Background: Skull secondary tumors are malignant bone tumors which are increasing in incidence.Objective: The objectives of this study were to present clinical features , asses the outcome of patients with secondary skull tumors ,characterize the MRI features, locations, and extent of secondary skull tumors to determine the frequency of the symptomatic disease.Type of the study: This is a prospective study.Methods: This is a prospective study from February 2000 to February 2008. The patients were selected from five neurosurgical centers and one oncology hospital in Baghdad/Iraq. The inclusion criteria were MRI study of the head(either as an initial radiological study or following head CT scan when secondary brain tumor is suspected , visible or palpabable skull mass is noted ) that revealed either calvarial or skull base metastases were included in this study.Results: During the period of the study 175 patients were included according the inclusion criteria. Primary sites were breast cancer (54.85%), lung cancer (14.28%), prostate cancer (6.28%), malignant lymphoma (5.14%), and others (19.42%). The mean time from primary diagnosis to skull metastasis diagnosis was 71 months for cases of breast cancer, 26 months for prostate cancer, 9 months for lung cancer, and 4 months for malignant lymphoma. Calvarial circumscribed intraosseous metastases were found most frequently (25.7%). The patients were mainly asymptomatic. However, some patients suffered from local pain or cranial nerve palsies that harmed their quality of life. Treatment, mainly for symptomatic cases, was by local or whole-skull irradiation.Conclusion: Secondary skull tumors are not rare, and most are calvarial circumscribed intraosseous tumors. MRI contribute to understanding their type, location, and multiplicity, and their relationship to the brain, cranial nerves, and dural sinuses. Radiation therapy improved the quality of life (QOL) of patients with neurological symptoms.
Introduction: Diabetic foot infections are one of the most severe complications of diabetes. This study was aimed to determine the common bacterial isolates of diabetic foot infections and the in vitro antibiotic susceptibility then treatment.
Methods: A swab was taken from the foot ulcer, and the aerobic bacteria were isolated and identified by cultural, microscopic and biochemical test, then by api-20E system. After that their antibiotic susceptibility pattern was determined. Then local and systemic treatment was used to treat the diabetic foot patients.
Results: Bacterial isolates belonging to twelve species were obtained from diabetic foot patients. Gram (-) bacteria were the predominant pathogens in the diabetic foot infection
Background: Bimaxillary protrusion is considered as one of the most important causes to seek the orthodontic treatment to get better esthetics. This study aimed to test the effect of orthodontic treatment in improvement the facial esthetics. Materials and Methods: Ten Iraqi Arab females having bimaxillary protrusion based on Class I malocclusions treated with fixed orthodontic appliance and extraction of the maxillary and mandibular 1st permanent premolars. Pre and post-treatment facial profile photographs were taken for each patients and the effect of treatment was tested in comparison with the pre-treatment photographs by using seven angular measurements. Results: After treatment, the upper and lower lip projections were decreased signifi
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Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the second leading cause of mortality among women in Iraq forming 23% of cancer related deaths. The low survival from the disease is a direct consequence to the advanced stages at diagnoses. Aim: To document the composite stage of breast cancer among Iraqi patients at the time of diagnosis; correlating the observed findings with other clinical and pathological parameters at presentation. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study enrolling the clinical and pathological characteristics of 603 Iraqi female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The composite stage of breast cancer was determined according to UICC TNM Classification System of Breast Cancer and the Ameri
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Severe periodontitis is ranked as the sixth most prevalent disease affecting humankind, with an estimated 740 million people affected worldwide. The diagnosis of periodontal diseases mainly relies upon assessment of conventional clinical parameters. However, these parameters reflect past, rather than current, clinical status or future disease progression and, likely, outcome of periodontal treatment. Specific and sensitive biomarkers for periodontal diseases have been examined widely to address these issues and some biomarkers have been translated as point-of-care (PoC) tests. The aim of this review was to provide an update on PoC tests for use in the diagnosis and management of periodontal diseases. Among the PoC tests developed so
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In the present work the performance of semifluidized bed adsorber was evaluated for removal of phenolic compound from wastewater using commercial activated carbon as adsorbent. P-chlorophenol (4-Chlorophenol) and o-cresol (2-methylphenol) was selected as a phenolic compound for that purpose. The phenols percent removal, in term of breakthrough curves were studied as affected by hydrodynamics limitations which include minimum and maximum semifluidization velocities and packed bed formation in the column by varying various parameters such as inlet liquid superficial velocity (from Uminsf to 8Uminsf m/s), and retaining grid (sometimes referred to as adsorbent loading) to initial static bed height ratio (from 3-4.5). In
... Show MoreThe research falls in to three sections: the first section has two parts; the first one includes a general description of the research: its problem, aim, limitations, methodology, and the terminological definition. The second part presents historical background of the weekly school speeches in Iraq and their types. Section Two has two parts: the first is about the principles of writing weekly speeches, their elements, and principals, their conditions. As for the second part, it is about introducing four samples of weekly school speeches distributed as two taken from Al-karkh sector and two taken from Al-rusafa'a sector. The third section: analyzing the content of the sample and giving a short historical background abo
... Show MoreOrthodontic education, besides some other factors, influences the confidence level of recently graduated dentists to diagnose subjects seeking orthodontic treatment and provide treatment plans. This study aims to explore the factors that influence the confidence level of undergraduate dental students to diagnose subjects seeking orthodontic treatment and provide treatment plans after graduation.
A qualitative study was undertaken using focus groups a
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Competitive advantage is a substantial strategic objective for organizations. It requires high levels in the quality of products and services provided to customers, continuous improvement of costing , care for creativity and innovative employees, and speed unique to the marketing and financial engineering, and business re-engineering processes. The situation in this area, requires actors to attract and develop human resources, including help in proper implementation of the strategic tasks that targeted by those institutions. According to the opinions and viewpoints of management scholars, the competitive advantage resource is the most important issue for organizations in the third millennium, which can be a
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Nystatin is the drug of choice for treatment of cutaneous fungal infections with main disadvantage that is the need for multiple applications to achieve complete eradication which may reduce patient compliance. Microparticles offer a solution for such issue as they are one of sustained release preparations that achieve slow release of drug over an extended period of time. The objectives of this study were to fabricate nystatin-loaded chitosan microparticles with the ultimate goal of prolonging drug release and to analyze the influence of polymer concentration on various properties of microparticles. Microparticles were prepared by chemical cross-linking method using glutaraldehyde as cross-linking agent. Five formulas, namely N1C1, N1C2,
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