Background: Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE)-derived mitral annular displacement (MAD) utilizes the speckle tracking technique to measure strain vectors, which provides accurate estimates of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).Objectives: To validate the accuracy of mitral annular displacement (MAD), assessed by Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE), as a surrogate for determination of left ventricular systolic function in comparison to 2-Dimensions Simpson method in patients with different heart diseases.Methods : This cross-sectional study included patients who referred to outpatient department of Ibn Albitar Center for Cardiac Surgery, Baghdad, Iraq, between October 2012 and April 2013. STE continuously tracked annular motion throughout the cardiac cycle in the apical 4- and 2-chamber views. LVEF for each patient was measured by both Simpson method and STE-derived MAD.Results: This study included 100 patients, of them (35%) had ischemic heart disease (IHD), (10%) had dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), (10%) had valvular heart disease (VHD), (25%) had normal echocardiography, and (20%) had hypertensive heart disease (HHD).There was significant correlation between EF % (derived by MAD) and EF % (derived by Simpson method) in patients with different heart diseases. This correlation was good in normal subjects (r=0.673), and those with IHD(r=0.896), DCM (r=0.724) and VHD (r=0.935), while in HHD it was moderately correlated (r=0.455). There was slight under-estimation of LVEF derived by MAD (a mean value of difference 0.846 %; p =0.022). In subgroup analysis, this difference was seen only in patients with HHD (a mean value of difference 3.145 %; p <0.001), while it was absent in other subgroups.Conclusion: STE-derived MAD provides easy, fast, and accurate assessments of global longitudinal systolic function. LVEF derived by MAD was correlated well with LVEF derived by Simpson method in patients with different heart diseases
In this paper , concrete micro-piles were used to improve the bearing capacity of the soil which is supporting the shallow foundation by using groups of (4; 6 and 9)bored short micro-piles which have, (D=0.125m and D=0.1m), and length to diameter ratio (L/D) equal to (6; 10 and 12) respectively. To calculate the bearing capacity of the micro-piles,(Tomlinson) and (Lamda) methods were used; also the soil properties were taken from Al-Muthana airport,(Al-Qyssi,2001) [1]. The results show that; increasing the number of piles and/ or the diameters and lengths; and the interaction between the bearing capacity of the shallow foundation with the bearing capacity of the pile group which leads to increasing the strength against the external loads
... Show MoreThe cement slurry is a mixture of cement, water and additives which is established at the surface for injecting inside hole. The compressive strength is considered the most important properties of slurry for testing the slurry reliability and is the ability of slurry to resist deformation and formation fluids. Compressive strength is governed by the sort of raw materials that include additives, cement structure, and exposure circumstances. In this work, we use micro silica like pozzolanic materials. Silica fume is very fine noncrystalline substantial. Silica fume can be utilized like material for supplemental cementations for increasing the compressive strength and durability of cement. Silica fume has very fine particles size less
... Show MoreComposite materials are widely used in the engineered assets as aerospace structures, marine and air navigation owing to their high strength/weight ratios. Detection and identification of damage in the composite structures are considered as an important part of monitoring and repairing of structural systems during the service to avoid instantaneous failure. Effective cost and reliability are essential during the process of detecting. The Lamb wave method is an effective and sensitive technique to tiny damage and can be applied for structural health monitoring using low energy sensors; it can provide good information about the condition of the structure during its operation by analyzing the propagation of the wave in the
... Show MoreIn this paper, split-plate airlift electrochemical reactor as an apparatus with new configuration for wastewater treatment was provided. Two aluminum plates were fixed inside the reactor and present two functions; first it works as split plates for internal loop generation of the airlift system (the zone between the two plates acts as riser while the other two zones act as downcomer) and second it works as two electrodes for electrocoagulation process. Simulated wastewater contaminated with zinc ions was used to test the performance of this apparatus for zinc removal by studying the effect of different experimental variables such as initial concentration of zinc (50-800 ppm), electrical current density (2.67-21.4 mA/cm2), init
... Show MoreBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the push-out bond strength of four different obturation materials to intraradicular dentin and to determine the failure mode. Materials and method: forty straight palatal roots of the maxillary first molars teeth were used in this study, the roots were instrumented using crown down technique and rotary EndoSequence system, the roots were randomly divided into four groups according to the materials used for obturation (n=10).Group (1): AH Plus sealer and gutta-percha. Group (2): Activ GP glass ionomer sealer and Activ GP gutta-percha (Activ GP system). Group (3): Bioceramic sealer and Bioceramic gutta-percha. Group (4): GuttaFlow2 sealer and gutta-percha. For all groups single cone obturatio
... Show MoreTitanium alloy surface properties have an essential role in the interaction of dental implants with bone, and alteration of the surface of the implant could improve osseointegration. This study was designed to investigate the effect of different heat treatment temperatures on titanium alloy surface properties for dental implants. The effect of different temperatures of heat treatment (750°C, 850°C, 950°C and 1050°C) were investigated on the surface topography, surface chemistry, titanium oxide layer thickness, blood contact angle, & blood drop diameter of titanium alloy. The disks were prepared from titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) and the samples were divided into five groups depending on the different temperatures of heat treatment. The hea
... Show MoreGas hydrate formation poses a significant threat to the production, processing, and transportation of natural gas. Accurate predictions of gas hydrate equilibrium conditions are essential for designing the gas production systems at safe operating conditions and mitigating the problems caused by hydrates formation. A new hydrate correlation for predicting gas hydrate equilibrium conditions was obtained for different gas mixtures containing methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The new correlation is proposed for a pressure range of 1.7-330 MPa, a temperature range of 273-320 K, and for gas mixtures with specific gravity range of 0.553 to 1. The nonlinear regression technique was applie
In this research, the effect of changing the flood level of Al-Shuwaija marsh was studied using the geographic information systems, specifically the QGIS program, and the STRM digital elevation model with a spatial analysis accuracy of 28 meters, was used to study the marsh. The hydraulic factors that characterize the marsh and affecting on the flooding such as the ranks of the water channels feeding the marsh and the degree of slope and flat areas in it are studied. The area of immersion water, the mean depth, and the accumulated water volume are calculated for each immersion level, thereby, this study finds the safe immersion level for this marsh was determined.