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
Introduction and Aim: Diabetes mellitus patients almost always struggle with a metabolic condition known as chronic hyperglycemia. According to the World Health Organization, osteoporosis is a progressive systemic skeletal disorder that is characterized by decreasing bone mass and microstructural breakdown of bone tissue that increases susceptibility to fracture and increased risk of breaking a bone. Here, we aimed to compare the levels of CatK and total oxidative state in patients with diabetes and osteoporosis among the female Iraqi population and study the possible relationship between them. Materials and Methods: This study included 40 females with diabetes (Group G1), 40 with diabetes and osteoporosis (Group G2) and 40 normal healthy f
... Show MoreMost studies on deep beams have been made with reinforced concrete deep beams, only a few studies investigate the response of prestressed deep beams, while, to the best of our knowledge, there is not a study that investigates the response of full scale (T-section) prestressed deep beams with large web openings. An experimental and numerical study was conducted in order to investigate the shear strength of ordinary reinforced and partially prestressed full scale (T-section) deep beams that contain large web openings in order to investigate the prestressing existence effects on the deep beam responses and to better understand the effects of prestressing locations and opening depth to beam depth ratio on the deep beam performance and b
... Show MoreBased on the diazotization-coupling reaction, a new, simple, and sensitive spectrophotometric method for determining of a trace amount of (BPF) is presented in this paper. Diazotized metoclopramide reagent react with bisphenol F produces an orange azo-compound with a maximum absorbance at 461 nm in alkaline solution. The experimental parameters were optimized such as type of alkaline medium, concentration of NaOH, diazotized metoclopramide amount, order additions, reaction time, temperature, and effect of organic solvents to achieve the optimal performance for the proposed method. The absorbance increased linearly with increasing bisphenol F concentration in the range of 0.5-10 μg mL-1 under ideal conditions, with a correlati
... Show Moreatrogenic atrial septal defect (IASD), post Catheter ablation during electrophysiological study simply can be assess with Echocardiography nowadays ablation consider the main line in the managements of patients with various type of arrhythmia. This study aims to de-termine the outcomes of Iatrogenic Atrial Septal Defect (IASD) six months post radiofrequency ablation (RF) procedure of left atrial arrhythmia using non-invasive Transtho-racic Echocardiography (TTE) parameters (LVEF, E/e` and ASD size) with sheath size as predictors of atrial septal defect closure. Patients and methods: A prospective study was con-ducted in Iraqi Centre for Heart Diseases included 47 patients post Electrophysiology procedure and ablation of left atrial SVT were
... Show MoreCryptosporidiosis is mainly cause a persistent diarrhea in immune compromised patients, BALB/c mice have been suppressed by dexamethasone, tissue Th1, Th2 and Th17 cytokines concentrations in the ileum were significantly diminished in both infected and immunosuppressed mice. Level of IFN-g, TNF-a, IL-12, IL-6, IL-17A was increased in level, IL-4 didn’t increases, in both ileal and spleen tissue. Levels of above cytokines were examined in spleen in order to follow the proliferation of CD4+ T-cell during C. parvum infection.
Recent studies have revealed some conflicting results about the health effects of caffeine. These studies are inconsistent in terms of design and population and source of consumed caffeine. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the possible health effects of dietary caffeine intake among overweight and obese individuals.
In this cross-sectional study, 488 apparently healthy individuals with overweight and obesity were participated. Dietary intake was assessed by a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and
In this study, an efficient photocatalyst for dissociation of water was prepared and studied. The chromium oxide (Cr2O3) with Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanofibers (Cr2O3-TNFs) nanocomposite with (chitosan extract) were synthesized using ecologically friendly methods such as ultrasonic and hydrothermal techniques; such TiO2 exhibits nanofibers (TNFs) shape struct
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