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

Zernike Moments has been popularly used in many shape-based image retrieval studies due to its powerful shape representation. However its strength and weaknesses have not been clearly highlighted in the previous studies. Thus, its powerful shape representation could not be fully utilized. In this paper, a method to fully capture the shape representation properties of Zernike Moments is implemented and tested on a single object for binary and grey level images. The proposed method works by determining the boundary of the shape object and then resizing the object shape to the boundary of the image. Three case studies were made. Case 1 is the Zernike Moments implementation on the original shape object image. In Case 2, the centroid of the s

BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis (AA) remains a complex case even for experienced surgeons. Rate of negative appendectomy is 5–40% and delayed intervention result in perforated appendicitis in 5–30% of cases. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate NPT as a marker for the diagnosis of AA concerning its severity. And compare the diagnostic value of it with the ALV scoring system. METHODS: One hundred twenty patients presented with signs and symptoms of AA and underwent appendectomy, only 84 patients proved to be AA by histopathological examination, were included in the study. Blood samples for neopterin (NPT) estimation and Alvarado (ALV) score was calculated. Control group consists of 45 healthy individual. RESULTS: NPT levels were s

The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of cytokines IL-1?, IL-10 and IL-17A in the serum of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD) and down syndrome (DS). The results showed that Serum level of IL-1? was significantly increased in AD patients (3.79 ± 0.26 pg/ml) as compared with DS patients (2.78 ± 0.39 pg/ml) or controls (2.78 ± 0.22 pg/ml), while no significant difference was observed between AD and VD (3.25 ± 0.20 pg/ml) patients or between VD patients, DS patients and controls. The serum level of IL-10 was approximated in VD and DS patients and controls (3.39 ± 0.24, 2.77 ± 0.39 and 3.41 ± 0.35 pg/ml, respectively), but was significantly (P ? 0.05) increased in AD patients (5.73 ± 0.55 pg/ml

Background: With the increase in composite material use in posterior teeth, the concerns about the polymerization shrinkage has increased with the concerns about the formation of marginal gaps in the oral cavity environment. New generation of adhesives called universal adhesive have been introduced to the market in order to reduce the technique sensitive bonding procedures to give the advantage of using the bonding system in any etching protocol without compromising the bonding strength. The aim of the study was to study marginal adaptation of two universal adhesives (Single bondâ„¢ Universal and Prime and Bond elect) using 3 etching techniques under thermal cycling aging. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight sound maxillary first premola

Mishrif Formation is the main reservoir in oil-fields (North Rumaila, South Rumaila, Majnoon, Zubair and West Qurna) which located at Basrah southern Iraq. The Inductively coupled plasma-Mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) was used for the water chemistry analysis and Scanning Electron Microprobe (SEM) for the purpose of mineralogy diagnosis. A weak acidic water of salinity six-time greater than seawater plays a role in generating the formation pressure and controlling the fluid flow. The potentiometric subsurface maps were modeled and the direction of super-pressure sites that are of a great importance in the oil exploration were marked to pay attention during future drilling.

Seventy five adult virgin female Norway rats (60 experimental and 15 controls) were used toevaluate the effect of seeds of three herbs (Fennel, Cumin and Garden cress) on their mammaryglands. Experimental animals were fed with these herbs (each type of herb seeds was given to twentyexperimental rats) for fourteen days. Rats were sacrificed and mammary gland sections wereobtained, stained then morphometrically assessed. Serum prolactin level was performed too.Results revealed that Garden cress seeds are the strongest lactogenic agent among the three. BothFennel and Cumin seeds were shown to be very weak galactagogues.

Background: Semen contamination is a detrimental factor in decreasing fertility. Seasonal changes may affect the contamination, too. Objectives: This study was designed to detect semen contamination in ovine and caprine during different seasons. Methods: Six fully mature male sheep and goats were subjected to electro-ejaculator collection twice monthly from February 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023 (Spring, February 1, 2022-April 30, 2022; Summer, May 1, 2022, July 31, 2022; Autumn August 1, 2022, October 31, 2022; Winter November 1, 2022, January 31, 2023), for studying the seasonal effect. A total of 288 semen samples were collected from both species (36 samples from each per season). All samples were subjected to bacterial isolatio