Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the value and accuracy of longitudinal strain in detection of coronary artery disease compared to coronary angiography. Results: The left ventricular longitudinal strain-speckle tracking showed evidence of stenosis of left anterior descending artery, circumflex artery and right coronary artery in (86.1%), (76.4%), and (84.7%) respectively. For the stenosis in left anterior descending artery, the current study showed that the longitudinal strain was a good predictor for presence of significant stenosis with a sensitivity of (93.8%), specificity (75%) and accuracy (91.7%) compared with coronary angiography. For the stenosis in right coronary artery, the left ventricular longitudinal strain had

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the new respiratory virus SARS-CoV2. It has a tropism in the lung tissues where excess target receptors exist. Periostin plays a role in subepithelial fibrosis associated with bronchial asthma. Since the Coronavirus's target is the human respiratory system, Periostin has been recently described as a valuable new biomarker in the diagnosis and evaluation of disease in patients with COVID-19 lung involvement. Objectives: To assess the level of Periostin in the serum of COVID-19 patients and to correlate its role in disease severity and prognosis. Subjects and Methods: Periostin serum levels were measured for 63 patients attending three main COVID

Introduction:  Cerebral hydatid disease (CHD) is rare and the multiple-cystic variety is even rarer. In this paper, we report a case of multiple CHD and explore a possible link with a preceding spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH).   Case presentation: A 27-year old gentleman with a history of surgically-evacuated, spontaneous ICH presented with severe headache, left-sided weakness - Medical Research Council (MRC) grade II - and recurrent tonic-clonic seizures, while on a full dose of anti-epileptic medication. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed multiple intra-axial cystic lesions in the right hemisphere. The cysts were removed intact using Dowling’s technique through a large temporoparietal crani

Background: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a significant role in the activation of adaptive immunity and may have an essential role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Objectives: To assess the gene expression of TLR4 in individuals with RA compared to healthy individuals. Methods: From July to December 2022. A total of 100 individuals were encompassed in the study, consisting of 50 individuals diagnosed with RA, of whom 42 were females and 8 were males, with an average age of 45.22 years. Additionally, there were 50 healthy control participants, 40 of whom were females and 10 were males, with an average age of 45.64 years. To assess the TLR4 transcript levels, blood samples were collected from each participant, and RN

The rapid increase in the number of older people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia represents one of the major challenges to the health and social care systems. Early detection of AD makes it possible for patients to access appropriate services and to benefit from new treatments and therapies, as and when they become available. The onset of AD starts many years before the clinical symptoms become clear. A biomarker that can measure the brain changes in this period would be useful for early diagnosis of AD. Potentially, the electroencephalogram (EEG) can play a valuable role in early detection of AD. Damage in the brain due to AD leads to changes in the information processing activity of the brain and the EEG which ca

A laboratory experiment was carried out according to a completely randomized design with four repetitions on the seeds resulting from a field experiment applied for the two seasons, 2020 and 2021, to find out the effect of the cultivars (Ambar 33, Yasamin, Dijlah, Ambar Al-Baraka and Furat 1) and the harvest dates (at physiological maturity and after 7 and 14, 21 and 28 days of physiological maturity) on the vigour of rice seeds. The results showed the superiority of the seeds of the cultivar Anbar Al-Baraka at first and final counting, dry weight of the seedling, seedling vigor index and electrical conductivity, and the superiority of the seeds of Dijla cultivar at accelerated aging test and cold test without significant difference with th

In this article it is proved experimentally that the photon is a particle that has mass and constant wavelength by explaining the effect of refractive index on the wavelength and the natural mass of photon. It is very difficult to measure the mass of photon, a simple and easy process was proposed in this paper to calculate the mass length of photon in vacuum (Y) and in medium (Y*), by measuring the length of laser beam in air (L_air) and in medium (L_med). A new method was postulated to calculate refractive index by using these relations (n = Y*/Y), and (n = L_med / L_air) which supposed a new theory of light.

This study was conducted in a laboratory experiment at the University of Baghdad, College of Science, computing Department, 5 km from the center of Baghdad city, in 2021 to evaluate the sorting method for the tomato crop. The experiments were conducted in a factorial experiment under a complete randomized design with three replications and using SAS analysis, artificial neural network, image processing, the study of external characteristics, and physical features; fruit surface area and fruit circumference were 1334.46 cm2,57.53 cm2 and free diseases. The error value was less than zero, while training with outputs recorded the highest value and which was 5. The neural network's performance between the input and the mean square of th

the behavior of the first-order black and gray solitons propagtedin optical fiber in the presence of frequency chirp is studied analytically and numerically results show that phase profile of black solitons changes abruptly