Pregabalin versus Gabapentin Efficacy in the Management of Neuropathic Pain Associated with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome

Laith Thamer Al-Ameri,Mohammed Emad Shukri,Ekhlas Khalid Hameed,Ahmed Abed Marzook 대한신경외과학회 2024 Journal of Korean neurosurgical society Vol.67 No.2

Objective : Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) is a common long-term complication following spine surgeries characterized by chronic persistent pain; different strategies of management were employed to deal with it. This clinical trial aims to compare the efficacy of Pregabalin and Gabapentin in the management of this condition. Methods : A double-blind, randomized, comparative study (clinical trial registry NCT05324761 on 11th April 2022) with two parallel arms with Pregabalin and Gabapentin were used in arms one and two, respectively. Visual analog scale was used for basal and endpoint assessment of pain. T-test and analysis of covariance were used to deal with different variables. A pairwise test was used to compare pairs of means. Results : Of 66 patients referred to the trial, 64 were eligible, with 60 patients completing the 30 days trial. Both pregabalin and gabapentin effectively reduce pain, with significant p-values of 0.001 for each group. However, the pregabalin group was superior to gabapentin in pain reduction (p=0.001). Gender was an insignificant factor (p=0.574 and p=0.445 for the pregabalin and gabapentin groups, respectively, with a non-significant reduction (p=0.393) for both groups in total. Location of stenosis before surgery and type of surgery performed show non-significant effect on pain reduction for both groups. Conclusion : Both pregabalin and gabapentin effectively and safely relieve neuropathic pain associated with FBSS; pregabalin was significantly more effective irrespective of the patients’ gender.

ASYMPTOTIC-NUMERICAL METHOD FOR SINGULARLY PERTURBED DIFFERENTIAL DIFFERENCE EQUATIONS OF MIXED-TYPE

SALAMA, A.A.,AL-AMERY, D.G. The Korean Society for Computational and Applied M 2015 Journal of applied mathematics & informatics Vol.33 No.5

A computational method for solving singularly perturbed boundary value problem of differential equation with shift arguments of mixed type is presented. When shift arguments are sufficiently small (o(ε)), most of the existing method in the literature used Taylor's expansion to approximate the shift term. This procedure may lead to a bad approximation when the delay argument is of O(ε). The main idea for this work is to deal with constant shift arguments, which are independent of ε. In the present method, we construct the formally asymptotic solution of the problem using the method of composite expansion. The reduced problem is solved numerically by using operator compact implicit method, and the second problem is solved analytically. Error estimate is derived by using the maximum norm. Numerical examples are provided to support the theoretical results and to show the efficiency of the proposed method.

Asymptotic-numerical method for singularly perturbed differential difference equations of mixed-type

A.A. Salama,D.G. Al-Amery 한국전산응용수학회 2015 Journal of applied mathematics & informatics Vol.33 No.5

A computational method for solving singularly perturbed boundary value problem of differential equation with shift arguments of mixed type is presented. When shift arguments are sufficiently small $(o(\varepsilon))$, most of the existing method in the literature used Taylor's expansion to approximate the shift term. This procedure may lead to a bad approximation when the delay argument is of $O(\varepsilon)$. The main idea for this work is to deal with constant shift arguments, which are independent of $\varepsilon$. In the present method, we construct the formally asymptotic solution of the problem using the method of composite expansion. The reduced problem is solved numerically by using operator compact implicit method, and the second problem is solved analytically. Error estimate is derived by using the maximum norm. Numerical examples are provided to support the theoretical results and to show the efficiency of the proposed method.

Strengthening of steel-concrete composite beams with composite slab

Mahbube Subhani,Muhammad Ikramul Kabir,Riyadh Al-Ameri 국제구조공학회 2020 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.34 No.1

Steel-concrete composite beam with profiled steel sheet has gained its popularity in the last two decades. Due to the ageing of these structures, retrofitting in terms of flexural strength is necessary to ensure that the aged structures can carry the increased traffic load throughout their design life. The steel ribs, which presented in the profiled steel deck, limit the use of shear connectors. This leads to a poor degree of composite action between the concrete slab and steel beam compared to the solid slab situation. As a result, the shear connectors that connects the slab and beam will be subjected to higher shear stress which may also require strengthening to increase the load carrying capacity of an existing composite structure. While most of the available studies focus on the strengthening of longitudinal shear and flexural strength separately, the present work investigates the effect of both flexural and longitudinal shear strengthening of steel-concrete composite beam with composite slab in terms of failure modes, ultimate load carrying capacity, ductility, end-slip, strain profile and interface differential strain. The flexural strengthening was conducted using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) or steel plate on the soffit of the steel I-beam, while longitudinal shear capacity was enhanced using post-installed high strength bolts. Moreover, a combination of both the longitudinal shear and flexural strengthening techniques was also implemented (hybrid strengthening). It is concluded that hybrid strengthening improved the ultimate load carrying capacity and reduce slip and interface differential strain that lead to improved composite action. However, hybrid strengthening resulted in brittle failure mode that decreased ductility of the beam.

Estimations of Parameters in Multi-component Series Systems Using Masked Data

Sarhan Ammar M.,Abouammoh A.M.,Al-Ameri Mansour The Korean Reliability Society 2006 International Journal of Reliability and Applicati Vol.7 No.1

The exact cause of the system's failure is often unknown in the masked system lifetime data. In such type of data, there are two observable quantities, namely (i) the systems time to failure and (ii) the set of systems components that contains the component, which might cause the system to fail. Our objective in this paper is to use the maximum likelihood procedure in the presence of masked data to make inference for the reliability of the system's components. We assume a multi-component series system where each component has a constant failure rate. Different cases that permit for closed form solutions of point estimates are considered. The results obtained in this paper generalize other published results.

Estimations of Parameters in Multi - component Series Systems Using Masked Data

Ammar M. Sarhan,A. M. Abouammoh,Mansour Al-Ameri 한국신뢰성학회 2006 International Journal of Reliability and Applicati Vol.7 No.1

INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT UV EXPOSURE TIME ON THE CFRP/ALUMINUM SINGLE LAP JOINTS STRENGTH AND FRACTURE MODES

Salah Mahdi Khaleel,Bernard Rolfe,Riyadh Al-Ameri,Tim Hiliditch 한국자동차공학회 2019 International journal of automotive technology Vol.20 No.2

The urging need to reduce the harmful emissions required a thorough investigations into the methods of utilizing the dissimilar lightweight materials in modern automobile, aviation and marine industries. With the exception use of dissimilar materials, traditional joining methods become limited or incapable to maintain safety standards. The adhesive bonding, therefore, seems an ideal choice to overcome this limitation due to uniform stress distribution, fatigue resistance and sound isolation. However, the role of environmental degradation become vital in the areas where the joints exposed directly or indirectly to the sunlight, humidity and extreme change in the temperature. With such key industries, intensive work to comply with safety standards are crucial. The current work devoted to examining the influence of Ultra-Violet (UV) exposure on three different Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) setup of Aluminum-CFRP single lap joint with respect to strength and fracture mode. The samples exposed to the specified UV dosage of three exposure duration then tested mechanically based on ASTM standards. The outcomes indicate that the fracture modes are highly affected by the CFRP orientation as well as the UV exposure time. Moreover, the joint strength decreases with increases of the UV exposure time.