Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unknown etiology. Different techniques and magnetic resonance image sequences are widely used and compared to each other to improve the detection of multiple sclerosis lesions in the spinal cord. Objective: To evaluate the ability of MRI short tau inversion recovery sequences in improvementof multiple sclerosis spinal cord lesion detection when compared to T2 weighted image sequences. Type of the study: A retrospective study. Methods: this study conducted from 15thAugust 2013 to 30thJune 2014 at Baghdad teaching hospital. 22 clinically definite MS patients with clinical features suggestive of spinal cord involvement, patients were imaged with sagittal short tau inversion recovery sequences and sagittal T2 weighted. Results: The mean age of the patients was 32.5 ± 6.7years; female to male ratio was 2.7:1. The total number of spinal cord MS lesions was 44 of them 86.4% in the cervical spine, 68.2%of the lesions had less than one vertebra extension,79.6% of the lesions did not show changes in the spinal cord morphology. There was a significant upgrading in the lesions conspicuity at short tau inversion recovery sequence comparing to T2 weighted image, P<0.001. A significant difference had been found in artifact grading between both sequences; P<0.001. Conclusions: short tau inversion recovery magnetic resonance image sequences improve detection of MS spinal cord plaques compared with T2 weighted image and itincreasesthe conspicuity of the visualized T2weighted image lesions, but also it accentuates theartifacts more than T2weighted image.
Background Methotrexate (MTX) is a classical folic acid antagonist widely used in the treatment of malignant and non-malignant disorders. However, its clinical application is often restricted by concomitant adverse effects, including renal damage. Numerous studies have highlighted the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in mediating MTX-related nephrotoxicity. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the possible renoprotective action of Citronellol (CT), a natural compound with prominent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, against nephrotoxicity induced by MTX. Methods To fulfill our objective, 24 adult male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four groups: control, MTX, 100 mg/kg CT plus MTX and 200 mg/kg C
... Show MoreBackground: Lowering the amount of iodinated contrast material and tube voltage may increase pulmonary artery opacification and thrombus identification without compromising picture quality.
Objectives: To explore the efficiency of using lower tube voltage and a lower contrast medium dose for conducting computed tomography for pulmonary angiography (CTPA) aiming to increase its accuracy in detecting pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).
Subjects and Methods:100 patients scheduled for CTPA with a preoperative diagnosis of PTE were grouped into two: group A, (50 patients) got 1 mL/kg at 120 kV and group B, (50 patients) received 0.5 mL/kg at 80 kV.The tec
... Show Moreكان المؤتمر الآسيوي الأفريقي الأول الذي عُقد في مدينة باندونغ الاندونيسية عام 1955 هو المؤتمر هو الأول الذي اجتمعت فيه الدول الآسيوية والأفريقية بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية. كان مؤتمر باندونغ بمثابة نقطة الانطلاق نحو تأسيس حركة عدم الانحياز، والتي كانت مصر أحد أبرز أقطابها. شهد المؤتمر تقاربا في الآراء ووجهات النظر بين جمهورية مصر العربية وجمهورية الصين الشعبية، لا سيّما وإن الحكومة المصرية كانت قد تبنت س
... Show MoreIn this study, an efficient compression system is introduced, it is based on using wavelet transform and two types of 3Dimension (3D) surface representations (i.e., Cubic Bezier Interpolation (CBI)) and 1 st order polynomial approximation. Each one is applied on different scales of the image; CBI is applied on the wide area of the image in order to prune the image components that show large scale variation, while the 1 st order polynomial is applied on the small area of residue component (i.e., after subtracting the cubic Bezier from the image) in order to prune the local smoothing components and getting better compression gain. Then, the produced cubic Bezier surface is subtracted from the image signal to get the residue component. Then, t
... Show MoreIntroduction and Aims: Job burnout such as occupational hazards that have been considered in recent years. This research aimed to investigate the relationship between religious beliefs and job burnout among nurses working in hospitals in Gonabad city in 2017. Materials and Methods: This study is cross-sectional and correlational study. The sample consisted of 100 nurses in Gonabad city who were selected using stratified randomized method. Using the Maslach job burnout and Alport religious beliefs Inventories, data were collected and were analyzed with SPSS version 16 and Pearson, Spearman and independent sample T tests were analyzed. Significant level was considered less than 0.05. Results: Average job burnout in nurses working in hospit
... Show MoreDespite extensive investigations, an effective treatment for sepsis remains elusive and a better understanding of the inflammatory response to infection is required to identify potential new targets for therapy. In this study we have used RNAi technology to show, for the first time, that the inducible lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 2 (LPCAT2) plays a key role in macrophage inflammatory gene expression in response to stimulation with bacterial ligands. Using siRNA- or shRNA-mediated knockdown, we demonstrate that, in contrast to the constitutive LPCAT1, LPCAT2 is required for macrophage cytokine gene expression and release in response to TLR4 and TLR2 ligand stimulation but not for TLR-independent stimuli. In addition, cells transfe
... Show MoreThis work aims to investigate the integrated ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing (UDWDM) and polarization division multiplexing (PDM) schemes incorporated in the free space optic (FSO) communication system. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are used as post and pre-amplifiers in the proposed UDWDM–PDM–FSO system to boost the transmission power for increasing the distance. Thirty-two channels are transported over the FSO link to realize the total data transmission of 160 and 320 Gbps with 0.08 and 0.1 nm channel spacing, respectively. Results are also reported with non-return to zero modulation schemes. The performance of the proposed UDWDM–PDM–FSO transmission sys
Two new organotin(IV) complexes Me2Snesc (C1) and Bu2Snesc (C2) have been synthesised from the reaction of the corresponding organotin(IV) chloride with the Schiff base ligand 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde-4-ethylsemicarbazone (H2esc). The ligand was prepared in two steps. The first step includes the formation of 4-ethylsemicarbazide, which then reacted with 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde to give the title ligand. Complex formation between the organotin(IV) moiety and the anionic form of 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehy-4-ethylsemicarbazone occurred through the o-dihydroxy positions. The ligand and its complexes were characterised by elemental analysis, FT-IR and NMR (1H, 13C and 119Sn) spectroscopy. Accordingly, the complexes were proposed to have tetrahedr
... Show MoreThe objective of this study is to apply Artificial Neural Network for heat transfer analysis of shell-and-tube heat exchangers widely used in power plants and refineries. Practical data was obtained by using industrial heat exchanger operating in power generation department of Dura refinery. The commonly used Back Propagation (BP) algorithm was used to train and test networks by divided the data to three samples (training, validation and testing data) to give more approach data with actual case. Inputs of the neural network include inlet water temperature, inlet air temperature and mass flow rate of air. Two outputs (exit water temperature to cooling tower and exit air temperature to second stage of air compressor) were taken in ANN.
... Show MoreBackground: The menopause is physiological changes in women that give rise to adaptive changes at both systemic and oral level. During menopause, ovarian function declines and the production of sex steroid hormones reduces significantly affecting the oral tissues and periodontal structures leading to chronic inflammation of the gingiva, increased risk of tooth loss. Aim of study: The present study was designed to estimate the oral hygiene status in relation to salivary estradiol level among pre and post-menopausal women. Materials and Methods: Ninety women aged 48-52 years old, the control group consisted of 45 pre-menopausal women and the study group consisted of 45 post-menopause were examined for gingival index, plaque index and calcu
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