Background: Acute appendicitis is a common surgical
problem that is associated with an acute-phase reaction.
Previous studies have shown that cytokines and acutephase proteins are activated and may serve as indicators for
appendicitis.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate of serum
levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in correlation to the severity
to acute appendicitis.
Methods: This is a prospective study from December 2008
to March 2009 of patients who had appendectomy in
Department of Surgery, Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital -
Baghdad/Iraq. Serum for estimating levels of interleukin-6
(IL-6) was taken pre-operatively. Depending on the
macroscopic evidence during the operation and the
histopathological examination of the specimens, the
patients were separated into 3 groups, group one with
negative appendectomy (normal appendix), group two with
non-complicated acute appendicitis (catarrhal,
suppurative), and group three with complicated acute
appendicitis (perforated, gangrenous). The
histopathological results were correlated with IL-6 values
statistically.
Results: A total number of 50 patients were included in
this study, 28 male (56%) and 22 female (44%). The mean
age was 23 year (ranged from 7 to 50). On histological
examination, there were 7 patients (14%) in group one, 29
patients (58%) in group two, and 14 patients (28%) in
group three. Serum IL-6 values gave true negative results
in 6%, true positive results in 82%, false negative results in
4%, and false positive results in 8%. We determined,
therefore, in the present study the sensitivity, specificity,
and accuracy of serum IL-6 were calculated as 95.34%,
42.85%, and 88% respectively.
Conclusion: Laboratory results should be considered to be
integrated within the clinical assessment. If used critically,
IL-6 can provide surgeons with complementary
information in discerning the necessity for urgent
operation
Reinforced concrete barriers have been commonly used in protecting the important building because the response of R.C. barriers subjected to blast loading is practically more acceptable than other materials used to build the barriers. In this study, the response of R.C. barriers was detected due to the blast effects caused by two charge weights (50 kg and 400 kg); ANSYS 14 was used to simulate the problem. A horizontal distance of 2 m between the explosive TNT charge and the front face of wall was taken. The pressure on the front face of the concrete barriers was measured at three levels. The R.C. barrier was entirely damaged when subjected to the blast effects caused by 400 kg TNT explosion bomb. However, the 50 kg TNT charge had
... Show MoreGram-positive enterococciare opportunistic and resistant to many antibiotics. This study aimed to investigate the presence of Enterococcus spp. in our community and whether these isolates are resistant to the macrolides class of antibiotics. Fifty isolates from 112 clinical samples were recognized as Enterococcus spp. and confirmed using Vitek-2 system. The current study found that 50/112 (44.6%) represented the total isolates, 38/50 (76%) of which were Enterococcus faecalis, while 12/50 (24%) were Enterococcus faecium, twenty (40%) isolates from root canals and 30 (60%) isolates from urine were isolated. The sensitivity of the enterococcal isolates to various macrolides (erythromycin, azithromycin and clarithromycin) antibiotics wa
... Show MoreThe field of structural optimization (optimal design) has grown rapidly over the past decades with many different optimization methods that could be used to produce a structure of minimum weight. This research deals with two aspects, in the first, a general numerical technique based on the finite element analysis and it suggests to investigate the preliminary behavior of metal stiffened plate under action of static load environment. The technique was included a finite element model of the structures using high- order isoparimetric plate elements to be used to create a certain models to obtain their optimum design. The models are characterized such that, each model is builded using different types of stiffener configuration. The second as
... Show MoreSalinity of soil or irrigation water is one of the most important obstacle towards crop production and productivity, especially with the increasing scarcity of fresh water in Iraq and the Arab countries. The impact of salinity will be alleviated with the increasing temperature due to global warming. The objectives of this article was to shed some light on traits more related to salinity stress tolerance in oats, and to identify genetic variation of these traits. A split-plot arrangement experiment with RCBD was applied through 2011-2013 on the farm of Dept. of Field Crops/Coll. of Agric./Univ. of Baghdad. The oats cultivars; Hamel, Pimula and Genzania were set in sub-plots, whereas water quality was set in main-plots. Water quality had two
... Show MoreThe purpose of this article is to improve and minimize noise from the signal by studying wavelet transforms and showing how to use the most effective ones for processing and analysis. As both the Discrete Wavelet Transformation method was used, we will outline some transformation techniques along with the methodology for applying them to remove noise from the signal. Proceeds based on the threshold value and the threshold functions Lifting Transformation, Wavelet Transformation, and Packet Discrete Wavelet Transformation. Using AMSE, A comparison was made between them , and the best was selected. When the aforementioned techniques were applied to actual data that was represented by each of the prices, it became evident that the lift
... Show MoreRisks are confronting the foundations of buildings and structures when exposed to earthquakes which leads to high displacements that may cause the failure of the structures. This research elaborates numerically the effect of the earthquake on the vertical and lateral displacement of footing resting on the soil. The thickness of the footing and depth of soil layer below the footing was taken as (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 m) and (10, 20 and 40m), respectively. The stiffness ratio of soil to footing was also elaborated at 0.68, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.7. The results showed an increase in the verticle displacement of footing as the duration of the earthquake increases. The increase of soil layer thickness below the footing leads to a reduction in the vertical
... Show More