BACKGROUND: Cough-variant asthma (CVA) is a type of asthma in which the main symptom is a dry, non-productive cough. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of Montelukast in CVA and to investigate the prevalence of Montelukast in CVA. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 30 patients with chronic cough at least 8 weeks using Montelukast at Al-Kindy Hospital over the period of January 2018‒March 2018. An interview using questionnaire was used to collect the data that were specifically prepared to meet the objective of study including age, sex, associated disease, exacerbation factors, and classical therapy. RESULTS: There was a reduction of the symptoms associated with CVA after treatment with Montelukast. The prevalence of exacerbation factors was as follows: Dust (73.3%) of patients, food (36.7%), exercise (60%), psychological (56.7%), smoking (30%), and others (perfume and cold weather) (26.7%). The usage of Montelukast in this study was 73.3% (22 patients). Patients using Montelukast have shown improvement of symptoms as follows: Chest pain was relieved from 57.1% of patients, exhaustion (58.3%), vomiting (76.5%), sleep disturbance (54.5%), affecting daily life in 57.1%, and syncope 66.7%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of Montelukast administration to the patients with chronic cough in our study was found to be more than 70% of the 30 total patients. Montelukast usage leads to reduction in the frequency of chronic cough and the symptoms associated with it.
Aneurysms of the cortical branches of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) are rare. They usually are secondary to traumatic or infectious etiologies and are rarely idiopathic. The specific characteristics of idiopathic aneurysms in such location are not well defined in the literature. The authors report a rare case of a ruptured giant idiopathic cortical MCA aneurysm with review of the available literature on this clinical entity.
A 24-year-old female presented with headache, disturbed level of consciousness, and right-sided weakness. Imaging studies showed a left frontoparietal intracer
Fabrication of porous clay refractory insulating specimens from Iraqi kaolin with different percentage of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) waste crumbs additions were investigated. After mixing and forming by hand molding, the specimens was dried and fired at 1300 oC. The structural, physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the refractory insulating products were measured. Maximum addition of EPS (1.25 wt%) lead to reduce the linear shrinkage to less than 1.7% and increased apparent porosity up to 50 %. As well as, the density, Modulus of rupture and thermal conductivity were reduced to 1.39 g/cm3, 4.1 MPa and 0.21 W/m.K, respectively. The final outcome, addition of EPS showed good results in the formation of pores without distorting the
... Show MoreFurfural is a toxic aromatic aldehyde that can cause a severe environmental problem especially the wastewater drown from petroleum refinery units. In the present work, a useless by-product from local furniture manufacturing industry; sawdust was used as raw material for the preparation of activated carbon which is chemically activated with phosphoric acid. The effect of adsorption variables which include initial pH of solution (2-9), agitation speed (50-250) rpm, agitation time (15-120) min, initial concentration of furfural (50-250) ppm, and amount of adsorbent material (0.5-2.5) g for the three adsorbents used (prepared activated carbon, commercial activated carbon and raw sawdust) were investigated in a batch process
... Show MoreThe main aim of this paper is studied the punching shear and behavior of reinforced concrete slabs exposed to fires, the possibility of punching shear failure occurred as a result of the fires and their inability to withstand the loads. Simulation by finite element analysis is made to predict the type of failure, distribution temperature through the thickness of the slabs, deformation and punching strength. Nonlinear finite element transient thermal-structural analysis at fire conditions are analyzed by ANSYS package. The validity of the modeling is performed for the mechanical and thermal properties of materials from earlier works from literature to decrea
... Show MoreThis study introduced the effect of using magnetic abrasive finishing method (MAF) for finishing flat surfaces. The results of experiment allow considering the MAF method as a perspective for finishing flat surfaces, forming optimum physical mechanical properties of surfaces layer, removing the defective layers and decreasing the height of micro irregularities. Study the characteristics which permit judgment parameters of surface quality after MAF method then comparative with grinding
Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to classify Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients from Normal Control (NC) patients using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Methods/Statistical analysis: The performance evolution is carried out for 346 MR images from Alzheimer's Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) dataset. The classifier Deep Belief Network (DBN) is used for the function of classification. The network is trained using a sample training set, and the weights produced are then used to check the system's recognition capability. Findings: As a result, this paper presented a novel method of automated classification system for AD determination. The suggested method offers good performance of the experiments carried out show that the
... Show MoreThe present study experimentally and numerically investigated the impact behavior of composite reinforced concrete (RC) beams with the pultruded I-GFRP and I-steel beams. Eight specimens of two groups were cast in different configurations. The first group consisted of four specimens and was tested under static load to provide reference results for the second group. The four specimens in the second group were tested first under impact loading and then static loading to determine the residual static strengths of the impacted specimens. The test variables considered the type of encased I-section (steel and GFRP), presence of shear connectors, and drop height during impact tests. A mass of 42.5 kg was dropped on the top surface at the m
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