BACKGROUND: Montelukast (Singulair) is a cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist, used for the maintenance treatment of asthma and to relieve symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis and asthma, also used for exercise-induced bronchospasm. AIM: This study was performed to determine the prevalence of Montelukast use as an add-on therapy among Iraqi asthmatic patients on treatment. Comparing the effectiveness of regimens with and without montelukast. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 73 Iraqi asthmatic patients on treatment of both sexes with age range (18-60) years old, attending Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital and Al-Zahraa Centre of Asthma and Allergy, Baghdad, for the period between February

Objective: To evaluate biomarkers of insulin resistance and acute phase reactants in obese, overweight and lean subjects and investigate the associations among those biomarkers. Methodology: This cross sectional study included 158 subjects who were stratified into three groups. Group1 comprised 53 obese patients (BMI≥ 30 kg/m2); group 2 were 54 overweight subjects, and group 3 had 51 healthy lean (BMI

Background: Fetal macrosomia is usually distressing to obstetricians and neonatologists. In the current study, involved mothers had poor social and medical circumstances, as they were migrated forcefully within the country borders due to war, from their original homeland to safer camps which had miserable situations. Objectives: To study rate, risk factors, and complications of macrosomia in people with low socio-economic living conditions and missed medical follow up. Methods: All internally displaced pregnant women who gave birth to neonates weighed ≥4000 g were involved in the study. All required history, examination, care, and investigations were practiced by the attending obstetrician and neonatologist. Cases of normal birth weight n

Bleeding disorders in pediatrics is an important issue and can be lifethreatening if not diagnosed and treated appropriately. We aimed to evaluate Iraqi pediatric practice (as an example of resource-limited settings) about the use of Recombinant Activated Factor VII (RFVIIa) in bleeding disorders, with emphasis on its effectiveness and safety, in comparison with adjuvant therapy. Budget restrictions may affect the availability of even lifesaving drugs such as (RFVIIa). Therefore, we tried to investigate the local experience of pediatric bleeding, with the evaluation of the potential ability of adjuvant therapy of blood products and vitamin K to substitute RFVIIa in case of non-availability. During a complete one year‘s period, 35 patients

Background Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a life-threatening condition caused by the presence of microorganisms, generally caused by a range of bacteria in the blood. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) as biomarkers of pediatric BSI. Methodology The study was conducted on 150 blood samples collected from the patient who admitted to Children Welfare Teaching Hospital, Medical City, Baghdad. During the period from November 2020 to March 2021, ninety blood samples from them were positive culture and 60 blood samples were negative culture (control group). The isolates were identified depending on the morphological, microscopic examination, and biochemical tests.

BACKGROUND: Sickle cell nephropathy, a heterogeneous group of renal abnormalities resulting from complex interactions of sickle cell disease (SCD)-related factors and non-SCD phenotype characteristics, is associated with an increased risk for morbidity and mortality. AIMS: The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of microalbuminuria (MA) among pediatric patients with SCD and to determine risk factors for MA among those patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A case–control study was carried out on 120 patients with SCD, 2–18 years old, registered at Basrah Center for Hereditary Blood Diseases, and 132 age-and sex-matched healthy children were included as a control group. Investigations included complete blood panel, blood urea, se

Background: Cerebral palsy is non-progressive disorder of posture or movement due to a lesion of the developing brain. It is the commonest physical disability in childhood. Objective: To study the clinical, neurological abnormalities, prevalence of convulsion (epilepsy) & to asses the value of CT scans of brain in patients with cerebral palsy.

Physicians are infrequently selected to serve in the yearlong role of Jefferson Science Fellow (JSF) as senior science advisor for the US Department of State or the United States Agency for International Development. The authors discuss the role of a JSF in promoting “science diplomacy” from the perspective of one alumnus, who sites examples of ongoing, long-term collaborative projects including one focusing on medical education reform in Iraq that would not have been possible without the JSF program. More than 3 decades of political and social unrest, terrorism, the internal displacement of millions of Iraqi citizens, the arrival of Syrian refugees, international sanctions, and the effect of fluctuating oil prices that fund education i

Objectives To compare the clinical efficacy of microvascular decompression surgery (MVD) and gamma knife radiosurgery (GKR) as a treatment for patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and evaluate the outcome regarding pain relief, recurrence, and complications with both modalities of treatment. Patients and Methods A randomized prospective study conducted in SaadAlwitry Neurosciences Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. Eighty-four patients with TN from January 2016 to January 2018, 45 patients had GKR while 39 patients treated with MVD. The pain evaluated pre-and post-operatively using the Barrow Neurological Institute Pain Intensity scale (BNIPI), visual analog scale (VAS) and Brief Pain Inventory Facial (BPI-Facial) scoring systems. In GKR p

AIM: To evaluate the short-term effectiveness of Gamma knife radiosurgery as a modality of treatment of brain arteriovenous malformation. METHODS: Sixty-three patients with arteriovenous brain malformations underwent Gamma knife radiosurgery included in this prospective study between April 2017 and September 2018 with clinical and radiological with MRI follow up was done at three months and six months post-Gamma knife radiosurgery. By the end of the 12th-month post-Gamma knife radiosurgery, the patients were re-evaluated using digital subtraction angiography co-registered with M.R.I. During the 12 months follow up, CT scan or MRI was done at any time if any one of the patients᾽ condition deteriorated or developed signs and s

BACKGROUND: Femoral shaft fracture is a common fracture in pediatric age group reaching 62% of all fracture shaft femur in children in spite of rapid union rate and successful conservative treatment but some cases need surgical intervention and one of the methods using plate and screw by the lateral approach. AIM: This study aims to compare functional outcome fixation of mid-shaft femur fracture in children by plate and screws between (subvastus lateralis and transvastus lateralis) regarding infection, union, and limitation of knee movement. PATIENT AND METHOD: The study was done on 30 children who had diaphyseal fracture femur in Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital in period (April 2018–April 2020) with 6 months follow-up, and the pa

Background: Congenital club foot is a complex deformity of foot .It is a collection of different abnormalities, with different etiologies. Consequently, Severity varies with   difficulties in evaluating treatment strategies with outcome results. The treatment of congenital club foot remains controversial. Usually, the orthopedist's goal is to obtain anatomically and functionally normal feet in all patients.                                Objective: To asses short term follow up result of conservatively treated club feet in relation to the age of initial casting by Ponseti technique.           Methods :A cross sectional observational study with some comparative content done in Al-kindy

BACKGROUND: Transverse fractures of the patella are important fractures with a wide variety of subtypes, the common incidence in the age group of 20–50 years. Surgical interference aims to achieve a perfect alignment of the joint surface, in addition to rigid fixation of the fracture for early re-habitation and early movement to retain the extensor mechanism of the knee joint. AIM: The aim of this study was to compare the radiological and functional outcomes of the displaced transverse patella fracture in adult patients treated by ORIF using tension band wiring versus cannulated screws with wiring. METHODS: A prospective analytic comparative study was conducted in Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital/Baghdad/Iraq for 18 months from Apr

Background: The clinical examination is one of the best suitable methods for diagnosis of low backache. Backache is one disease that the signs, clinical examination finding, and the results on imaging modalities not always related. The straight leg raising (SLR) and slump tests, can be used for diagnosis of lumber disc herniation. Objectives: To compare the result of the slump test and SLR test in the diagnosis of lumber disc herniation. Subjects and Methods: A prospective comparative study conducts on 280 patients in Al-Kindy teaching and private clinics complaints of backache, aging between 18-70 years old with acute or recurrent backache, sciatica pain, or low back and sciatica pain for last 12 weeks, while patients

Locking of the knee is a one of the commonest orthopedic outpatient presentation. This patient usually need magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when there is suspected lesion in the soft tissue clinically. Meniscal tears is the first differential diagnosis when accompany with painful knee. (1, 2)Giant cell tumor (GCT) is benign a localized nodular tenosynovitis often occur in the tendon sheath , Mostly involve the hand tendons in middle age group between 30 and 50 years old , female affect more than male.(3,4) The WHO defines two well-known kinds of giant cell tumor: (1) pigmented villonodular synovitis ( generalized type), which mainly involve the joints of the lower limb and (2) giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath ( localized type)

Background: The global threat of COVID-19 outbreak and on the 11 March 2020, WHO acknowledged that the virus would likely spread to all countries across the globe and declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic which is the fifth pandemic since 20 century and this has brought human lives to a sudden and complete lockdown and the confirmed cases of this disease and deaths continue to rise in spite of people around the world are taking important actions to mitigate and decrease transmission and save lives. Objectives: To assess the effect of exercise and physical activity on the immunity against COVID-19. Methods: Collected electronic databases including (Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, PubMed and Web of Science) were searched with

Obesity is an increasing health problem in developing countries and has grown into a major global epidemic. Recent studies suggest that colonization of the stomach with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) may affect gastric expression of appetite and satiety-related hormones, finding that patients cured of H. pylori infection have gained weight. Further exploration of the relationship between obesity and H. pylori infection is therefore warranted. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infection in a sample of obese patients. A total of 69 obese females and 55 normal-weight females as a control group were included. Body mass indices (BMI) of all females were measured and tests for H. pylori performed. Subjects

This paper is an attempt to demonstrate the syntactic behavior of -ly adverbs and -ly adjectives. It mainly deals with -ly as an inflectional suffix that forms adverbs and adjectives It is hypothesized that there are differences between adjective-forming –ly and adverb-forming –ly.The researcher first made general and specific observations about the morphological processes of -ly adverbs and -ly adjectives. Since the study focuses on a linguistic phenomenon, its data is a set of -ly adverbs and -ly adjectives used as examples to support the hypothesis. The importance of studying the syntactic behavior of -ly stems from the fact that thousands of English adjectives and adverbs are created by adding the suffix "-ly" to their roots

 Abstract Objective: Comparison of femtosecond small incision lenticule extraction (FS-SMILE) versus Femtosecond laser Insitu keratomileusis (FS-LASIK) regarding dry eye disease (DED) and corneal sensitivity (CS) after those refractive surgeries. Methods: A comparative prospective study conducted for a period of 2 years; from March 2017 until February, 2019. Enrolled patients were diagnosed with myopia. Fifty patients (100 eyes) were scheduled for bilateral FS-SMILE and the other 50 patients (100 eyes) had been scheduled for bilateral FS-LASIK. Both groups were followed for six months after surgery. The age, gender, and preoperative refraction for both groups were matched. Complete evaluation of dry eye disease had been

BACKGROUND: The humeral shaft fractures have a good rate of union, despite this fact, still there is a significant rate of nonunion after nonoperative treatment and more often after operative treatment. AIM: The aim of the study is to evaluate the autogenous onlay graft with compression plate for treatment of persistent humeral shaft non-union with failed previous surgery both radiological and functional outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study on twenty patients having persistent aseptic non-union age between 20 and 60 years old, after failed surgical treatment of fractures humeral shaft in Al-Zahra teaching and Al-Kindy teaching hospitals, while infected nonunion, diabetes mellitus, secondary metastasis, smoking, a

Core decompression is one of the commonest used techniques in the handling of osteonecrosis of the pre-collapsed head of the femur. Core decompression had succeeded in preserving the hip joint and delaying the requisite for total hip replacement, but it had failed in the induction of osteogenesis in the necrotic area, thus augmenting core decompression with biological agents to induce osteogenic activity. To assess the effects of platelet-rich plasma in non-traumatic avascular necrosis of the hip joint (early stage) after core decompression. Interventional comparative study for twenty-four patients (32 hip joints) with AVN of the head of the femur was involved in this prospective study, and they were separated into two groups of 16