Background: Fifteen percent of small for gestational age are small as a result of fetal growth restriction, which could be due to maternal, placental or fetal factors. It is an important clinical problem associated with increase perinatal mortality and morbidity. Leptin is a protein that produced by many tissues including the placenta (syncytiotropholoast). Dysregulation of leptin metabolism may be implicated in preeclampsia and IUGR pathogenesis.
Aim of the study: To study the trend of leptin level alteration in maternal serum and cord blood in pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction and its relation with fetal outcome.
Methods: An Analytic, cross- sectional study conducted in Al-Elwyia Maternity Teaching Hospital and Alkindy College of Medicine, from October 2009 to June 2010. Sixty seven pregnant women were included and they were divided into two groups: The first group (A) included 34 pregnant women with Intrauterine growth restricted fetuses with and without maternal diseases and the second group (B), included 33 pregnant women with normal pregnancies. Samples from maternal blood and umbilical cord blood were obtained at the time of delivery and leptin level was measured by Enzyme linked immunesorbant assey (ELISA) test.
Results:Umbilical cord leptin level was significantly lower in group A (medain1ng/ml) compared with group B (median10.2ng/ml); P<0.001, and maternal serum leptin was also significantly lower in group A (median19.8ng/ml) compared to control group B (median31.8ng/ml), P 0.042.
Newborn weight for age (Z score) and maternal body mass index were the most important and the only statistically significant determinants of cord blood leptin, while only maternal body mass index had a strong and statistically significant positive association with maternal serum leptin.
In group A, there was a linear correlation between cord blood leptin and placental weight, P<0.001, and a linear correlation between Apgar score at 5minutes and cord blood leptin level, P<0.001.
Conclusion: Women who had growth restricted fetuses had significantly lowered umbilical cord leptin level and maternal serum leptin level than women who had normal fetuses and the outcome of such fetuses could be related to leptin level.
The monitoring of lotic ecosystems is important for environmental health after war crisis. This study aimed to detect the fate of the sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (PAHs) as priority pollutants in the water and sediment of Al-Hussainya River in Karbala Province. The results indicated that the concentrations in water samples ranged from 0.24–58.72 ηg.L-1 for each of the benzo(a) pyrene and benzo(g, h, i)perylene. The concentrations in sediment samples have been observed to be in a range of 0.36–119.06 μg.g-1 for naphthalene and benzo(g,h,i)perylene. Benzo(g,h,i)perylene recorded the highest concentrations in each of water and sediment samples as compared with the other compound
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Background: Adenosine mediates homodynamic
changes and resulted in the production of acute renal
failure (ARF) in female Albino-Wister rats, therefore,
adenosine level increases highly in ARF.
Objective: This experiment was designed to
investigate the effect of the adenosine antagonist
aminophylline and the adenosine agonist indomethacin on glycerol-induced ARF.
Method: Glycerol induced ARF was produced by a
single dose (10ml/kg, 50%v/v with distilled water i.m)
in rats, which were restricted to drinking water.
Aminophylline was used in our study in a dose of
25mg/kg, i.p) while the dose of indomethacin was
10mg/kg, i.p), assessment of renal function was done
by measuring blood urea
nitrogen (BUN
Background: Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common problem in premature neonates which can be closed pharmacologically using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with many side effects. Recently paracetamol is used in this field when these drugs can not be used like in cases of gastrointestinal (G.I.T) bleeding or perforation, or if the patient doesn’t show response to the NSAIDs and it seems to be of good safety. To the best knowledge this is the first paper that describes in details the strategy of using paracetamol in closing PDA in premature neonates and gives recommendations about this therapy.
Objective: To give a guide and recommendations about using paracetamol in closing PDA in premature neonates regarding dosa
Background: Mediastinoscopy is an integral part in the diagnosis of mediastinal mass. The most common indications for mediastinoscopy is for tissue sampling and determining the extent of lung cancer.
Objectives: To validate our experience with standard cervical mediastinoscopy and to evaluate the usefulness of cervical mediastinoscopy in the assessing the mediastinal diseases when imaging modalities are none diagnostic.
Material and Methods: A retrospective study of 16 patients between January 2012 and July 2014. Mediastinoscopy was indicated for diagnostic staging of nodal disease related to lung cancer in 8 patients (group I) and for isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy in 8 patients (group II)
Results: There were 11 males and
In this research paper, two techniques were used to treat the drill cuttings resulting from the oil-based drilling fluid. The drill cuttings were taken from the southern Rumaila fields which prepared for testing and fixed with 100 gm per sample and contaminated with two types of crude oil, one from Rumaila oilfields with Sp.gr of 0.882 and the other from the eastern Baghdad oilfield with Sp.gr of 0.924 besides contamination levels of 10% and 15% w/w in mass. Samples were treated first with microwave with a power applied of 540 & 180 watts as well as a time of 50 minutes. It was found that the results reached below 1% w/w in mass, except for two samples they reached below 1.5% w/w in mass. Then, the sample of 1.41% w/w in mass,
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In this paper, tunable optical band-pass filters based on Polarization Maintaining Fiber –Mach Zehnder Interferometer presented. Tunability of the band-pass filter implemented by applying different mechanical forces N on the micro-cavities splicing regions (MCSRs). The micro-cavity formed by using three variable-lengths of single-mode polarization-maintaining fiber with (8, 16, 24) cm lengths, splice between two segments of (SMF-28) with (26, 13) cm lengths, using the fusion splicing technique. Ellipsoidal shape micro-cavities experimentally achieved parallel to the propagation axis having dimensions between (12-24) μm of width and (4-12) μm of length. A micro-cavity with width and length as high as 24 μm and 12 μ
... Show MoreBreast cancer is one of the most common malignant diseases among women;
Mammography is at present one of the available method for early detection of
abnormalities which is related to breast cancer. There are different lesions that are
breast cancer characteristic such as masses and calcifications which can be detected
trough this technique. This paper proposes a computer aided diagnostic system for
the extraction of features like masses and calcifications lesions in mammograms for
early detection of breast cancer. The proposed technique is based on a two-step
procedure: (a) unsupervised segmentation method includes two stages performed
using the minimum distance (MD) criterion, (b) feature extraction based on Gray