Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a well-recognized cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.Objectives: To evaluate the prognostic implications of the restrictive left ventricular filling pattern (RFP) in dilated cardiomyopathy.Methods: Patients with DCM admitted to Ibn AL-Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery, Baghdad-Iraq, from May 2006 to August 2008, underwent a full clinical evaluation and Doppler echocardiography study. Patients were classified into three groups: Group I had persistent restrictive filling pattern; Group II had reversible restrictive filling pattern; and Group III had nonrestrictive filling pattern. Results: The current study was conducted on a total number of 80 patients with DCM, fifty (62.5 %) were males and 30(37.5%) were females with a male to female ratio 1.6:1. Patients with restrictive filling pattern (Group I&II) were 51 (63.8%), while patients with nonrestrictive filling pattern (Group III) were 29 (36.2%). During follow up, patients with persistent restrictive filling pattern (30; 37.5%) had higher New York Heart Association (NYHA) class symptoms, low ejection fraction (EF) and higher mortality; 6 (20%) died within the first year, 6 (20%) died in the second year. Clinical improvement was significantly frequent in Group II and III than Group I.Conclusions: In patients with DCM, the persistence of restrictive filling at 3 months is associated with a high mortality the patients with reversible restrictive filling have a high probability of improvement and excellent survival.
Background: In recent years, the multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli has increased in urinary tract infections (UTIs). One of the highly distributed chromosomally encoded traits of resistance is efflux pump. The current study aimed to investigate the most common members of 5 classes of efflux pumps among uropathogenic E. coil isolates.
Methodology: E. coli isolates were isolated using conventional bacteriology tests and confirmed by the uidA gene. An antibiotic susceptibility test has been done against 25 antibiotics using disc diffusion method. Efflux pump genes have been examined via polymerase chain reaction. Biofilm formation was investigated by a
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Background: Ischemic heart disease is a major cause of the diastolic heart failure. Risk of heart failures was increased with microvascular coronary disease, which is characterized by left ventricular stiffness with impaired relaxation and reduced compliance. Aim of this study is to estimate the effect of the severity of myocardium ischemia on the left ventricle ejection fraction and left ventricular volume using SPECT with 99mTc MIBI and to compare the results with the echocardiography. The study included 117 subjects with ischemic heart disease were examined using SPECT and echocardiography techniques. The following
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Cuneiform symbols recognition represents a complicated task in pattern recognition and image analysis as a result of problems that related to cuneiform symbols like distortion and unwanted objects that associated with applying Binrizetion process like spots and writing lines. This paper aims to present new proposed algorithms to solve these problems for reaching uniform results about cuneiform symbols recognition that related to (select appropriate Binerized method, erased writing lines and spots) based on statistical Skewness measure, image morphology and distance transform concepts. The experiment results show that our proposed algorithms have excellent result and can be adopted
... Show MoreColorectal cancer CRC is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in males and the second in female, so it is a common and life-threatening disease serum of 48 males and 40 females suffering from CRC disease as group one (G1) without taking a chemotherapy dose, the same patients group tow (G2) after taking the first chemotherapy dose, while group three (G3) whose patients in (G1) and (G2) after second taking a chemotherapy dose. and group four (G4) consist of (30 males and 30 females) healthy Iraqi control. Results showed a significant increase in IL-17, IL-17RA and CEA in G1, while there was a significant decrease in vitamin D concentration in G1 than other groups, also there was positive (+ ve) significant correlation between IL-17 and CE
... Show MoreThe present study aims to evaluate the synergistic activity of nicotinic acid (NIC) with the Imipenem (IMI) as an anti-biofilm for clinical isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The values of minimum inhibitor concentration (MICs) for IMI and NIC (Separately) against P. aeruginosa were (16) ug/mL and (8) ug/ml respectively. Whereas, the concentration of NIC with IMI (as combined) for biofilm inhibition was 1 ug/ml for NIC and 4 ug/ml for IMI. The combining of NIC with IMI showed synergistic efficacy against formation of bacterial biofilm (at MIC levels). These results provide a conclusion that NIC combined with IMI is can be considered as a successful prospective treatment against the biofilm pr
... Show MoreBackground: In Ulcerative colitis (UC), the presence of a persistently elevated number of T cells in the inflamed area with respect to the activity of the disease suggesting bad prognosis. This study was done to evaluate cellular immune response in different disease activity patterns and its possible implication in evaluation of disease activity.
Materials and methods: This study included Forty seven archived paraffin-embedded samples of ulcerative colitis; these samples diagnosed and graded for disease activity. Then dual
immunofluorescence staining was used for phenotyping of lymphocytic infiltrate (CD3- CD19) and (CD4-CD8). A total and differential T cell as well as plasma cell count was recorded in thes
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Background: Oral mucositis is regarded as one of the major complications of radiation therapy especially in patients with head and neck cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of glutamine in preventing or minimizing the development of mucositis of the oral cavity. Subjects and methods: Forty-six participants were randomly selected amongst those who were planned to receive radiation therapy for head and neck region cancers. They were randomly divided into two groups of 23 subjects, one group received glutamine and the second group received a placebo. Results: Glutamine had a statistically significant effect in reducing the occurrence and/or severity of oral mucositis in the treated patients compared to patients in the con
... Show MoreBackground: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most commonly encountered valve lesion in modern clinical practice. Severe mitral regurgitation may cause systolic dysfunction. Left ventricular ejection fraction may not be an accurate measurement of LV function in patients with mitral insufficiency. Myocardial performance index (MPI) is a simple non invasive measure of myocardial function. Methods: The study involved 50 patients with valvular mitral regurgitation and 50 healthy subjects as a control group. Transthoracic echocardiography was carried out for all patients and control group. The echocardiographic measurements included left ventricular end diastolic and end systolic dimensions, left atrial diameter, ejection fraction (EF), and myoca
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Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology characterized by joint inflammation and the presence of autoantibodies, mostly Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACCP) which are released when the body loses its ability to distinguish between self and foreign molecules. Serum amyloid A2 (SAA2) is an acute phase protein produced in response to inflammatory conditions including RA.
Objectives: To investigate the prognostic ability of SAA2 in comparison with ACCP and the prediction of disease activity and response to treatment by Methotrexate and Etanercept in Iraqi RA patients.
Patients and methods: A case control study, on a to
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