Background:-The Modified Alvarado Scoring System (MASS) has been reported to be a cheap and quick diagnostic tool in patients with acute appendicitis. However, differences in diagnostic accuracy have been observed if the scores were applied to various populations and clinical settings.
Objectives:- The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of Modified Alvarado Scoring System in patients with acute appendicitis in our setting.
Methods:-one hundre twenty eight patients ,were included in this study, admitted to Al-Kindy teaching hospital from June 2009 to June 2010. Patients’ age ranged from 8 to 56 years (21±10) they were divided into three groups; paediatrics, child bearing age females & adult males,. MASS was calculated for each patient included as the diagnosis & treatment were done on the bases of surgeon's clinical decision,confirmation was done by histopathological examination. Finally statistics done included negative appendectomy rate, sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value & accuracy.
Results:- Our negative appendectomy rate was 19.5% (22.22% for paediatrics 40.9% for females 4.2% for males). MASS showed sensitivity of 61%(92.8% for paediatrics 38% for females & 58% for males), specificity 80% (75% for paediatrics 88% for females & 50% for males), positive predictive value 92%(92.8% for paediatrics 83% for females 50% for males), negative predictive value 33% ( 75%for paediatrics 50% for females 5% for males) & accuracy 65% ( 88.9% for paediatrics 59% for females 58% for males).
Conclusion:- MASS was of limited help to junior doctors in our setting,clinical assessment & experience are still the gold standard for acute appendicitis.
Background: Axillary lymph node (ALN) enlargement with diffuse cortical thickening and conserved echogenic hilum may represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Sonographic strain elastography may help the characterization of borderline ALN.
Aim: To evaluate the strain elastography of borderline ALN and to calculate a cutoff value of strain ratio (SR) that can identify suspicious ALN with the highest sensitivity and specificity to reduce unnecessary invasive procedures.
Subjects and Methods: A prospective study included 45 patients who attended the Breast clinic in Oncology Teaching Hospital with borderline axillary lymphadenopathy (intact hilum and diffusely thic
... Show MoreObjective: To determine the functional and radiological outcomes of lower third tibia closed fractures fixed by nail or plate osteosynthesis. Methodology: This randomized controlled trial included 20 patients presenting with closed fracture lower third tibia in Al-Kindy teaching hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. The patients were divided as every other one into two equal groups; group I had fractures fixed by 3.5 mm locked plate and group II by intramedullary locking nail. We followed all patients for 24 weeks to assess surgical complications, fracture union, alignment and functional outcome based on Knee society score (KSS). Results: The mean union time in both groups was 10.2 ± 1.48 and 9.3 ± 1.77 weeks, respectively (p = 0.003). Mean KSS in bot
... Show More500 samples of diarrhea stool were collected from different ages(less than 1year –upto30years) and for both genders from some patients in (Alwiya hospital for children, Al-kendi, central health public laboratory and some gavernarated labs) period(1/11/2009—1/10/2010). Kinds of bacteria and parasites agents were isolated and identified from patients with diarrhea. Nine species of gram negative bacteria from enterobacteriaceae were isolated, E. coli isolated are the higher ratio 4.8% of all, then Salmonella typhi4.6% while the lowest ratios is Citrobacterfreundii 0.4%, while the other identified species were be among the previous rotios. also Plesomonasshigelloides was isolated which concedride one of the bacterial local studies.many met
... Show MoreBackground : It has been suggested that pretreatment with a statin agent prior to
myocardial infarction limits myocardial
creatine kinase release, and thus may act to
limit myocardial infarct size in humans.
Objective : To examine the effect of very
early statin initiation for acute myocardial
infarction (AMI), to the extent of
myonecrosis as manifested by peak serum
creatine kinase levels.
Methods : Patients with AMI admitted to AlKindy teaching hospital cardiac care unit
from 1st February 2007 to 28th February
2008, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria
cited in the present study, were randomly
assigned into two study groups. The statin
group patients have received a single oral
dose of 40 mg
Multiple studies support a role for inflammation in the pathogenesis of coronary atherosclerosis and unstable cardiac syndromes. However, of the known pro-inflammatory cytokines, only elevated plasma levels of interleukin-6(IL-6) have been linked to Unstable Angina. We sought to examine the plasma levels of other major proinflammatory cytokines in similar clinical settings patients with unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction and the relationship extent between them. This study aimed to investigate and compare the level of IL-1 in Unstable Angina and Acute Myocardial Infarction patients. Thirty patients with unstable angina and thirty patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction, also thirty healthy individual as control were included
... Show MoreResveratrol is polyphenolic compound has many biochemical and biological effects on several organs. Therefore, resveratrol can be used to treat many diseases. The aim was to evaluate resveratrol safety when used in a parenteral single bolus dose. This study was conducted on 60 mice (30 males and 30 females). Each male and female mice divided into 6 groups (five mice per group). All mice groups given 1% DMSO and five different doses of resveratrol (5, 2.5, 1.25, 0.625, 0.312) gm/kg intraperitonially given to five groups respectively. The mice were continuously monitored during 14 days. The number of deaths, changes in general behavior, changes in physiological activity, and signs of toxicity were reported. On day 15 blood was
... Show MoreBackground: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most common diagnoses in hospitalized patients. Increased plasma hemostatic markers were noted in acute myocardial infarction, indicating that the blood coagulation system is highly activated in those patients. Aims of the study: To study the level of intrinsic coagulation factors including (FVIII:C, FIX:C ,FXI:C ,FXII:C ) in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Type of the study: Cross –sectional study. Methods: Thirty patients (their age range is 48-68 years) were included in this study (9 female, 21 male) who were just admitted to the coronary care unit in AL-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital and diagnosed as having acute myocardial infarction patients, blood samples were tak
... Show MoreThe medicinal plants (Astragalus species) have been used traditionally as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and Anti-diabetics. The current research investigates the phytochemistry and some biological activity of methanol extract of different parts of Astragalus bruguieri Bioss., a wild medicinal plant grows on Safeen mountain, Erbil, Iraq. The methanol extracts of A. bruguieri were analyzed for total phenolic, flavonoid, and saponin contents. In-vitro antioxidant activity was analyzed by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assays. Furthermore, the plant extracts were examined for in-vitro enzyme inhibitory activity and in-v
... Show MoreBuzurgan oil field suffers from the phenomenon of asphaltene precipitation. The serious negatives of this phenomenon are the decrease in production caused by clogging of the pores and decrease in permeability and wettability of the reservoir rocks, in addition to the blockages that occur in the pipeline transporting crude oil. The presence of laboratories in the Iraqi oil companies helped to conduct the necessary experiments, such as gas chromatography (GC) test to identify the components of crude oil and the percentages of each component, These laboratory results consider the main elements in deriving a new equation called modified colloidal instability index (MCII) equation based on a well-known global equation called colloidal instabi
... Show MoreATTAPULGITE clay was modified in this study by the graphene oxide sheets and the clay was diagnosed before and after modification using several techniques (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy FT-IR, X-ray powder diffraction XRD, Scanning electron microscope SEM , energy dispersive spectroscopy EDX ) ,The surface of the attapulgite clay (before (Ata) after modification by graphene oxide (Ata-GO) ) was applied to adsorption of the Alizarin dye from its water solutions through the application of several kinetic models (pseudo first-order model , pseudo second -order model , intraparticle diffusion model ),It was found that the practical results follow pseudo second -order model. The process of modification on the surface of the mud has imp
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