Background: The excess mortality associated with
rheumatoid arthritis is largely due to
cardiovascular disease. Rheumatoid arthritis is of
primary importance in atherogenesis. The intimamedia thickness of extracranial carotid arteries is a
measurable index of the presence of
atherosclerosis.
Objective: To assess carotid intima-media
thickness in rheumatoid arthritis by Doppler
ultrasound.
Methods: Fifty two Iraqi patients with rheumatoid
arthritis were studied and compared with another
fifty two, healthy individuals matched for age and
sex as a control group. Full history was taken and
complete clinical examination was done for all
individuals in both groups. Rheumatoid arthritis
diagnosis was based on The American
Rheumatism Association 1987 revised criteria for
the classification of rheumatoid arthritis. Carotid
intima-media thickness was measured by Doppler
ultrasound.
Results: There was a significant increase in the
frequency of increased carotid intima-media
thickness among individuals with rheumatoid
arthritis (44.2%) compared to healthy control
group (3.8%) (P=0.000001).
Conclusion: Increased carotid intima-media
thickness occurs in high frequency in rheumatoid
arthritis
This research studies the effect of adding micro, nano and hybrid by ratio (1:1) of (Al2O3,TiO2) to epoxy resin on thermal conductivity before and after immersion in HCl acid for (14 day) with normality (0.3 N) at weight fraction (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08) and thickness (6mm). The results of thermal conductivity reveled that epoxy reinforced by (Al2O3) and mixture (TiO2+Al2O3) increases with increasing the weight fraction, but the thermal conductivity (k) a values for micro and Nano (TiO2) decrease with increasing the weight fraction of reinforced, while the immersion in acidic solution (HCl) that the (k) values after immersion more than the value in before immersion.