Journal of population therapeutics and clinical pharmacology = Journal de la therapeutique des populations et de la pharmacologie clinique最新文献

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common heterogeneous endocrine disorder, affecting 5-10% of females with hyperandrogenism and prolonged anovulation.

Objective: This study was done to understand the serum leptin role in women with PCOS and its link with the body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance (IR).

Patients and methods: This 1-year study was conducted in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Infertility Unite in AL-Diwaniyah Maternity and Pediatrics Teaching Hospital, Iraq, in which 40 patients with PCOS (study group) and 40 healthy (non-PCOS) patients (control group) participated. After BMI assessment, both the study and control groups were further stratified into subgroups as normal weight and overweight patients. Blood samples were obtained for all patients for the serum leptin level (SLL), fasting blood glucose (FBG), and serum insulin level. The HOMA-IR equation was used to estimate insulin resistance for all patients.

Results: SLL of the PCOS women (mean ± SD, 22.29 ± 10.96 ng/ml) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher (17.89 ± 8.29 ng/ml) when compared to that of the control group. Insulin level was significantly elevated in the obese control and PCOS women (16.87 ± 3.52) µ UI/L and (15.09 ± 5.27) µUI, respectively, compared to normal BMI control and PCOS patients (P ≤ 0.01). Insulin resistance was significantly higher in obese (control and PCOS) patients (2.47 ± 0.40 and 2.30 ± 0.43, respectively), compared to normal BMI (control and PCOS) patients (P ≤ 0.01).

Conclusions: In obese patients, serum leptin significantly correlated with BMI in the presence of hyperinsulinemia and elevated insulin resistance.

Aim: Evidence-based intervention is an effective method for improving autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children on socialization, behavior, and communication and may have an impact on brain activity. The aim of this study is to find the effectiveness of picture exchange communication system (PECS) and parent-implemented intervention (PII) among ASD children.

Materials and methods: Sixty ASD children who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected and assigned into control (n=30) and experimental (n=30) groups. The experimental group received evidence-based intervention with PECS and PII for 6 months, whereas the control group received routine care. The children were assessed for social relationship and reciprocity (SRR) and speech language communication (SLC) before and after the intervention. For the experimental group, a 3-month post-intervention was also assessed. Parametric and nonparametric statistical methods were used.

Results: The data showed that male nuclear family and birth order above 1 was more among ASD. Two-way RM ANOVA showed a significant difference among the groups and tests (P < 0.001) and interaction of groups with tests (P < 0.001). Experimental post-test-2, that is, after 6 months, showed significant improvement in SRR and SLC compared with the control group.

Conclusion: The present study shows that the PECS and PII as a nursing strategy can improve ASD children socialization and communication.

Aim: To evaluate attitude towards mouthguard utilization among school children.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among students of both genders, aged between 8 to 16 years, attending school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A structural questionnaire was prepared consisting of questions related to the demographic details, attitude, and conception of children towards using a mouthguard. The questionnaire was sent to the school teachers to distribute among the respective school children. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

Results: A total of 1116 children completed the survey form, of which 488 were female and 628 male. The prevalence of use of mouthguard among Saudi school children was found to be 3.32%. Out of the total study subjects, 72.68% of the subjects believed that mouthguards could protect them from injuries. The most common reasons for not wearing mouthguards were: they never thought about it (38.47), they felt it was not necessary (30.58%), it was expensive (11.02%), and they never had any injury (19.93%). Out of 37, 2 subjects never experienced any problem with mouthguards. The most common problems with the mouthguards were: difficulty in speech, being uncomfortable and expensive, followed by interference with breathing.

Conclusion: The prevalence of mouthguard use was 3.32% in Saudi school children aged between 8-16 years. The most common reason for not using it was found to be lack of knowledge. Counseling the young children interested in sports activities is the need of the hour.

Aim: This study aims at developing an automatic medical image analysis and detection for accurate classification of brain tumors from MRI dataset. The study implemented our novel MIDNet18 CNN architecture in comparison with the VGG16 CNN architecture for classifying normal brain images from the brain tumor images.

Materials and methods: The novel MIDNet-18 CNN architecture comprises 14 convolutional layers, 7 pooling layers, 4 dense layers and 1 classification layer. The dataset used for this study has two classes: Normal Brain MR Images and Brain Tumor MR Images. This binary MRI brain dataset consists of 2918 images as training set, 1458 images as validation set and 212 images as test set. Independent sample size calculated was 7 for each group, keeping GPower at 80%.

Result: From the experimental results, the proposed MIDNet18 model obtained 98.7% accuracy. Whereas, the VGG16 model obtained an accuracy of 50%. Hence, the performance of the proposed MIDNet18 model achieved is better than VGG16. Conclusion: The proposed model is proved to be statistically significant with p value <0.001 (Independent sample t-test) than the existing model VGG16.

Background: The data of substance abuse are limited in Iraq. Psychiatrists perceived non-medical use of prescription drugs, including benzhexol (muscle relaxant), benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety medication), and codeine (opiate painkiller), as the most common form of illicit substance use.

Aim of the: study: This study was designed to assess the substance - abuse - related knowledge and attitude among the youth in Tikrit.

Results: Results showed that 78% didn't know any substance abusers while 22 knew at least one substance abuser. Also, a sizeable number of females and males(57.4%) were not able to define substance abuse correctly. Avoiding friends who are substance abusers can help in the prevention of substance abuse" was the most agreed upon factor for the prevention of substance abuse among males (82.5%) and females (85.7%). A percentage of females (84.6%) and males (70.2%) wary of those who used illegal substances. Also, females (76.9%) and males(68.2%) tended to avoid drug addicts.

Conclusion: Both genders did not have enough knowledge about globally and locally used illicit substances. Negative attitudes toward substance abusers and substance abuse were clearly apparent in their responses. The youth agreed with spending as much money as possible on the treatment of substance abusers. The population showed good knowledge about the ways and factors that may help in the prevention of substance abuse.

Background and aim: Nasal obstruction can be induced by various causes; however, inferior turbinate hypertrophy is considered the most frequent cause of this anatomical malfunctioning condition. The current surgical interventional study was focused on comparing the final outcomes of partial inferior turbinectomy (PIT) and powered endoscopic turbinoplasty (PET).

Subjects and methods: The criterion followed for deciding the successfulness of each surgical method was the rate of occurrence of postoperative complications such as bleeding, crustation, and atrophic rhinitis. Fifty patients who suffered from nasal obstruction were randomly divided into two groups: PIT group, with 25 patients, of which 15 (52%) were males and 10 were (48%) females, at an average age of 27.40 ± 7.7 years, and PET group, with 25 patients, out of which 14 (48%) were males and 11 (62%) were females, at an average age of 26.68 ± 6.82 years. The surgical operations were performed at the Department of Otolaryngology, Al-Diwaniyah General Teaching Hospital, Diwaniyah City, Iraq, during the period between March 2015 and March 2020.

Results: The PET group showed significantly lower incidence (P < 0.05) of bleeding and crustation than those from the PIT group; however, no significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed between PIT and PET in the occurrence of atrophic rhinitis.

Conclusion: PET showed promisingly less postoperative complications when compared to PIT.

Background: Self-medication is promoted in many countries for several reasons such as prevention of simple diseases and symptoms, provision of rapid treatment, simpler health system diseases, and reduction of doctor's examination fees in health funds. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and attitude of self-medication among medical students in Tikrit University.

Subject and material: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Tikrit University College of Medicine from December 15, 2017 to March 15, 2018. The sample consisted of 225 students, out of which 113 were males and 112 were females. Samples were selected in a stratified, random sampling design from all stages of the college. The data were collected using a questionnaire which was administered by interviewers and email.

Results: About 81.3% of the medical students who enrolled in the study used self-medications. The frequency of self-medication among the clinical stages was higher than the basic stages. Headache (92%) was the common reason for self-medication practice among people, followed by fever (64%) and common cold (58.6%), according to the opinion of the medical students. Doctors' advice was the main source of information that the students (64%) depended on, followed by advice from pharmacists (47.5%). Most of the respondents had poor knowledge (72.8%), but more than half of the students had a positive attitude (67.25%) toward self-medication.

Conclusion: Countless understudies were distinguished to rehearse self-medicine, and a large portion of the respondents had helpless information; however, they had a great demeanor about self-prescription. Commonness of self-medication drug increments as year of study increments. This might be because of expanded review openness to illnesses and prescriptions. Hence, it is unequivocally suggested for raising the issue of direction to edify the understudies about the issues that might emerge from unseemly drug use.

Background: The exact etiology of recurrent aphthous ulcers (RAUs) is unknown. The management of RAUs is not always straightforward. Ulcers in the mouth (recurrent aphthous stomatitis [RAS]) are very common and may vary in size from very small to very large.

Objective: To evaluate reduction in pain intensity and duration of pain relief, reduction in size of ulcer, and duration for healing of ulcer (healing time) in patients with RAS after application of Low-Level Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation therapy (LLLT) comparing with topical Anginovag spray medication and control group.

Materials and methods: A total of 21 individuals diagnosed as RAS were divided into three equal groups as follows: Group 1: Minor aphthous ulcer, which was treated by giving LLLT using Diode LASER; Group 2: Minor aphthous ulcer, which was treated by topical Anginovag spray medication.; Group 3: Minor aphthous ulcer, which was treated conservatively with motivation and follow-up.

Results: In this randomized, controlled, clinical study, LLLT using Diode LASER causes reduction in pain intensity due to RAUs, thereby reducing morbidity. There is also reduction in the diameter and healing time of the ulcer as compared to Anginovag spray medication and the control group.

Conclusion: Although various treatment modalities have been used and LLLT is not commonly used to treat aphthous ulcers, this study suggests that using LLLT would be a safe and effective treatment modality for RAUs patients.

Silymarin, a bioactive compound, is one of the most prominent drugs used in liver diseases. Chitosan and hydroxyapatite (HAP) are the major materials used employed in many biomedical processes like drug delivery, osteointegration, etc. The nanoparticles and nanocomposites are advanced materials with many biomedical applications in diagnosis and therapeutics. In this study, HAP and chitosan were used as a polymeric material, silymarin as a bioactive compound, and other nanoparticle based combinations. The prepared individual materials and nanocomposites were used for the anti-inflammatory activity and brine shrimp lethality assay. The results clearly show that the nanocomposites are good anti-inflammatory agents with lower toxicity.

The aim of this research is to prepare a healthy psychological course and study its impact on the levels of serum uric acid (SUA) and pessimism and depression. The research sample was limited to teaching staff of the Iraqi State Universities in Baghdad, who were retired at 63-65 years of age. Data were collected by independent group experimental approach via pre- and posttest measurements. The study sample consisted of 21 people with cases of pessimism and depression. The sample was randomly chosen based on their consent to do pre- and posttests and to be subjected to healthy psychological approach. After collecting the data obtained from the samples and processing them statistically, the results showed that the healthy psychological course had a positive effect on the levels of SUA, pessimism, and depression of the research sample.