ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Left ventricular hypertrophy is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular complications such as ischemic heart disease, heart failure, sudden death, atrial fibrillation, and stroke. A proper non-expensive tool is required for detection of this pathology. Different electrocardiographic (ECG) criteria were investigated; however, the results were conflicting regarding the accuracy of these criteria. OBJECTIVE: To assess the accuracy of three electrocardiographic criteria in diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy in adult patients with hypertension using echocardiography as a reference test. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a hospital-based cross sectional observational study which included 340 adult patients with a history of hypertension (240 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy and 100 patients without depending on Echocardiographic results). Three electrocardiographic criteria including Sokolow Lyon Voltage, Cornell voltage, and Cornell voltage duration were evaluated for their sensitivity and specificity in detection of left ventricular hypertrophy in those patients. RESULTS: Each of older ages (over 50 years) (OR= (OR=6.25, 95%CI=3.75-10.39, p<0.001), male gender (OR=0.58, 95% CI= 0.36-0.93, p= 0.018) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR=8.14, 95%CI= 4.04-16.41, p<0.001) were significantly associated with development of left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with hypertension. The sensitivity and specificity of Sokolow Lyon Voltage, Cornell voltage, and Cornell voltage duration were 17.5% and 96%; 13.33% and 97%; and 10% and 98%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Older ages, male gender, and type 2 diabetes mellitus can increase the risk of left ventricular hypertrophy in hypertensive patients. All the studied criteria have low sensitivity and high specificity in recognition of the left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with hypertension, with no advantage of definite criterion over the others.
Background : To assess the actual practice of breast self-examination (BSE), as an early detection tool for breast cancer, among a sample of patients affected with breast cancer in Iraq.Methods: A random sample of 200 female patients with breast cancer was analyzed to evaluate the extent of their actual practice of breast self-examination before the diagnosis of the disease. The examined variables included the age of the patients, marital status, education, occupation, smoking habit, family history of cancer, frequency of gravidity, parity and abortions. Results: The age of patients ranged from (24-70) years with a mean age of 48 years. The highest frequency of the examined sample
... Show MoreObjectives: With the advent of ongoing novel modalities toward the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/NEU - positive malignancies, the serious side effects of chemoradiotherapy have been minimized. Hence, this study was conducted to identify the patterns of immunohistochemical expression of the promising therapeutic target (HER2/NEU) among Iraqi patients with medulloblastoma in an attempt to provide basic histological information’s that would help in future clinical researches.Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 42 formalin - fixed paraffin - embedded tissue blocks represent cases of surgically removed medulloblastomas were retrieved from the archived materials in a specialized surgical ho
... Show MoreMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL). The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals of this study were to compare the QoL of Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseas
... Show More<p>Currently, breast cancer is one of the most common cancers and a main reason of women death worldwide particularly in<strong> </strong>developing countries such as Iraq. our work aims to predict the type of tumor whether benign or malignant through models that were built using logistic regression and neural networks and we hope it will help doctors in detecting the type of breast tumor. Four models were set using binary logistic regression and two different types of artificial neural networks namely multilayer perceptron MLP and radial basis function RBF. Evaluation of validated and trained models was done using several performance metrics like accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC (area under receiver ope
... Show Moreالخلاصة: الحكة اليوريمية لدى مرضى غسيل الكلى يؤثر على أكثر من 40٪ من المرضى. وربما ترتبط الحكة المستمرة بمستويات عالية من الإنترلوكين 31. الاهداف: النظر إلى مستويات مصل إنترلوكين 31 لدى مرضى غسيل الكلى المصابين بمرض الكلى في المرحلة النهائية، سواء مع أو بدون حكة يوريمية. النتائج: لم يكن مستوى المصل [الوسيط (] لـ IL-31 في المرضى الذين يعانون من الحكة اليوريميةأو بدون حكة في عينة مصل ما قبل غسيل الكلى مختلفًا بشكل م
... Show MoreCovalent modification of protein by drugs may disrupt self-tolerance, leading to lymphocyte activation. Until now, determination of the threshold required for this process has not been possible. Therefore, we performed quantitative mass spectrometric analyses to define the epitopes formed in tolerant and hypersensitive patients taking the β-lactam antibiotic piperacillin and the threshold required for T cell activation. A hydrolyzed piperacillin hapten was detected on four lysine residues of human serum albumin (HSA) isolated from tolerant patients. The level of modified Lys541 ranged from 2.6 to 4.8%. Analysis of plasma from hypersensitive patients revealed the same pattern and leve
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic disorder disease. The inflammatory markers act as a new risk factor for development of type 2 diabetes with a possible association with ABO/Rh blood groups. Human ABO genes are located on chromosome 9q34.1-q34.2. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible association between inflammatory markers, interleukin (IL) -18 and IL-33 in type 2DM and ABO blood groups. Sixty four patients with newly diagnosed type2 DM and control group consist of twenty healthy Iraqi individual. Laboratory test were include ABO blood groups using standard serological procedures and detection IL-18 and IL-33 in serum by ELISA kits. The Present data showed a significant increase i
... Show MoreThe study aimed to assess the level of ANG‑2 in MM patients at diagnosis and in remission state and elaborate on its correlation with interleukin‑6 (IL‑6) and beta‑2 microglobulin (B2M) levels. Sixty MM patients; 20 newly diagnosed (ND), and 40 patients in remission were included. Twenty healthy individuals were included as a control group. Plasma levels of ANG‑2, B2M, and IL‑6 were tested by enzyme‑lin ked immunosorbent assay. There are significant statistical differences between ND patients and those in remission in hemoglobin, neutrophil count, blood urea, serum creatinine, glomerular filtration rate, B2M, IL6, and ANG‑2 (P = 0.001, 0.033, 0.005, 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, 0.004, and 0.001, respectively). ANG‑2 showed signifi
... Show MoreAbstractBACKGROUND: Some cases of vitiligo require melanocyte transplantation, but these surgical techniques have varying degrees of success. OBJECTIVES: To perform melanocytes transplantion in patients with vitiligo using a new needling micrografting technique. PATIENTS and METHODS: This interventional case study took place at the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Baghdad Teaching Hospital from December 2010 to September 2011. Twelve patients with vitiligo were included. A split-thickness skin graft was taken from the normal area and cut into micropieces ranging from 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm in diameter. The recipient area was anesthetized, and the micrografts were then implanted into the dermis using the needling technique. The number
... Show More