Background: Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE)-derived mitral annular displacement (MAD) utilizes the speckle tracking technique to measure strain vectors, which provides accurate estimates of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).Objectives: To validate the accuracy of mitral annular displacement (MAD), assessed by Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE), as a surrogate for determination of left ventricular systolic function in comparison to 2-Dimensions Simpson method in patients with different heart diseases.Methods : This cross-sectional study included patients who referred to outpatient department of Ibn Albitar Center for Cardiac Surgery, Baghdad, Iraq, between October 2012 and April 2013. STE continuously tracked annular motion throughout the cardiac cycle in the apical 4- and 2-chamber views. LVEF for each patient was measured by both Simpson method and STE-derived MAD.Results: This study included 100 patients, of them (35%) had ischemic heart disease (IHD), (10%) had dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), (10%) had valvular heart disease (VHD), (25%) had normal echocardiography, and (20%) had hypertensive heart disease (HHD).There was significant correlation between EF % (derived by MAD) and EF % (derived by Simpson method) in patients with different heart diseases. This correlation was good in normal subjects (r=0.673), and those with IHD(r=0.896), DCM (r=0.724) and VHD (r=0.935), while in HHD it was moderately correlated (r=0.455). There was slight under-estimation of LVEF derived by MAD (a mean value of difference 0.846 %; p =0.022). In subgroup analysis, this difference was seen only in patients with HHD (a mean value of difference 3.145 %; p <0.001), while it was absent in other subgroups.Conclusion: STE-derived MAD provides easy, fast, and accurate assessments of global longitudinal systolic function. LVEF derived by MAD was correlated well with LVEF derived by Simpson method in patients with different heart diseases
A stochastic process {Xk, k = 1, 2, ...} is a doubly geometric stochastic process if there exists the ratio (a > 0) and the positive function (h(k) > 0), so that {α 1 h-k }; k ak X k = 1, 2, ... is a generalization of a geometric stochastic process. This process is stochastically monotone and can be used to model a point process with multiple trends. In this paper, we use nonparametric methods to investigate statistical inference for doubly geometric stochastic processes. A graphical technique for determining whether a process is in agreement with a doubly geometric stochastic process is proposed. Further, we can estimate the parameters a, b, μ and σ2 of the doubly geometric stochastic process by using the least squares estimate for Xk a
... Show MoreAbstract. Healthy skin is an important layer that gives appearance and self-confidence. The skin is affected by internal and external factors that surrounding the body. The problem of skin diseases is considered as one of the widespread diseases. The occurrence of these diseases varies from place to place depending on the nature of climate, the culture of the people, and their economic condition. A cross-sectional study of skin diseases was conducted at the dermatology centre for outpatient clinic of Baghdad hospital. The study is based on 7555 patients of all ages who are attended to this hospital in order to determine the prevalence of skin diseases. The study shows that the most prevalence skin diseases were infectious diseases with
... Show MoreObjectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and s
... Show MoreMethotrexate (MTX) is widely used chemotherapeutic agent with different side effects including germ cells toxicities. Silibinin is one of the structural isomers of silymarin, with different phytotherapeutic applications, and its possible protective effects against MTX induced germ cells damage were investigated in this work. Twenty five male mice were divided into five groups (n=5) allocated as follows: Group 1 received buffer for five days given by single intraperitoneal (IP) injection per day; Group 2 in addition to buffer for five days, animals received at day five single dose of 20mg/kg of MTX IP. Groups (3, 4, and 5) received respectively, (50, 100, or 150mg/kg body weight) of silibinin IP single daily dose for five days then at day fi
... Show Moren this research, several estimators concerning the estimation are introduced. These estimators are closely related to the hazard function by using one of the nonparametric methods namely the kernel function for censored data type with varying bandwidth and kernel boundary. Two types of bandwidth are used: local bandwidth and global bandwidth. Moreover, four types of boundary kernel are used namely: Rectangle, Epanechnikov, Biquadratic and Triquadratic and the proposed function was employed with all kernel functions. Two different simulation techniques are also used for two experiments to compare these estimators. In most of the cases, the results have proved that the local bandwidth is the best for all the types of the kernel boundary func
... Show MoreBackground: The prevention of the enamel demineralization at the periphery of the brackets is a significant challenge to orthodontic professionals. The aim of this clinical study was to compare the Streptococcus mutants count in the plaque surrounding two orthodontic adhesive types, Fuji Ortho LC and Enlight (Ormco). Materials and methods: A total of 13 patients (7 male and 6 female) needing fixed orthodontic appliance therapy were participated. A split mouth technique was followed with appliances bonded by two orthodontic adhesive types, Fuji Ortho LC and Enlight (Ormco). Saliva was collected before placement of appliances (T0) and again at three weeks (T1) and six weeks (T2) after placement of appliances. Plaque was collected from areas a
... Show MoreIn the absence of environmental regulation, food stays to be contaminated with heavy metals, which is becoming a big worry for human health. The present research focusses on the environmental and health effects of irrigating a number of crops grown in the soils surrounding the Al-Rustamia old plant using treated wastewater generated by the plant. The physicochemical properties, alkalinity, and electrical conductivity of the samples were evaluated, and vegetable samples were tested for Cd, Pb, Ni, and Zn, levels, and even the transfer factor (TF) from soils to crops and crop and multi-targeted risk, daily intake (DIM) of metals, and health risk index (HRI) was calculated. The findings found that the average contents of Zn, Pb, Ni, an
... Show MoreIn the absence of environmental regulation, food stays to be contaminated with heavy metals, which is becoming a big worry for human health. The present research focusses on the environmental and health effects of irrigating a number of crops grown in the soils surrounding the Al-Rustamia old plant using treated wastewater generated by the plant. The physicochemical properties, alkalinity, and electrical conductivity of the samples were evaluated, and vegetable samples were tested for Cd, Pb, Ni, and Zn, levels, and even the transfer factor (TF) from soils to crops and crop and multi-targeted risk, daily intake (DIM) of metals, and health risk index (HRI) was calculated. The findings found that the average contents of Zn, Pb, Ni, and Cd in
... Show MoreOne of the most important problems in concrete production in Iraq and other country is the high sulfate content in sand that led to damage of concrete and hence reduces its compressive strength and may leads to cracking due to internal sulfate attack and delay ettringite formation. The magnetic water treatment process is adopted in this study. Many samples with different SO3 content are treated with magnetic water (12, 8, 4 and 2)L that needed for each 1kg of sand with the magnetic intensity (9000 and 5000) Gaus. The magnetic water needed is reduced with less SO3 content in sand. The ACI 211.1-91 concrete mix design was used in this research with slump range (75- 100) mm and the specified compressive strength (35MPa). The compressive streng
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