Comparison study between the treatment of Hepatitis C virus with (peg-interferon, ribavirin, silymarin) and (peg-interferon, ribavirin) in Baghdad teaching hospital.

Background: Infection with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease, WHO estimated that about 170 million people are infected with Hepatitic C virus, Silymarin (Legalon) have been recently shown to be effective in treatment of Hepatitic C virus infection. Objectives: The effectiveness of Legalon (Silymarin) on viral load in patients with Hepatitic C virus infection. Patients and methods: A prospective case – control study included 400 patients with Hepatitis C virus infection. 200 patients (group A) were treated with (peg-interferon, ribavirin, silymarin) the other 200 patients (group B) were treated with (peg-interferon, ribavirin) . only G1 & G4 genotypes were included , viral load were assessed initially and after 3 months in patients with positive viral load. Results: Viral load follow in group A, Hepatitis C Viral load was reported in 150 cases giving a response rate of 75% while in the 200 cases of group B the response was reported in 110 giving an overall response rate 55% , this indicate that cases in group A had a significant higher response rate than those in group B. Conclusion: Patients taking Silymarin (420 mg/day) for 3 months showed a decrease in viral load, effectiveness of silymarin was more in Genotype 1 than in the Genotype 4, the response was better in low viral load patients ( less than 600000 IU/ml)

The speed of eating and functional dyspepsia

Background: dyspepsia is a common complaint, affecting about 26-41% of the general population. Investigations fail to identify organic cause in 50%–60% of functional dyspepsia. Little informations are available about whether quick eating is one of the risk factors for functional dyspepsia (FD). Objectives: To study the association between quick eating and FD. Materials and methods: The study was performed on 132 resident doctors in the medical city/Baghdad, by introducing a questionnaire derived from the Rome III criteria for diagnosis of FD and its subtypes and calculating the average daily meal duration for each one. The subjects were all Arabian, Iraqi, white resident doctors sharing the same type and amount of food. We excluded those with history of alcoholism, chronic NSAID use, documented organic gastrointestinal lesion, or with alarm features of dyspepsia , chronic systemic disease or previous history of dyspepsia. Results: The prevalence of uninvestigated dyspepsia (UD) was 37.88%, post-prandial distress syndrome (PPD): 16.67%, and epigastria pain syndrome (EPS):12.12%.Quick eating (independently on the BMI) was significantly associated with higher prevalence of FD and EPS, but not PPD. Higher BMI was associated with higher prevalence of FD and PPD (not EPS), smoking was associated with higher prevalence of FD and both subtypes, while age and gender had no effect on the prevalence of each. Conclusion: prevalence of UD increases in quick eaters regardless the BMI, Smoking and higher BMI also increase the UD prevalence

Characteristics and Etiologies of Chronic Scrotal Pain: A Common but Poorly Understood Condition

Chronic scrotal pain (CSP) is a common and debilitating condition, but the underlying characteristics and etiology of CSP are poorly understood. The objective of this study is to identify the characteristic and etiologies of CSP. Men presenting for management of CSP completed a standardized questionnaire and underwent a complete physical examination. From Feb 2014 to Sep 2015, a total of 131 men (mean age 43) with CSP were studied. The CSP was of long duration (mean of 4.7±5.95 years) and dramatically affected men’s lives, with adverse effects on normal activities (71.%), ability to work (51.90%), and sexual functioning (61.8%). 50.4% felt depressed on most days, and 67.17% felt either unhappy or terrible with their present condition. Physical examination revealed that the epididymis was the most common tender area found in 70/131 men (53.43%), though a musculoskeletal source for the pain was found in 9.9%. Neuropathic changes were found in 30%. For close to half of the men (43.5%) we were unable to identify any potential cause for the CSP. This study characterizes the dramatic impact that CSP has on the lives of men, while providing an understanding of the common etiologies

Quantitative Implementation of Acoustic Impedance Inversion to Porosity and Lithology Prediction of Clastic Reservoir, Luhais Oil Field, Southern Iraq

In the present study, some of petrophysical properties of Nuhr Umr Formation in Luhais oil field (south of Iraq) are evaluated by using an acoustic impedance inversion process. 2D seismic reflection data of (29) lines covering the field, neutron porosity logs, and synthetic acoustic impedance logs were used in inversion of seismic sections into an acoustic impedance and porosity sections. To compensate the low frequency in relative acoustic impedance that rely on seismic data frequency (band-limit frequency), we inverted relative acoustic impedance with combination the low frequency of well data to obtain absolute acoustic impedance. The absolute acoustic impedance shows consistency and good tie with an acoustic impedance log. At the reservoir interval the lithology was discriminate and evaluate the facies quality of Nahr-Umr Formation using absolute acoustic impedance inversion and subdivided into three main members. The shale facies indicate high porosity (25%) corresponding to low acoustic impedance (6500 Kpa. m/s) at the top of the reservoir. The petrophysical analysis declare and confirm higher quality reservoir is noticed and recognized in the middle member of Nahr-Umr reservoir. Keywords: seismic inversion, porosity prediction, Absolute Acoustic impedanc

Preparation and Characterization of Porous Anodic Alumina membrane

Porous Anodic Alumina (PAA) was prepared by two-step anodization on both sides of an aluminium foil. The anodization carried out at anodizing temperature 17oC using oxalic acid as an anodizing electrolyte. The (PAA) template was characterized with optical microscope and SEM. The optical microscope image showed two (PAA) layers after the dissolution of the residual aluminium. The average pore diameter was found to be (75) nm. The average interpore distance of (PAA) prepared was found to be (99) nm. The thickness of (PAA) was found to be (59.5) μm

Effect of Uric acid Level on the Corrosion Behavior of SS 316L and Co-Cr-Mo Used in Implant Applications

In this study electrochemical behaviors of SS 316L and Co-Cr-Mo alloys were studied using electrochemical method by potentiostat in simulated body fluid (SBF) at pH=7.4 and 37oC in absence and presence of 7 and 12 g/dL uric acid which causes arthritis. Corrosion parameters for two implants were calculated which include corrosion potentials (Ecorr), corrosion current densities (icorr), cathodic and anodic Tafel slops (bc & ba), polarization resistance (Rp) and corrosion rates (CR). Increases uric acid in human body gives decreasing in corrosion rate for SS 316L because of formation organometallic complexes between acid molecules and released metal ions, but an increase in corrosion rate for Co-Cr-Mo alloy because of low affinity of cobalt ions to formation organometallic complexes. General comparison between two implants shows that the Co-Cr-Mo alloy has lower corrosion rate than SS 316L in the same conditions due to Cr content. This means that using Co-Cr-Mo alloy better than SS 316L as bioimplant

Residual Stress effect on Fatigue Behavior of 2024- Aluminum alloy

In the present work the effect of residual stress on the fatigue behavior of 2024 Aluminum alloy was studied experimentally and numerically using finite element method with aid of ANSYS-11 software. All the test specimens treated by annealing before any process to remove the internal stresses due to cold work. Residual stresses were imparted to the fatigue tests specimens by heat treatment, pre-strain and welding. X-Ray diffraction was used to measure the residual stress. The heat treatment; done on the test specimens with different temperature of (420, 450, 480, and 510) oC. After heat treatment; alloy mechanical properties were improved. For the heat treated specimens as the temperature increased the compressive residual stress increased to (27.06, 41.43, 72.8 and 85.6) MPa. That leads to increase the endurance fatigue limit by (32.93%, 40.48%, 50.68% and 61.03%) respectively than other alloy as received. While in pre strain groups; the test specimens loaded to (265, 290, 315 and 340) MPa by a tension test machine. As the applied load series were increased the compressive residual stress increased to (16.51, 25.62, 51.54 and 62.44) MPa which improve the endurance fatigue limit by (7.68%, 16.19%, 24.98%, and 46.45%), respectively. An electrical arc and metal inert gas were used in welding series to weld the test specimens, that present a tensile residual stress of (76.93 and 72.66) MPa, which reduces the endurance fatigue limit by (23.45% and 16.08%), respectively. The numerical results present fatigue behavior, deflection and stress at any load, and show a reasonable agreement results with an experimental one

Effect of Some Anti-Inflammatory Drugs on The Corrosion Behavior of Implant Biomaterials in Human Body Fluid

The aim of this research is to compare the electrochemical behavior of two surgical implant biomaterials alloys, SS 316L and Co–Cr–Mo alloy in simulated body fluid. This comparison is focused on the influence of presence of three anti-inflammatory drugs, aspirin (C9H8O4), paracetamol (C8H9NO2), and mefenamic acid (C15H15NO2) with three concentrations of each drug (0.00303, 0.00606, and 0.01212), (0.0086, 0.0172, and 0.0344), and (0.00111, 0.00156, and 0.00201) g/300ml respectively at pH=7.4 and 37oC using electrochemical techniques, potentiodynamic curves and potentiostatic tests. Influence of these drugs on both biomaterials depends on the formation of organometallic complexes between released metals ions from implant alloys and drugs molecules. The study shows that the drugs behave as inhibitors for SS 316L through the measured corrosion parameters, while gives irregular behavior in the case of Co – Cr – Mo alloy. However, difference between two alloys appear with different affinity of released metal ions to binding with other molecules inside human body

Impaired dynamic cerebral autoregulation in trained breath-hold divers

Breath-hold divers (BHD) experience repeated bouts of severe hypoxia and hypercapnia with large increases in blood pressure. However, the impact of long-term breath-hold diving on cerebrovascular control remains poorly understood. The ability of cerebral blood vessels to respond rapidly to changes in blood pressure represents the property of dynamic autoregulation. The current investigation tested the hypothesis that breathhold diving impairs dynamic autoregulation to a transient hypotensive stimulus. Seventeen BHD (3 women, 11 ± 9 yr of diving) and 15 healthy controls (2 women) completed two or three repeated sit-tostand trials during spontaneous breathing and poikilocapnic conditions. Heart rate (HR), finger arterial blood pressure (BP), and cerebral blood flow velocity (BFV) from the right middle cerebral artery were measured continuously with three-lead electrocardiography, finger photoplethysmography, and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, respectively. End-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure was measured with a gas analyzer. Offline, an index of cerebrovascular resistance (CVRi) was calculated as the quotient of mean BP and BFV. The rate of the drop in CVRi relative to the change in BP provided the rate of regulation [RoR; (δCVRi/δT)/δBP]. The BHD demonstrated slower RoR than controls (P ≤ 0.001, d = 1.4). Underlying the reduced RoR in BHD was a longer time to reach nadir CVRi compared with controls (P = 0.004, d = 1.1). In concert with the longer CVRi response, the time to reach peak BFV following standing was longer in BHD than controls (P = 0.01, d = 0.9). The data suggest impaired dynamic autoregulatory mechanisms to hypotension in BHD. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Impairments in dynamic cerebral autoregulation to hypotension are associated with breath-hold diving. Although weakened autoregulation was observed acutely in this group during apneic stress, we are the first to report on chronic adaptations in cerebral autoregulation. Impaired vasomotor responses underlie the reduced rate of regulation, wherein breath-hold divers demonstrate a prolonged dilatory response to transient hypotension. The slower cerebral vasodilation produces a longer perturbation in cerebral blood flow velocity, increasing the risk of cerebral ischemia

Are we missing the target? Are we aiming too low? What are the aerobic exercise prescriptions and their effects on markers of cardiovascular health and systemic inflammation in patients with knee osteoarthritis? A systematic review and meta-analysis

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Objectives We systemically reviewed published studies that evaluated aerobic exercise interventions in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) to: (1) report the frequency, intensity, type and time (FITT) of exercise prescriptions and (2) quantify the changes in markers of cardiovascular health and systemic inflammation. Data sources PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus; inception to January 2019. Eligibility criteria Randomised clinical trials (RCT), cohort studies, case series. Design We summarised exercise prescriptions for all studies and calculated effect sizes with 95% CIs for between-group (RCTs that compared exercise and control groups) and within-group (pre-post exercise) differences in aerobic capacity (VO 2), heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and inflammatory markers (interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-alpha). We pooled results where possible using random effects models. Results Interventions from 49 studies were summarised; 8% (4/49) met all FITT guidelines; 16% (8/49) met all or most FITT guidelines. Fourteen studies (10 RCTs) reported at least one marker of cardiovascular health or systemic inflammation. Mean differences (95% CI) indicated a small to moderate increase in VO 2 (0.84 mL/min/kg; 95% CI 0.37 to 1.31), decrease in HR (-3.56 beats per minute; 95% CI -5.60 to -1.52) and DBP (-4.10 mm Hg; 95% CI -4.82 to -3.38) and no change in SBP (-0.36 mm Hg; 95% CI -3.88 to 3.16) and IL-6 (0.37 pg/mL; 95% CI -0.11 to 0.85). Within-group differences were also small to moderate. Conclusions In studies of aerobic exercise in patients with knee OA, very few interventions met guideline-recommended dose; there were small to moderate changes in markers of cardiovascular health and no decrease in markers of systemic inflammation. These findings question whether aerobic exercise is being used to its full potential in patients with knee OA. PROSPERO registration number CRD42018087859