The rapid increase in the number of older people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia represents one of the major challenges to the health and social care systems. Early detection of AD makes it possible for patients to access appropriate services and to benefit from new treatments and therapies, as and when they become available. The onset of AD starts many years before the clinical symptoms become clear. A biomarker that can measure the brain changes in this period would be useful for early diagnosis of AD. Potentially, the electroencephalogram (EEG) can play a valuable role in early detection of AD. Damage in the brain due to AD leads to changes in the information processing activity of the brain and the EEG which can be quantified as a biomarker. The objective of the study reported in this paper is to develop robust EEG-based biomarkers for detecting AD in its early stages. We present a new approach to quantify the slowing of the EEG, one of the most consistent features at different stages of dementia, based on changes in the EEG amplitudes (ΔEEG A ). The new approach has sensitivity and specificity values of 100% and 88.88%, respectively, and outperformed the Lempel-Ziv Complexity (LZC) approach in discriminating between AD and normal subjects.
Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the value and accuracy of longitudinal strain in detection of coronary artery disease compared to coronary angiography. Results: The left ventricular longitudinal strain-speckle tracking showed evidence of stenosis of left anterior descending artery, circumflex artery and right coronary artery in (86.1%), (76.4%), and (84.7%) respectively. For the stenosis in left anterior descending artery, the current study showed that the longitudinal strain was a good predictor for presence of significant stenosis with a sensitivity of (93.8%), specificity (75%) and accuracy (91.7%) compared with coronary angiography. For the stenosis in right coronary artery, the left ventricular longitudinal strain had
... Show MoreCoronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Certain genetic polymorphisms play an important role in this multifactorial disease, being linked with increased risk of early onset CAD.
To assess six genetic polymorphisms and clinical risk factors in relation to early onset nondiabetic Iraqi Arab CAD patients compared to controls.
This case–contro
Objectives: To assess the changes in blood vessel stiffness and digital pulse wave amplitude because of flowmediateddilatation, and to explore how these two variables change when endothelial dysfunction isexperimentally induced.Method: The experimental study was conducted at the departments of physiology at the College of Medicine,Mustansiriyah University, and the College of Medicine, Al-Iraqia University, Baghdad, Iraq, from October 14, 2021, toMay 31, 2022, and comprised healthy young males who were subjected to the flow-mediated dilatation techniqueon the left brachial artery. Pulse transit time and the amplitude of the digital pulse wave were measured duringreactive hyperaemia for 2.5 minutes from the left middle finger using a
... Show MoreGlobally, the COVID-19 pandemic’s development has presented significant societal and economic challenges. The carriers of COVID-19 transmission have also been identified as asymptomatic infected people. Yet, most epidemic models do not consider their impact when accounting for the disease’s indirect transmission. This study suggested and investigated a mathematical model replicating the spread of coronavirus disease among asymptomatic infected people. A study was conducted on every aspect of the system’s solution. The equilibrium points and the basic reproduction number were computed. The endemic equilibrium point and the disease-free equilibrium point had both undergone local stability analyses. A geometric technique was used
... Show MoreA biconical antenna has been developed for ultra-wideband sensing. A wide impedance bandwidth of around 115% at bandwidth 3.73-14 GHz is achieved which shows that the proposed antenna exhibits a fairly sensitive sensor for microwave medical imaging applications. The sensor and instrumentation is used together with an improved version of delay and sum image reconstruction algorithm on both fatty and glandular breast phantoms. The relatively new imaging set-up provides robust reconstruction of complex permittivity profiles especially in glandular phantoms, producing results that are well matched to the geometries and composition of the tissues. Respectively, the signal-to-clutter and the signal-to-mean ratios of the improved method are consis
... Show MorePompe disease is a progressive, multisystemic, debilitating, often fatal neuromuscular disease caused by a pathogenic variant in the acid α-glucosidase gene leading to GAA enzyme deficiency and lysosomal glycogen accumulation. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of early onset Pompe disease in Basra, using the dried blood spot (DBS) as a screening tool, also to determine the spectrum of presentation. Materials and Methods: In a prospective study conducted in Basrah, Iraq, from October 2021 to September 2023, all infants with a family member diagnosed as a case of Pompe disease, hypotonia, or ventricular hypertrophy referred to the pediatric cardiology unit in Basra Cardiac Hospital were subjected to echocardiographic e
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