the amount of actual compensation against the claims inflated by some of the insured, The research sample consisted of (70) respondents from a community size (85) individuals between the director and assistan
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