Background: The occurrence of seizures in bacterial meningitis is important, as it has been reported to increase the risk of complications; however, its frequency and predictors are not well studied yet. Objective: To assess the frequency, clinical, and biochemical predictors of seizures in children with acute bacterial meningitis. Method: A cross-sectional study recruited confirmed acute bacterial meningitis cases based on positive CSF culture and sensitivity among children aged 2 months to 15 years admitted to the Central Child Teaching Hospital emergency department in Iraq. Patients were divided into two groups based on seizure at presentation time. Demographic characteristics [age, gender, residence, duration of fever and disease, presenting complaints and antibiotic intake]; hematological [WBC, neutrophils] Lymphocyte, N/L ratio, packed cell volume, platelets, blood sugar, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices were compared between groups. Results: Seizures had a frequency of 18% among the 122 children and were significantly higher in younger cases with female predominance. By multivariate analysis and odds ratio (OR), predictors for seizure were as follows: CSF lymphocytes (OR=0.25, 95%CI=0.08–0.26), lethargy (OR=8.15, 95%CI=1.03-68.65), headache (OR=0.09, 95%CI=0.02-0.45), neck stiffness (OR=0.07, 95% CI=0.01-0.61) and poor feeding (OR=4.8, 95%CI=1.21–18.97). Conclusions: CSF lymphocytes reliably predicted seizure with good sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 73%. Lethargy and poor feeding had the highest odds as clinical predictors of seizures. Together, those results can help with risk stratification and allocate resources for high-risk cases to improve patient outcomes
Background: Decontamination of gutta percha cones was important factor for success of root canal treatment. The aim of the present in vitro study was to identify and to compare the antimicrobial effect of following disinfection solutions: 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate, Iodine, tetracycline hydrochloride solution, EDTA & formocresol mixed with zinc oxide eugenol, on E faecalis, E coli and Candida albicans using sensitivity test Materials and Methods: Three types of microorganisms were isolated from infected root canals (E faecalis, E coli and Candida albicans) and cultured on Mueller Hinton agar petri-dishes. Disinfection of gutta percha cones done by immersion in six disinfection solutions (six groups), the groups are: distill water (used a
... Show MoreObjectives: The study aimed to assess the level of pediatric nurses' knowledge toward children with Guillain-Barre
syndrome (GBS) and to find out the relationships between nurses' knowledge and their demographic data.
Methodology: A purposive “non probability” sample of (30) nurses was selected from medical neurological wards and
Respiratory Care Units of Children Welfare Pediatric Teaching Hospital, Child’s Center Pediatric Teaching Hospital,
AL-Kadhemia Teaching Hospital, Baghdad Teaching Hospital, and Neurological Science Hospital which has started
from March 5
th 2009 to April 30th 2009. The study instrument consists of two parts. The first part is concerned with
nurses' demographical characteristic and the
The proliferation of electronic games, video games and computers has caused children and teenagers to become attracted to these games and become their favorite entertainment. The widespread of these games has generated widespread debate about positive aspects and negative aspects. It is evident that there are two main trends in the impact of electronic games on the behavior of children and adolescents. The first trend is that e-games have positive effects on children and adolescents, especially in cognitive abilities and skills in learning. While the second view sees that electronic games have negative effects that appear in social isolation and lack of movement and aggression. Through the review of previous literature, the current resea
... Show MoreThyroid hormones (TH) regulate the metabolic processes required for normal development and growth; also, to organizemetabolism in adults, any defect in thyroid function leads to abnormality in thyroid hormones level. The current study hasbeen designed to find the relationship between retinol-binding protein-4 and progranulin in the serum of Iraqi women withhypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, also, to study whether these patients are exposed to a risk of developing diabetes mellitus,and PGRN may be a biomarker in detection early stage of diabetes mellitus.Materials and Methods: in this study, serum samples were obtained from 50 Iraqis women patients, [25 patients withhypothyroidism (G2) and 25 patients with hyperthyroidism (G3)] in addition
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper is to apply different transportation models in their minimum and maximum values by finding starting basic feasible solution and finding the optimal solution. The requirements of transportation models were presented with one of their applications in the case of minimizing the objective function, which was conducted by the researcher as real data, which took place one month in 2015, in one of the poultry farms for the production of eggs
... Show MoreAbstract
This research aims to identify the challenges faced by families of children with intellectual disabilities and to identify the impact of the challenges facing them on the mental health of their children with intellectual disabilities. Based on the following questions: What is the nature of the challenges faced by families of children with disabilities and how do these challenges affect the mental health of their children with intellectual disabilities? The study was conducted on a sample of four families of six children with intellectual disabilities, depending on the degree and type of disability. To achieve the study's objectives, the qualitative approach was used, Because of the importance of accessin
... Show MoreTo evaluate impact the difference in stages ofage and related incidence of hemodialysis patients.Two hundred and fifty patients undergoing hemodialysis were collected from general hospital in Baghdad city /Iraq. The samples with renal failure before hemodialysis were divided into (138) male,( 112)female. The sera were separated from samples to physiological investigation. We found that renal failure was more predominant among the patients ages group ranging from (51-70) years old. The results shows A significant increase in the levels of urea, creatinine, in younger patients (≤ 30 years) when compared with older patients (>70 years). Furthermore a significant decrease in serum levels of total protein in patients in older patients (>7
... Show MoreBackground: Studies discussing the correlation between biochemical markers of bone turnover and the diagnosis of osteoporosis in postmenopausal Iraqi women are rare. This study is devoted to find out the significance of serum osteocalcin (OC) and osteopontin (OPN) levels with the incidence of osteoporosis and its major complication (fracture).Objectives: to investigate the significance of bone turnover biochemical markers; serum osteocalcin and serum osteopontin in evaluating osteoporosis for postmenopausal Iraqi women with and without history of vertebral fracture, as well as to explore the relationship of these markers with bone mineral density (BMD).Methods: Fifty seven postmenopausal women whose ages are fifty years old and over, cat
... Show MoreThe phenomenon of poverty is one of the most important phenomena facing the world at large. Despite the tremendous technological progress witnessed by mankind and despite the unprecedented high levels of world economic production, poverty remains the greatest challenge facing the world. Statistics and studies have shown that poverty is caused by several problems: (health, social, economic, educational, etc.) These problems are obstacles to the ability to obtain employment opportunities, which leads in the beginning to the growth phenomenon of unemployment, and ultimately to the growth of poverty.
The results of a range of research in the field of psychology have confirmed that children from poor homes suffer from a high level of
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