The prognostic effect of hyponatraemia in determining mortality in patients with heart failure hospitalised in AL-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital.

Objective: To assess the prognostic effect of hyponatraemia in determining mortality in patients with heart failure.

Methods: The prospective observational study was conducted at the Internal Medicine Unit of Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, from September 1, 2019, to February 1, 2020, and comprised adult patients of either gender who were hospitalised due to heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction <49% at admission. The endpoint was inpatient mortality from the index hospitalisation for decompensated heart failure according to the serum sodium levels.

Changing the coronary bifurcation angles after stenting procedures: the relevance to the technique and unfavorable outcome (Three-dimensional analysis).

Aim: Percutaneous transluminal balloon co-ronary angioplasty (PTCA) of coronary bifurcations is associated with a low success rate, higher rate of complications and need for revascularazation. We sought to analyze: 1) the change in 3D measurement of angles following stenting of coronary bifurcations; and 2) if changes in these angles might predict unfavourable outcomes.

Methods: Coronary angiograms of 102 patients with bifurcation lesions were analyzed with 3D software (CardiOp-B) before and after stenting.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in a child with cyclical vomiting and hypertension: a case report.

Introduction: Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome is characterized by headache, nausea and vomiting, seizures and visual disturbances. It has certain characteristic radiological features, which allow diagnosis in the appropriate clinical setting and enable appropriate clinical therapy to be instituted.

Case Presentation: A 10-year-old Caucasian girl who was hospitalized due to recurrent vomiting was diagnosed as having posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome after an initial diagnosis of cyclical vomiting and hypertension was made.

Benign acute childhood myositis in Kuwait.

Ten children, three girls and seven boys, aged 4-10 years, were admitted with benign acute childhood myositis during spring and winter months (March 1988 to March 1990). They presented with an acute onset of symmetrical calf muscle pain and tenderness, weakness and inability to walk a few days after a flu-like illness. All had raised serum creatine kinase and a normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and the majority had low peripheral white blood cell counts with relative lymphocytosis.

Cerebral perfusion abnormalities in therapy-resistant epilepsy in mentally retarded pediatric patients. Comparison between EEG, X-ray CT, and Tc-99m HMPAO.

Thirteen mentally retarded pediatric patients aged 4 to 13 years with therapy-resistant epilepsy underwent Tc-99m HMPAO brain perfusion SPECT studies. The results (abnormal in 12 of the 13 patients) were compared with EEG results in 12 of the 13 patients (abnormal in all 12) and x-ray CT in 11 of the 13 patients (normal in 9). Patients with spikes on EEG had foci of increased uptake on HMPAO.

Urofacial syndrome associated with hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis.

The urofacial syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder of distorted facial expression and neurogenic bladder with resultant urogenital tract damage. We report on an 8-year-old boy of consanguineous Arab parents with inverted facial expression upon laughing and renal changes as a consequence of a neurogenic bladder in addition to hydrocephalus due to stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius. We suggest that the association is not fortuitous and probably widens the spectrum of urofacial syndrome or represents a distinct entity mimicking the urofacial syndrome.

Intervertebral discitis in childhood.

Many paediatricians are unaware of the disease entity of discitis, which must be included in the differential diagnosis of several acute and subacute diseases of infancy and childhood. In order to draw attention to this disorder, three Swedish and two Arabic children, aged from 9 months to 3 years, are jointly presented. The onset of symptoms was 2-4 weeks prior to admission.

Macrosomia, microphthalmia, +/- cleft palate and early infant death: a new autosomal recessive syndrome.

An Arab girl with macrosomia, severe microphthalmia and early infant death is reported. Four other sibs were similarly affected; three of them had median cleft palate. All five sibs showed respiratory infections in early life and died either unexpectedly or because of a documented overwhelming infection.