Background: The immune system of the oral cavity suffers alterations due to fixed orthodontic treatment which act as potent stimulus for oral secretory immunity. The aims of this study are to estimate the effect of fixed orthodontic appliance on the level of salivary sIgA at different time intervals, and to verify the gender difference. Materials and method: The patient's history, clinical examination, and fixed orthodontic appliances were placed for 30 Iraqi orthodontic adult patients had class II division 1 and/ or class I malocclusion (15 males and 15 females) aged 18-25 years old. The unstimulated whole saliva was collected from each sample immediately before wearing fixed appliance (control group T0 as base line), and after 2 weeks (T1),1 month (T2), and 1year (T3) of wearing fixed orthodontic appliance. The levels of salivary sIgA were measured by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay kit (ELISA). Results: The mean value of salivary sIgA was elevated at T1 and reached the peak at T2 followed by declined at T3 to reach near the normal value at T0 (base line). Repeated measure ANOVA test showed statistically highly significant difference among four time intervals. The Bonferroni test after repeated measure ANOVA test showed highly statistical significant difference between each two time intervals except between T0 and T3 show significant difference. In addition there were no significant gender differences. Conclusion: In this study one can conclude that fixed orthodontic appliance acts as an immunological stimulant in the oral cavity that changes the level of salivary sIgA which evaluate the immunity status in the oral cavity.
Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), or Tic Douloureux, is one of the most common neuropathic pains. Gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery (GNSRS) has been considered one of the procedures for treating primary TN. Objective: This study evaluates the effectiveness of GNSRS in treating primary TN in patients who are unresponsive to medical treatment in a single-center experience. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 180 patients from January 2018 to October 2021. The study utilized the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) pain intensity score to assess pain before and after GNSRS treatment. Results: A total of 180 patients with primary TN were included in this study, 108 female with a 1.5:1 female: male ratio. Results
... Show MoreBackground: Hyperfunction of the muscles of the upper lip is considered as the most common cause of excessive gingival display (EGD). The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of botulinum toxin (BT) injection as a conservative treatment for EGD due to muscular hyperfunction and to compare the outcome of 2 injection methods. Material and methods: This study included 40 participants who were randomly assigned into 2 groups of 20 each, The first group received 2.5IU BT injection at 1 point per side (2-points group), while the second group received a total of 5 IU of BT at 2 points per side (4-points group). The outcome variables were the reduction in the central and lateral gingival display expressed as the difference between
... Show MorePatients with renal failure in the final stages undergo the treatment by hemodialysis. Hemodialysis is used to reinstate the intracellular and extracellular fluid environment, by propagation of molecules in solution through a semipermeable membrane along an electrochemical concentration gradient. Blood catching in the dialysis machine and the recurrent phlebotomy may lead to losing about 1-3 g of iron per year. Prohepcidin hormone is an acute phase protein (type II) that plays a major role in the systemic iron irregularities as it is a mediator of anemia in inflammation and regulator of iron metabolism. This study aims to evaluate the effect of hemodialysis on iron hemostasis and its relationship with prohepcidin as an inflammatory mark
... Show MoreBackground: Normal Left Ventricular systolic function is present in nearly 50% of patients with congestive heart failure, the majority of such patients have systemic hypertension. Recent studies have demonstrated Left Ventricular dyssynchrony among patients with heart failure and normal systolic function. The co-existence between Left Ventricular dyssynchrony and hypertension with normal systolic function (with no clinical evidence of heart failure) is less well understood.
Objective:
To assess the Left Ventricular dyssynchrony among hypertensive patients with normal systolic function by using Tissue doppler imaging.To find out the associations between the LV dyssynchrony and other global
... Show MoreThe quality of groundwater in the Al-Hawija area was assessed using a water quality index. Data of nine physico-chemical parameters of 28 groundwater wells were used to calculate the water quality index (WQI). A heterogeneous water quality was reported, where in close proximity to the Lesser Zab River (LZR), it has low WQI values and permissible for human consumptions due to the dilution processes by fresh water; whereas, it becomes deteriorated in areas located far away the river. The values of WQI ranges from 22 to 336, indicating a good to very poor groundwater quality.
Smear zone is usually formed around the prefabricated vertical drains (PVD’s) due to mandrel driving. The geotechnical properties of the soil in this zone exhibit significant changes that affect the performance of the PVD’s. The most relevant property in this respect is the coefficient of permeability. So far, no serious attention is paid to investigate the effects of shearing under large shear strains on the geotechnical properties of the soft soil in Fao region. In this study, an extensive laboratory testing program was conducted to assess the characteristics of the smear zone with an emphasis on the permeability coefficient of Fao soft soil. The results show that the permeability of the smear zone is about 70% of
... Show MoreBackground: Behçet’s disease (BD) is a disorder of systemic inflammatory condition. Its important features are represented by recurrent oral, genital ulcerations and eye lesions. Aims. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate and compare cytological changes using morphometric analysis of the exfoliated buccal mucosal cells in Behçet’s disease patients and healthy controls, and to evaluate the clinical characteristics of Behçet’s disease. Methods. Twenty five Behçet’s disease patients have been compared to 25 healthy volunteers as a control group. Papanicolaou stain was used for staining the smears taken from buccal epithelial cells to be analyzed cytomorphometrically. The image analysis software has been used to
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