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
Background:Parkinson’disease(PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by resting tremor, bradykinesia, cogwheel rigidity, and impairment of postural reflexes; the frequency of PD increases with aging.Clinically Parkinson's disease characterized by two groups of symptoms: motor and non-motor symptoms.Non-motor symptoms can be categorized as autonomic, cognitive/psychiatric (may include depression, dementia, anxiety, hallucinations), sensory and rapid eye movements (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD).
Objectives:The objectives of this study are to find out the frequency of the non-motor symptoms of idiopathic Parkinson disease in a group of patients in Baghd
... Show MoreBackground: periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease causing destruction of the tooth supporting structures, initiated by dental plaque and modified by environmental and genetic risk factors. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme is responsible for the production of prostaglandin E2, an important mediator in the chronic periodontitis (CP) pathogenesis. Polymorphisms in COX-2 gene have linked to CP in different populations. Aim: To study the association between Cyclooxygenase-2 single nucleotide polymorphism rs689466 (-1195A/G SNP) and chronic periodontitis in a sample of Iraqi population. Methods: One hundred Iraqi subjects divided into two groups: case group consisted of 70 CP patient (35 males and 35 females) with age range 30-55 year
... Show MoreBackground: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disorder that constitutes a major health problem worldwide. Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite that may infect any nucleated cell. Toxoplasmosis is becoming a worldwide health threat, infecting 30–50% of the world’s human population. The studies that have been undertaken to investigate the link between T. gondii infection and diabetes have shown contradictory fi ndings. This research aimed to look at the possible link between T2DM and T. gondii infection. Methods and Subjects: The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) approach was used to screen for T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies in 69 patients with T2DM and 92 seemingly healthy persons as controls. Resul
... Show MoreBackground: Giant middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysms are surgically challenging lesions. Because of the complexity and variability of these aneurysms, a customized surgical technique is often needed for each case. In this article, we present a modified clip reconstruction technique of a ruptured complex giant partially thrombosed middle cerebral artery aneurysm.
Case description: The aneurysm was exposed using the pterional approach. Following proximal control, the aneurysm sac was decompressed. Then, we applied permanent clips to reconstruct the aneurysm neck. The configuration of the aneurysm mandated a tailored clipping pattern to account for resi
... Show MoreAdvertisements containing images of women represent one of the most controversial topics of the advertising industry and has an impact on people and trends. This study aims to determine the typical mental image of women purveyed through visual advertising in the Arab media. It also aims to find out whether these advertisements portray women positively or negatively, in addition to investigating the reasons for the recent negative portrayal of women in commercials. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach to achieve these objectives. The results indicate that advertising designs that carry images of women displayed in the Arab media create strong mental images. Repetition reinforces these images, and they emphasize the concept
... Show MoreBack ground: Chronic total occlusion (CTO) of coronary arteries remains one of the most challenging lesion subsets in interventional cardiology even with the development of medical devices and operator expertise. Successful revascularization results in improved in angina status ,increased exercise capacity and reduces the need for lat CABG surgery .
Objectives: This study sought to determine the overall procedural success rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for CTOs and to examine the relation between variables such as; patients’ characteristics, risk factors, lesion characteristics and procedural success rate.
Methods: In this study ,clinical and coronary angiography data of (80) patients with CTO who underwent PCI
The research aimed to identify the extent to which the media offices in the ministries depend on the website of the Iraqi Council of Ministers as a source of information. Such goal includes a set of sub-goals: Knowing the reasons for media offices' reliance on the information provided by the Cabinet's website; and revealing the benefit derived from relying on the Cabinet's website.
The researcher used the survey method to screen and comprehend the extent to which the media offices in the ministries depend on the website of the Iraqi Council of Ministers as a source of information.
The mechanism of comprehensive account of the limits of research wa
... Show MoreThis study seeks to answer urgent questions about the role of new media that have emerged recently, such as the Internet and social networking sites and information services through mobile and others to increase awareness among young people, especially university students. during a field study that took place on a sample of students in the Department of Media at the University of Petra Kingdom of Jordan during the second semester in 2013 in the study the researcher finds increased attention and follow-up by young people for many of the world events and regional and local communities through exposure to a number of new media; in the forefront of the Internet and increase the level of awareness and interests young people do many of the eve
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