Background: Chronic cough is often the key
symptom not only of chronic pulmonary diseases
but for other important extrapulmonary
pathologies, in particular upper airway and
gastrointestinal diseases.
Objective: This study was designed to
determine the etiology of chronic cough and the
usefulness of the available diagnostic tests in
reaching its causes.
Methods: One hundred patients presenting with
chronic cough at Baghdad Teaching Hospital
Outpatient Clinic were enrolled in this study. The
patients underwent a full clinical interview,
physical examination with indicated diagnostic
test(s) (such as chest x ray, bronchoscope, PFT,
GIT study, sinus X ray or CT).
Results: An etiology of chronic cough was
determined in 93% of the patients. Post nasal drip
is the leading cause of chronic cough reported in
31% of the patient, while asthma gastroesophageal
reflux disease, and chronic bronchitis
seen in (26, 20, and 6 % respectively).
The diagnosis of chronic cough can be reached by
comprehensive history, proper physical
examination, and chest X ray findings in 66 %
patients, further more sophisticated and invasive
tests like: PFT, upper GIT study , expectorated
sputum examination (AFB, Gram staining,
cytology), fibrooptic bronchoscope, and full ENT
evaluation including sinuses X ray or sinuses CT
scanning, are need in the rest.
Conclusion: The etiology of chronic cough can
often be diagnosed safely with a simple initial
evaluation (history, physical examination and
chest X-ray). Postnasal drip, asthma and
gastroesophageal reflux disease account for the
etiology in more than three quarter of the patients.
his study aimed to evaluate the effects of different doses of melatonin on liver function in adult rats. Eighteen Wistar adult albino rats (Rattus norvegicus), approximately 13–16 weeks old and weighing 230 ± 10 g, were randomly divided into three groups (n=6 per group) and treated orally for 30 days as follows: Group A1 received 10 mg/kg body weight (B.W) of melatonin; Group A2 received 20 mg/kg B.W of melatonin; and the control group (Group A) received distilled water. At the end of the treatment period, blood samples were collected via cardiac puncture, and serum was separated for biochemical analysis. Parameters assessed included oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH)) and liver enzymes (aspa
... Show MoreFluoxetine (FX) is an antidepressant drug administered only orally in humans. Despite the wide use of FX, until now, there is only limited literature concerning the pharmacokinetics (PK) of FX and the effect of food on its PK. Thus, the objective of this investigation was to study the PK of FX in Arabic healthy male adult volunteers under fasting and fed conditions. In the fasting study, FX 20 mg capsules (Prozac®, Eli Lilly, Canada) were administered to 41 volunteers after overnight fasting of 12 hours, followed by blood sampling from each volunteer immediately before dosing (zero time) and then at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 96, 120, and eventually at 144 hours after FX dosing. The fed study was conduct
... Show MoreIn fish, a complex set of mechanisms deal with environmental stresses including hypoxia. In order to probe the hypothesis that hypoxia-induced stress could be manifested in varieties of pathways, a model species, mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio), were chronically exposed to hypoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 1.80±0.6mg/l) for 21 days and subsequently allowed to recover under normoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 8.2±0.5mg/l) for 7 days. At the end of these exposure periods, an integrated approach was applied to evaluate several endpoints at different levels of biological organisation. These included determination of (i) oxidative damage to DNA in erythrocytes (using modified comet assay), (ii) lipid peroxidation in liver sample
... Show MoreBackground: Otitis media with effusion is a common and important pediatric clinical problem; it is the leading cause of hearing impairment in children. Medical treatment remains controversial. Aim: To evaluate the usefulness of using topical nasal steroids in the treatment of otitis media with effusion. Patients and Methods: Between November 2019 and October 2022, a prospective controlled clinical study was carried out in the department of otolaryngology at Al-Jerrahat Teaching Hospital in Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq. This study comprised 40 patients with bilateral otitis media with effusion (23 males, 17 females). Two groups were created for the patients. Patients in group A (20 patients) were treated with mometasone furoate nasal spra
... Show MoreAbstract
The common types of movement disorders are ; dystonia which is a syndrome of repetitive muscle contractions. While , Huntington disease is autosomal dominant progressive neurodegenerative disorder, which is characterized by involuntary movements (“chorea”).
Tetrabenazine therapy has been shown to effectively control this movements compared with placebo.
Design the proper dosing approach for patients treated with tetrabenazine with genotype polymorphisms and their hepatic effect on patients.
A prospective case controlled study was carried on 50 patients whom divided into 2 groups :first group involved 25 patients who had cho
... Show MoreAntibiotic resistance has been a growing worldwide public health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the search for new antibiotics is slow, while antibiotic resistance is growing. WHO has also declared that antibiotic resistance is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity in the 21st century. Therefore, this review discusses the potential of metal-based drugs as antibacterial agents from the period of the early 2000s to date. The review reveals that a lot of preliminary work has been done to assess these as potential drugs. However, their mode of action is faintly described. Furthermore, a few examples of metal-based drugs assessed for their modes of action are described. These compounds are ide
... Show MoreScience is linked to each other bonds assets, branches and even close to each other; to become a link of this type of patterns of scientific integration, and perhaps the most prominent science that saw the overlap and interdependence of science and jurisprudence and its origins, and this interdependence did not stop at the epistemological foundations of knowledge; To the branches, methods of extraction, and diligence to extend to the terminology; to find similar terms in both flags; to become those terms similar in the word and meaning and even the end, but we do not lack terms similar in pronunciation and differing in meaning; and this difference is imposed by the specificity of each science and what M E; however, approached many terms
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