Background: In young adults, multiple sclerosis is a prevalent chronic inflammatory demyelinating condition. It is characterized by white matter affection, but many individuals also have significant gray matter involvement. A double-inversion recovery pulse (DIR) pattern was recently proposed to improve the visibility of multiple sclerosis lesions. Objective: To find out how well a DIR sequence, FLAIR, and T2-weighted pulse sequences can find MS lesions in the supratentorial and infratentorial regions. Methods: A total of 37 patients with established diagnoses of multiple sclerosis were included in this cross-sectional study. Brain MRI was done using double inversion recovery, T2, and FLAIR sequences. The number of lesions was counted and compared in the three sequences. Results: The DIR sequence detected more infratentorial lesions when compared to the T2 and FLAIR sequences. In the supratentorial region, DIR detected more lesions than T2 and FLAIR. Conclusion: The DIR sequence is highly superior to both the T2 and FLAIR sequences in depicting the lesions, regardless of their anatomical distribution. Moreover, the DIR sequence detected more multiple sclerosis lesions in the infratentorial region than the traditional T2W and FLAIR sequences.
Susceptibility to the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recently been associated with ABO blood groups in patients of different ethnicities. This study sought to understand the genetic association of this polymorphic system with risk of disease in Iraqi patients. Two outcomes of COVID-19, recovery and death, were also explored. ABO blood groups were determined in 300 hospitalized COVID-19 Iraqi patients (159 under therapy, 104 recovered, and 37 deceased) and 595 healthy blood donors. The detection kit for 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) RNA (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) was used in the diagnosis of disease.
Corona virus sickness has become a big public health issue in 2019. Because of its contact-transparent characteristics, it is rapidly spreading. The use of a face mask is among the most efficient methods for preventing the transmission of the Covid-19 virus. Wearing the face mask alone can cut the chance of catching the virus by over 70\%. Consequently, World Health Organization (WHO) advised wearing masks in crowded places as precautionary measures. Because of the incorrect use of facial masks, illnesses have spread rapidly in some locations. To solve this challenge, we needed a reliable mask monitoring system. Numerous government entities are attempting to make wearing a face mask mandatory; this process can be facilitated by using face m
... Show MoreBackground: Esthetic correction represents one of the clinical conditions that required the use of laminate veneers in premolars region. Aim of the study: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the fracture strength of the laminate veneers in maxillary first premolars, fabricated from either composite (direct and indirect techniques) or ceramic CAD/CAM blocks. Materials and Methods: Fifty sound human maxillary premolar teeth were used in this in vitro study. Teeth were divided randomly into one control group and four experimental groups of ten teeth each; Group A: Restored with direct composite veneer (Filtek Z250 XT), Group B: Restored with indirect composite veneers (Filtek Z250 XT), Group C: Restored with lithium disilicate ceramic CA
... Show MoreInterleukins (IL-2 and IL-4) are increased in asthmatics and were reported to induce resistance to steroid therapy in some patients who fail to get benefit from glucocorticoids when used in full dose and for long period of time. In this context, the present study was conducted on Iraqi patients to provide additional laboratory mean, beside the clinical diagnosis, for the decision whether the asthma is steroid sensitive or resistant by monitoring the level of immunoglobulins, complement proteins and interleukins among asthmatic patients (steroid sensitive or resistant) and the possible contribution of other factors like age, sex and environments in the development of steroid resistance. A total number of 55 asthmatics and 28 normal subjec
... Show MorePermeability is one of the essential petrophysical properties of rocks, reflecting the rock's ability to pass fluids. It is considered the basis for building any model to predict well deliverability. Yamama formation carbonate rocks are distinguished by sedimentary cycles that separate formation into reservoir units and insulating layers, a very complex porous system caused by secondary porosity due to substitute and dissolution processes. Those factors create permeability variables and vary significantly. Three ways used for permeability calculation, the firstly was the classical method, which only related the permeability to the porosity, resulting in a weak relationship. Secondly, the flow zone indicator (FZI) was divided reservoir into
... Show MoreThe neutrophil/ lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) have the potential to be inflammatory markers that reflect the activity of many inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the NLR and PLR as potential markers of disease activity in patients with ankylosing spondylitis.
The study involved 132 patients with ankylosing spondylitis and 81 healthy controls matched in terms of age and gender. Their sociodemographic data, disease activity scores using the Bath Ankylosing
Sensibly highlighting the hidden structures of many real-world networks has attracted growing interest and triggered a vast array of techniques on what is called nowadays community detection (CD) problem. Non-deterministic metaheuristics are proved to competitively transcending the limits of the counterpart deterministic heuristics in solving community detection problem. Despite the increasing interest, most of the existing metaheuristic based community detection (MCD) algorithms reflect one traditional language. Generally, they tend to explicitly project some features of real communities into different definitions of single or multi-objective optimization functions. The design of other operators, however, remains canonical lacking any inte
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