BACKGROUND: Febrile neutropenia occurs in more than 80% of patients with hematological malignances specially after chemotherapy cycles and an infectious source is identified in approximately 20–30%. Various bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogen contribute to the development of neutropenic fever and without prompt antibiotic therapy mortality rate can be as high as 70%. AIM: The objective of the study was to document the current sites of infection in patients with febrile neutropenia in hematological ward in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, the microorganisms and antibiotic susceptibly in culture positive cases and mortality rate in 1 week and 4 weeks after episode of fever. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred cases of febrile neutropenia were evaluated in Hematological Ward of Baghdad Teaching Hospital from January 2019 to January 2020. Detailed history, physical examination, and laboratory investigations were conducted and statistical analysis of the results was done. RESULTS: One hundred cases of febrile neutropenia, mean age of presentation was 41.56 ± 10.5 years. Acute myeloid leukemia (36%) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (26%) were the most common underlying hematological disorder, followed by Aplastic Anemia, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and Hodgkin Lymphoma. Temperature ranged from 38°C to 39°C with mean temperature of 38.4°C and most of the patient presented with short duration of fever, 57% had absolute neutrophil count below 150 cells/μL with mean duration of neutropenia was 14.01 days. Respiratory tract was the most common site of infection (52%) followed by urinary tract (18%) and in 16% had no obvious focus of infection. Thirty percent of cases were culture Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganism which were more common 62.9% which were generally sensitive to Aminoglycosides while Gram-positive microorganism constituted 29.6% of isolated bacteria and were generally sensitive to vancomycin. No mortality documented 1 and 4 weeks after fever. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the most frequent sites of infection in patient with febrile neutropenia were respiratory tract followed by urinary tract infection, while 16% had undetermined source of infection. Thirty percent of patients had a positive blood culture with Escherichia coli being the most common infecting microorganism, Gram-negative microorganisms were more common than Gram-positive microorganism and fungal infection constituted about 6% of growth. Significant association was found between the fever and longer duration of neutropenia and the greater severity of neutropenia was observed. No mortality related to febrile neutropenia was documented.
Persons with spinal cord injury are at high risk of developing pressure injuries, and their caregivers are in a critical position to help prevent them. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program for caregivers of persons with spinal cord injuries to prevent pressure injuries in Iraq. A pre- and post-test design was used and involved 25 caregivers of persons with spinal cord injury during the acute care phase in an SCI-specific unit of a hospital. A scale and questionnaire were used to gather the participants’ demographic information, pre- and post-educational program knowledge, and observations of their pre- and post-program performance of pressure injury preventive tasks. Descriptive s
... Show MoreBackground: With the increasing demands for adult orthodontics, a growing need arises to bond attachments to porcelain surfaces. Optimal adhesion to porcelain surface should allow orthodontic treatment without bond failure but not jeopardize porcelain integrity after debonding.The present study was carried out to compare the shear bond strength of metal bracket bonded to porcelain surface prepared by two mechanical treatments and by using different etching systems (Hydrofluoric acid 9% and acidulated phosphate fluoride 1.23%). Materials and Methods: The samples were comprised of 60 models (28mm *15mm*28mm) of metal fused to porcelain (feldspathic porcelain). They were divided as the following: group I (control): the porcelain surface left u
... Show MoreDisabled people are among the most important groups that need attention, care, and financial and moral care. They cannot fulfill the requirement of life normally without care from a person to meet their special needs. The disability is either mental or physical. The Iraqi government has paid attention to this category by adopting a law for this category, represented by Law No. (38) for the year (2013), which keeps their rights and duties in Iraqi society by establishing institution of persons with disabilities and special needs of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to create a modern society politically, socially, culturally or economically. In view of the importance of this group in society, the media reinforces the communit
... Show MorePrevious reports demonstrated the effectiveness of silibinin hemisuccinate as a potential intraocular pressure-lowering agent. The exact mechanism by which silibinin exerted this effect has not yet been documented, but might suggested to interfere with aqueous humor formation. The present study was designed to evaluate the comparative efficacy of silibinin as IOP lowering agent to that of betaxolol in normotensive rabbits, and the interaction of silibinin with betaxolol as a way for investigating the possible mechanism of action of silibinin in this respect. The effects of instillation of 0.75% silibinin solution and 0.5% betaxolol eye drops in the eyes of normotensive rabbits were evaluated using indentation tonometry. The results showe
... Show MorePotentially inappropriate prescribing is the prescribing of a medication that may cause more harm than benefit, the elderly population aged 65 years or older is more prone to potentially inappropriate prescribing because of alterations in their physiology, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics as well as polypharmacy and comorbidities, Beers list is a screening tool that help doctors to detect potentially inappropriate prescribing in geriatric patients and is designed to solve this problem, the aim of this study is to measure the prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing among psychiatric patients using the Beers criteria as an assessment tool and find the relationship between duration of hospitalization, comorbidities and pol
... Show MoreThe research problem stems from a chief question: “What is the nature of the responsibility that «Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed» and «Al-Mada» Newspapers have undertaken in promoting the values of citizenship and national belonging in the society? The research aims to achieve a number of goals, including: Determining the most prominent themes that were emphasized in the opinion articles in these two newspapers within the framework of the responsibility of promoting the values of citizenship and national belonging in society, and revealing the most prominent topics that were discussed in opinion articles in the two sample newspapers regarding the promotion of the mentioned values. This research is a desc
... Show MoreA tetradentate (N2O2) Schiff base (H2Ldfm) was successfully synthesized via condensation of curcumin / diferuloylmethane (dfm) and L-leucine amino acid (HL). There were three different methods that used for synthesizing H2Ldfm; (refluxing, grading, and fusion). Ten different metal complexes were also successfully synthesized by combination of the Schiff base (H2Ldfm) and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) ligand to form a hexadentate (N4O2) mixed ligands (Ldfm , phen) with ten different metal salts (M) where{ M= Al(III), Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Ag(I), Cd(II), Hg(II), and Pb(II)}. The molar ratio of reactants was (1:1:1) (M: H2Ldfm : phen). The new Schiff base and its new complexes were characterized by different physicochemical tec
... Show MoreHighly-fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs) are synthesized in simple step by hydrothermal carbonization method of natural precursor such as orange juice as a carbon source. Hydrothermal method for synthesized CQDs requires simple and inexpensive equipment and raw materials, thus this method are now common synthesis method. The prepared CQDs have ultrafine size up to few nanometers and several features such as high solubility in water, low toxicity, high biocompatibility, photo-bleaching resistant, Chemical inertness and ease of functionalization which qualifies it for use in many applications such as bio-imaging, photo-labeling and photo-catalysis.
This research demonstrates the
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