Purpose: To evaluate the effect of intravitreal Aflibercept injection on wet AMD both functionally and anatomically after loading doses. The secondary aim is to evaluate the effect of risk factors including (gender, age, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes meatus) on the patient’s response. Study Design: Interventional case series. Place and Duration of Study: Al-Haitham Eyes Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, from November 2021 and September 2022. Methods: Fifty eyes of 47 patients with treatment naïve wet AMD were selected through convenient sampling. Data were collected for age, gender, smoking, and chronic disease. Clinical examination, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optical coherence tomography angiography, and spectral domain optical coherence tomography SD-OCT were performed at baseline and then at 16 weeks, after three one-monthly injections of Aflibercept 2 mg/ 0.05 ml intravitreally. Results: Mean age was 68.23 ± 8.5 years. Mean difference in BCVA was 0.37 ± 0.03 (P = 0.000) and mean difference in central macular thickness was 105.72 ± 45.05 (P value < .0000) at 16 weeks. CNV was associated with intra-retinal fluid in 52% of cases, subretinal fluid in 72%, pigment epithelial detachment in 20%, intraretinal hemorrhage in 6% and subretinal hemorrhage in 4%. Studying associations between the responses of Aflibercept with the general features of the patients as age, gender, chronic diseases and smoking status, revealed no statistically significant difference. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that aflibercept is effective for the treatment of patients with wet AMD both functionally and anatomically after the loading doses. The presence of intraretinal fluid at presentation had a negative effect on the vision.
Markov chains are an application of stochastic models in operation research, helping the analysis and optimization of processes with random events and transitions. The method that will be deployed to obtain the transient solution to a Markov chain problem is an important part of this process. The present paper introduces a novel Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) approach to solve the Markov chain problem. The probability distribution of a continuous-time Markov chain with an infinitesimal generator at a given time is considered, which is a resulting solution of the Chapman-Kolmogorov differential equation. This study presents a one-step second-derivative method with better accuracy in solving the first-order Initial Value Problem
... Show MoreThe interaction of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICME) with each other and with co-rotating interaction regions (CIR) changes their configuration, dynamics, magnetic field and plasma characteristics and can make space weather forecasting difficult. During the period of March 20–25, 2011, the Solar Terrestrial Relation Observatory (
The growing demand for optical fibers is due to their superior the ability to transmit information with high efficiency and minimal loss across extensive distances. In this study, four optical fibers with core radii ranging from (2.05-5.05) μm, and with a numerical aperture of 0.1624 were analyzed. The modal properties of these fibers were calculated at a wavelength of 1030 nm using the RP Fiber Calculator software (free version 2025). Furthermore, the impact of increasing the core radius on these properties was examined. The results showed that multimode fibers are formed when the core radius is much larger than the wavelength used. In contrast, single-mode fiber is obtained when th
Background: Adipose derived-mesenchymal stem cells have been used as an alternative to bone marrow cells in this study. Objective: We investigated the in vitro isolation, identification, and differentiation of stem cells into neuron cells, in order to produce neuron cells via cell culture, which would be useful in nerve injury treatment. Method: Mouse adipose mesenchymal stem cells were dissected from the abdominal subcutaneous region. Neural differentiation was induced using β-mercaptoethanol. This study included two different neural stage markers, i.e. nestin and neurofilament light-chain, to detect immature and mature neurons, respectively. Results: The immunocytochemistry results showed that the use of β-mercaptoethanol resulted in
... Show MoreAqueous extract of poppy plant) Papaver nudicaule) with five concentrations (50, 100, 150, 200 and 250) mg/l were used to anesthetize fingerlings of the common carp Cyprinus carpio (Mean total length 8.91 ± 0.31 cm and mean total weight 7.72 ± 1.19 gm) instead of the traditional use of MS-222. Results showed that extracted solution of poppy have partial and overall anesthesia effect on these fishes with inverse relationship between the concentrations used and the time needed to reach partial and overall anesthesia, and also direct relationship between concentrations used and time needed for fish recovery. Best results were obtained by using a concentration of 250 mg/l, where time for partial anesthesia was 8 ± 1.52 m
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