Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that is highly prevalent, leading to gradual cartilage distraction, and therefore is important to diagnose in the early stage. This study aimed to estimate the level of rheumatoid factor (RF) and Anti-citrullinated protein (Anti-ccp) in the serum of female patients. We also investigated several female reproductive hormones in the patients and compared their levels in the premenopausal and postmenopausal phases. The study included 88 female subjects, 50 suffering from signs of rheumatoid arthritis who were attending AL-Yarmouk teaching hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, and 38 without clinical signs of RA as a control group. The ELISA technique was used to estimate all the studied parameters. The resul

Cytokines play a prominent role in etiology and pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and one of these cytokines is interleukin-1β (IL-1β). The association between IL1B gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: rs16944) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a sample of Iraqi patients was investigated. Fifty-one RA patients (21 males and 30 females) were enrolled and their age range was 20 - 63 years (44.9 ± 1.5 years). In addition to patients, 45 apparently healthy control subjects were also enrolled in the study. They matched patients for ethnicity (Iraqis), gender (14 males and 31 females) and age (41.3 ± 1.3 years). Analysis of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) in RA patients and controls revealed that the IL1B ge

     Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflamed chronic autoimmune disease in which genetics and environment are the most common causative factors. Peptidyl arginine deiminase type IV (PADI4) is an enzyme responsible for the posttranslational conversion of arginine residues into citrulline. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a specific technique was used to determine gene polymorphism. One hundred twenty three patients molecularly confirmed with RA and sixty healthy control subjects were recruited. By applying the logistic regression analysis, some alleles and genotypes were associated with susceptibility to RA. Under the allelic model, C allele frequency was significantly increased in RA patients compared

It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 fem

The objective of this study is to determine levels of some pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-12 and SIL-2R) in pregnant women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and also to determine incidence of spontaneous abortion during first trimester in pregnant women with PCOS compared with non-PCOS pregnant women. This Study was performed on (93) women, consisted of: 1- (63) pregnant women during the first trimester, which included:A- (33)PCOS pregnant women and subdivided into the following groups: (20) successful pregnant PCOS, (7) blighted Ovum PCOS and (6) missed abortion PCOS. B- (30) non-PCOS pregnant women, which included: (27) successful pregnant control and (3) non-PCOS pregnant women were withdrawn from this study because of their abortion

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di

Rheumatoid arthritis (AR) is one of the chronic diseases resulting in many complications such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Any change in the lipid profiles and myocardial markers indicates cardiovascular disease risk, so this study is designed to monitor the pattern of lipid profiles and myocardial markers in newly diagnosed RA patients. Blood samples were collected from 70 Iraqi patients newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (male and female) and 30 healthy served as control. These individuals were aged 35-65 years. The serum samples were obtained to determine myocardial markers; included troponin, creatinine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase GOT; and lipid profiles; such as choleste

This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence rate of
toxoplasmosis among 294 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated with
methotrexate (MTX), 50 RA patients without treatment and 50 samples as
healthy control. Blood samples were collected and the presence of T.gondii
IgG and IgM antibodies was determined by using Enzyme linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) was
also estimated in serum of all subjects by using ELISA method too. The
seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis IgM and IgG in RA+MTX was
60(20.408%), and 98(33.33%), in RA patients 4(8%), and 18(36%) while,
it was 2(24%), 6(12%) in healthy group. Tumor necrosis factor alpha
(TNF-α) was also estimated in serum of a

Methotrexate (MTX) is one of the most effective medications to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Aserum of 60 Iraqi male patients suffering from RA as (G1) was newly diagnosis and the same patient in G1 after taking MTX as G2 and 40 Iraqi male healthy control as G3. Nesfatin-1 (Nf-1) is belong to the adipokine family withpleiotropic effect. Nf-1 has been found in different tissues, including stomach, pancreas, bone cells, cartilage and heart. Retinol binding protein (RBP4) was known as transpoter of retinol from its storage sites in the liver to the extrahepatic tissues. Moreover, RBP4 acts as adipokine and contributes in the pathophsyology of prototypic inflammatory disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The results showed a significant increas