Background: Coronary artery disease remains the main cause of death despite several preventive programs. Epicardial adipose tissue is a visceral fat depot of the heart located along the large coronary arteries and on the surface of ventricles and apex. Intima media thickness is commonly recognized as the initial stage in the development of atherosclerosis. The development of ultrasound machines, advances in echocardiographic devices and high resolution transducers facilitate comprehensive analysis of epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT).
Aim: To investigate the relationship of echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT) with the severity of coronary artery disease.
Methods: A cross sectional multicenter diagnostic accuracy study carried out at Ibn Al-Nafis Cardiovascular Hospital, Ibn Al- Bitar Cardiology Center and Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital –Iraqi Center for Cardiology during the period between October 2016 and May 2017 assessing. History regarding demographic data and risk factors was taken. Two dimensional transthoracic echocardiographic measurements were done. EFT was measured from parasternal long axis view perpendicular to the right ventricular free wall. C-IMT was measured according to that recommended by the American society of echocardiography (ASE).
Results: The current study demonstrated that the EFT has a direct and significant correlation with the number of involved vessels (P value ˂ 0.001, r= 0.770). The validity of EFT to discriminate between multiple vessels disease and no vessel involvement is excellent (AUC= 0.984, cut point > 8mm, sensitivity=92.9%, specificity= 93.3%). There is inverse and significant correlation between ejection fraction (EF) and three vessels disease (P value ˂ 0.001, r= -0.507). Also there is a direct and significant correlation between C-IMT and severity of CAD. ROC analysis for validity of C-IMT to discriminate between multiple vessels disease and no vessel involvement is excellent (AUC= 0.961, cut point > 1.04mm, sensitivity=92.9%. specificity=86.7%). C-IMT is fair to discriminate between single vessel disease and no vessel involvement (AUC=0.738, cut point ˃ 0.84mm, sensitivity 100%), so if correlated with age, C-IMT above 0.84 can be used as a cut off point for the prediction of CAD. Finally, EFT and C-IMT are more likely to reflect severity of CAD than their ratio.
Conclusions: C-IMT and EFT are simple and reproducible parameters that can be used as a screening tool for the presence and severity of CAD especially before symptoms appearance in high risk patients
This paper is concerned with pre-test single and double stage shrunken estimators for the mean (?) of normal distribution when a prior estimate (?0) of the actule value (?) is available, using specifying shrinkage weight factors ?(?) as well as pre-test region (R). Expressions for the Bias [B(?)], mean squared error [MSE(?)], Efficiency [EFF(?)] and Expected sample size [E(n/?)] of proposed estimators are derived. Numerical results and conclusions are drawn about selection different constants included in these expressions. Comparisons between suggested estimators, with respect to classical estimators in the sense of Bias and Relative Efficiency, are given. Furthermore, comparisons with the earlier existing works are drawn.
Acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) is a leading cause of hospital admission and many factors are known to precipitate decompensation. We aimed to assess the decompensating factors of heart failure and the management of patients admitted to the emergency department (ED). A total of 107 patients were examined, all diagnosed with ADHF in the ED of the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, from June 2017 to December 2017, and presenting with decom¬pensation (pulmonary oedema, peripheral oedema, and fatigue). The mean patient age was 62.5 ± 9.8 years (range: 43–85 years); the majority of them were in their 7th decade (37.4%), and men were slightly more than women. Hy¬pertension was the most commonly associated comorbidity (68.2%), follow
... Show MoreA finite element is a study that is capable of predicting crack initiation and simulating crack propagation of human bone. The material model is implemented in MATLAB finite element package, which allows extension to any geometry and any load configuration. The fracture mechanics parameters for transverse and longitudinal crack propagation in human bone are analyzed. A fracture toughness as well as stress and strain contour are generated and thoroughly evaluated. Discussion is given on how this knowledge needs to be extended to allow prediction of whole bone fracture from external loading to aid the design of protective systems.
The aim of this study is to utilize the behavior of a mathematical model consisting of three-species with Lotka Volterra functional response with incorporating of fear and hunting cooperation factors with both juvenile and adult predators. The existence of equilibrium points of the system was discussed the conditions with variables. The behavior of model referred by local stability in nearness of any an equilibrium point and the conditions for the method of approximating the solution has been studied locally. We define a suitable Lyapunov function that covers every element of the nonlinear system and illustrate that it works. The effect of the death factor was observed in some periods, leading to non-stability. To confirm the theore
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to investigate the histological changes of heart, lung, liver and kidney which caused by different concentrations (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg) of Ivabradine. Results of the study revealed some histological changes represented by aggregation of the lymphocytes around respiratory bronchioles of the lung. In the liver, the drug caused hepatocyte necrosis and infiltration of the lymphocytes. In Kidney, there are no histopathological modifications in the tissue after the animals treated with 10 mg\kg of Ivabradine. When the animals treated with Ivabradine drug at 20mg/kg of bw, dose showed vascular congestion between myocardial fibers of heart. Emphysematous c
... Show MoreThe importance of the research in the preparation of special exercises to develop some types of basketball scoring as a contribution to help the physical education teacher to find successful educational alternatives. The purpose of the study was to prepare special exercises for the cognitive (cognitive) survey in the development of motor satisfaction and learning some types of Scoring for basketball for students. Learn about the effect of cognitive exercises in cognitive development in students. The survey included students from the first stage of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science \ University of Diyala (159) divided into 6 people. The sample was randomized by (b) and (b) D) and after dispersion by the standard method In
... Show MoreThis work studies the role of serum apelin-36 and Glutathione S-transferases (GST) activity in association with the hormonal, metabolic profiles and their link to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in healthy and patients' ladies with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A total of fifty-four (PCOS) patients and thirty-one healthy woman as a control have been studied. The PCOS patients were subdivided on the basis of body-mass-index (BMI), into 2-subgroups (the first group was obese-PCOS with BMI ≥ 30 and the second group was non-obese PCOS MBI<30). Fasting-insulin-levels and Lipid-profile, Homeostatic-model assessment-of-insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR), follicle-stimulating-hormone (FSH), luteinizing-hormone (LH), testosterone and
... Show MoreBackground: planter fasciitis is a common condition
seen in adults and sport men, it is characterized by dull
pain in the heel, especially when getting up and
standing on the foot in the morning or after sitting for a
long time.
Recently low level laser therapy is used as a method of
treatment.
Objective: to evaluate the benefit of laser therapy in
treatment of planter fasciitis.
Methods: Out of twenty five patients with planter
fasciitis exposed to laser therapy. Laser used is (diode
type) given in two cessions per week for four weeks,
time for each cession is about (12 minutes).
Results: complete recovery seen in (32%) of patients,
moderate improvement in (16%), mild improvement in
(24%), no
Geotechnical engineers have always been concerned with the stabilization of slopes. For this purpose,
various methods such as retaining walls, piles, and geosynthetics may be used to increase the safety factor of slopes prone to failure. The application of stone columns may also be another potential alternative for slope stabilization. Such columns have normally been used for cohesive soil improvement. Most slope analysis and design is based on deterministic approach i.e a set of single valued design parameter are adopted and a set of single valued factor of safety (FOS) is determined. Usually the FOS is selected in view of the understanding and knowledge of the material parameters, the problem geometry, the method of analysis and the
The problem of steady, laminar, natural convective flow in an square enclosure with and without partitions is considered for Rayleigh number (103-106) and Prandtl number (0.7). Vertical walls were maintained isothermal at different temperatures while horizontal walls and the partitions were insulated. The length of partition was taken constant. The number of partitions were placed on horizontal surface in staggered arrangement from (1– 3) and ratio of partition thickness (H/L= 0.033, 0.083, 0.124). The problem is formulated in terms of the vorticity-stream function procedure. A numerical solution based on a program in Fortran 90 with the finite difference method is obtained. Representative results illustrating the effects of the thickn
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