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.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa has variety of virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenicity. Therefore, rapid detection with high accuracy and specificity is very important in the control of this pathogenic bacterium. To evaluate the accuracy and specificity of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay, ETA and gyrB genes were targeted to detect pathogenic strains of P. aeruginosa. Seventy swab samples were taken from patients with infected wounds and burns in two hospitals in Erbil and Koya cities in Iraq. The isolates were traditionally identified using phenotypic methods, and DNA was extracted from the positive samples, to apply PCR using the species specific primers targeting ETA, the gene encoding for exotoxin A, and gyrB gene. The res
... Show MoreThe Internet of Things (IoT) has become a hot area of research in recent years due to the significant advancements in the semiconductor industry, wireless communication technologies, and the realization of its ability in numerous applications such as smart homes, health care, control systems, and military. Furthermore, IoT devices inefficient security has led to an increase cybersecurity risks such as IoT botnets, which have become a serious threat. To counter this threat there is a need to develop a model for detecting IoT botnets.
This paper's contribution is to formulate the IoT botnet detection problem and introduce multiple linear regression (MLR) for modelling IoT botnet features with discriminating capability and alleviatin
... Show MoreKarbala province was one of the most important areas in Iraq and considered an
economic resource of vegetation such as trees of fruits, sieve and other vegetation.
This research aimed to utilize change detection for investigating the current
vegetation cover at last three decay. The main objectives of this research are collect
a group of studied area (Karbala province) satellite images in sequence time for
the same area, these image captured by Landsat (TM 1995, ETM+ 2005 and
Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) 2015. Preprocessing such as atmosphere
correction and rectification has been done. Mosaic model between the parts of
studied area was performing. Gap filling consider being very important step has
be
This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence rate of
toxoplasmosis among 294 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated with
methotrexate (MTX), 50 RA patients without treatment and 50 samples as
healthy control. Blood samples were collected and the presence of T.gondii
IgG and IgM antibodies was determined by using Enzyme linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) was
also estimated in serum of all subjects by using ELISA method too. The
seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis IgM and IgG in RA+MTX was
60(20.408%), and 98(33.33%), in RA patients 4(8%), and 18(36%) while,
it was 2(24%), 6(12%) in healthy group. Tumor necrosis factor alpha
(TNF-α) was also estimated in serum of a
A total of 90 stool sample was collected from patients with gastroenteritis to
detect adenovirus antigen among diarrhea cases. They were tested by general stool
examination (GSE), rapid immunochromatographic test and Enzyme Linked
Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). GSE showed that adenovirus gastroenteritis
infection resulted in non-bloody diarrhea, the existence of RBCs in 7% and Pus in
37% of the samples, Entamoeba histolytica trophozoite and cyst were seen in 3%
and 2% of the samples respectively. The rapid test showed that 21% of samples
were positive for rotavirus, 8% for adenovirus and 3% for astrovirus. Meanwhile,
the ELISA test showed that adenovirus was positive in 9% of the samples. These
findings establish
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in females. In Iraq there are noticeable elevation in incidence rates and prevalence of advanced stages of breast cancer. Ferritin is intracellular iron storage protein abundant in circulation and its main application in differential diagnosis of anemia.
The level of serum ferritin was found raised in various cancers including breast cancer. The aim of this study was to assess whether the serum ferritin concentration would be altered in Iraqi women with breast cancer and it could be related to progression of disease.
Sixty eight females participated in this study. The mean age of these females was 53.25± 9.52 .The level of serum ferritin was measured in 24
... Show MoreOne hundred specimens (urine and sputum) were collected in sterilized containers from patients attending two hospitals in Baghdad province including: Educational Al-Karama Hospital and Educational Al-Yarmouk Hospital, in which, thirty-eight K. pneumoniae isolate were obtained out of one hundred specimens, all of which are of urine origin. The results obtained in this study showed that Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were highly resistant to Augmentine (94.7%), also Klebsiella isolates were resistant to Ceftriaxone (86.8%), Cefotaxime (81.5%), and Ceftazidime (65.7%). Very low level of resistance was found toward Imipenem and Meropenem (18.4% and 5.2%) respectively. Only four isolates (10.52 %) were positive for wzy gene; K19, K20, K21, an
... Show MoreIn accordance with epidemic COVID-19, the elevated infection rates, disinfectant overuse and antibiotic misuse what led to immune suppression in most of the population in addition to genotypic and phenotypic alterations in the microorganisms, so a great need to reevaluate the genetic determinants that responsible for bacterial community (biofilm) has been raised. A total of 250 clinical specimens were obtained from patients in Baghdad hospitals and streaked on Mannitol salt agar medium. The results revealed that 156 isolates appeared as round yellow colonies, indicating that they were mostly identified as Staphylococcus aureus from 250 specimens. The antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates for methicillin 37.17% (n=58), Amoxic
... Show MoreBackground:SARS-CoV-2 infection has caused a global pandemic that continues to negatively impact human health. A large group of microbial domains including bacteria co-evolved and interacted in complex molecular pathogenesis along with SARS-CoV-2. Evidence suggests that periodontal disease bacteria are involved in COVID-19, and are associated with chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. This study was performed to investigate the association between bacterial loads of Porphyromonas gingivalis and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fifty patients with confirmed COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, their age ranges between 20-76 years, and 35 healthy volunteers (matched accordingly with age and sex to th
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