Background: Zinc is involved in a variety of
metabolic processes and it has a well known
antioxidant activity, so the measurement of its serum
level can have a special value in several diseases.
Objectives: The study is designed to determine the
serum zinc level in heart failure patients and to
compare it with that of healthy individuals and to
study the significance of the results obtained.
Methods: Atomic absorption spectrometer
technique was used to determine serum zinc level in
fifty heart failure patients and fifty healthy individuals
who were age and sex matched.
Results: The mean serum zinc level in healthy
individuals was about 45.5% greater than that of heart
failure patients. This difference was statistically
significant.
Conclusion: The reduced serum zinc level in heart
failure patients could be an acceptable risk factor for
the development and/or deterioration of heart failure
and therefore its correction might have a positive
effect on management and prognosis of such patients
Abdominal fat synthesizes a variety of adipokines, including vaspin and chemerin, that affect the resistance to insulin. This research was conducted to demonstrate the effect of pioglitazone, one insulin sensitizer used to decrease insulin resistance, on these adipokines in obese patients with polycystic ovary (PCOS). Twenty-five obese women with PCOS were treated with pioglitazone 15mg/bid for 12 weeks. Modifications in fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum fasting insulin (FSI), chemerin and vaspin serum levels, follicle stimulation hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (T), and in baseline and post-therapy were assessed. Body mass index decreased without any substantial variance after 12 weeks of piogl
... Show MoreExcess alcohol consumption is associated with numerous metabolic changes and homeostasis disturbances of many macro- and micro-elements in the body. It has been associated with multiple pathologies at all levels. In the digestive apparatus, alcohol has generally been related to its toxic effects upon the liver. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (α-1 AT or AAT) plays an important role in controlling inflammation, coagulation and repair mechanisms in the body and most α-1 AT in the body is produced by the liver; from the other hand, Intrinsic factor (IF), which is a glycoprotein produced by the parietal cells of the stomach is necessary for the absorption of vitamin B12 in the small intestine. This study was designed to assess serum levels of α-1 AT and
... Show MoreBackground: Interleukine-2 is a multifunctional cytokine, considered a central regulator of host resistance against a variety of pathogens and has been recently demonstrated to exert an active role in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of scaling and root planning on level of IL-2 in serum and saliva of patients with chronic generalized periodontitis, in relation to clinical parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 subjects were enrolled, of which 25 had chronic generalized periodontitis and 25 periodontally healthy subjects as control. The clinical parameters included: gingival index, pocket probing depth, clinical attachment level and bleeding on probing. The level of
... Show MoreThe present study combines UV-Vis spectrophotometry and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) for the preconcentration and determination of trace level clidinium bromide (Clid) in pharmaceutical preparation and real samples. The method is based on ion-pair formation between Clid and bromocresol green in aqueous solution using citrate buffer (pH = 3). The colored product was first extracted using a mixture of 800 µL acetonitrile and 300 µL chloroform solvents. Then, a spectrophotometric measurement of sediment phase was performed at λ = 420 nm. The important parameters affecting the efficiency of DLLME were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graphs of standard -1 (Std.), drug, urine and serum were ranged
... Show MoreBackground: Acute appendicitis is a common surgical
problem that is associated with an acute-phase reaction.
Previous studies have shown that cytokines and acutephase proteins are activated and may serve as indicators for
appendicitis.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate of serum
levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in correlation to the severity
to acute appendicitis.
Methods: This is a prospective study from December 2008
to March 2009 of patients who had appendectomy in
Department of Surgery, Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital -
Baghdad/Iraq. Serum for estimating levels of interleukin-6
(IL-6) was taken pre-operatively. Depending on the
macroscopic evidence during the operation and the
histopathol
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Background: Drawing blood to measure total serum bilirubin is painful & time consuming. Transcutaneous bilirubinometer working by multiwavelength spectral reflectance from the skin surface on forehead or upper sternum is a quick & painless technique. Objectives: to compare the effectiveness of transcutaneous (over the upper sternum and forehead) and serum bilirubin measurement of neonate with jaundice. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross sectional prospective study. It enrolled 175 jaundiced neonates & excluded those exposed to phototherapy. It was conducted at Child Central Teaching Hospi |
In this work, composite materials were prepared by mixing different concentrations of ferrites with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer. Using the electrospinning technique, these composites were deposited on a p-type silicon wafer. The prepared samples demonstrated nanofibers in both pure PAN polymers and their composites with ferrite. Prior to examining the humidity sensing effectiveness with a percentage of relative humidity at a frequency of 10 kHz, based on ambient temperature and a relative humidity range of 50–100%, the composite nanofibers demonstrated stronger humidity sensing compared to the pure PAN nanofibers, which demonstrated a powerful resistance response. More precisely, the PAN@ferrite nanocomposite showed a broad adsorption
... Show MoreIn this paper, the system of the power plant has been investigated as a special type of industrial systems, which has a significant role in improving societies since the electrical energy has entered all kinds of industries, and it is considered as the artery of modern life.
The aim of this research is to construct a programming system, which could be used to identify the most important failure modes that are occur in a steam type of power plants. Also the effects and reasons of each failure mode could be analyzed through the usage of this programming system reaching to the basic events (main reasons) that causing each failure mode. The construction of this system for FMEA is dependi
... Show MoreCommunication between unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms and flying ad-hoc networks is critical and challenging since it is over open radio networks and energy, memory and processing budgets are severely constrained. Lightweight cryptography is the solution and ASCON — the NIST standard for lightweight authenticated encryption — has become a popular option for securing UAV links at a fraction of the energy cost of AES. The security of ASCON relies on one nonlinear device — 5-bit substitution box (S-box). However, this S-box is fixed and publicly known, and allows an adversary to precompute the cryptographic properties one time and then reuse them against all the protected traffic, and moreover, it does not meet the strict av
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