Toxoplasma gondii is a unique intracellular parasite, which infect a large proportion of the world population, but uncommonly causes clinically significant disease. The present study was performed to estimate the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in 400 apparently healthy blood donor males, their ages were between 18 and 57 years using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, and to examine the effects of infection on total testosterone, free testosterone and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels in their sera. Seroprevalence showed 10 (2.5 %) and 121 (30 %) of them had IgM and IgG antibodies respectively. Both acute and chronic toxoplasmosis in males recorded higher significant (P < 0.05) mean concentration for total and free testosterone hormone, they were 12.188 ± 0.73, 7.837 ± 0.52 ng/ml and 44.121 ± 1.76, 27.984 ± 0.94 pg/ml respectively. The mean concentration of FSH revealed non-significant (P < 0.05) differences in both disease activities, they were 6.41 ± 0.47 and 6.515 ± 0.51 IU/ml respectively. © 2013, Indian Society for Parasitology.
Background: Interleukine-2 is a multifunctional cytokine, considered a central regulator of host resistance against a variety of pathogens and has been recently demonstrated to exert an active role in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of scaling and root planning on level of IL-2 in serum and saliva of patients with chronic generalized periodontitis, in relation to clinical parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 subjects were enrolled, of which 25 had chronic generalized periodontitis and 25 periodontally healthy subjects as control. The clinical parameters included: gingival index, pocket probing depth, clinical attachment level and bleeding on probing. The level of
... Show MoreBackground: Moral distress, as one of the most important issues in the nursing profession, can negatively affect the healthcare system. Purpose: To examine the effect of moral distress on professional quality work life. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study a non-probability sampling method used and total sample collected was (126) of ICU nurses. Results: Moral distress, BO, STS, and, CS among ICUs nurses were moderate. Conclusion: Nurses in ICUs suffered from moderate MD which that effected their BO and STS, and the result can be negative effects on quality of care. Although MD did not affect nurses' CS, it is still an important issue that nurses may face in ICUs
Forty six Iraqi women with PCOS were involved in this study . They were treated with metformin alone and with antioxidant agents (vitamin E or C).It was found that all patients who treated with metformin or with combination of metformin with antioxidant agents showed significant decrease in hirsutism score. The treatment of metformin with antioxidant agents is of great benefit in treatment of hirsutism in PCOS due to that there was no worsening effect after treatment. This may indicate that antioxidant agents may participate in alleviation of hirsutism so it can be said that oxidative stress may play an important role in developing of hirsutism in PCOS.
Abdominal fat synthesizes a variety of adipokines, including vaspin and chemerin, that affect the resistance to insulin. This research was conducted to demonstrate the effect of pioglitazone, one insulin sensitizer used to decrease insulin resistance, on these adipokines in obese patients with polycystic ovary (PCOS). Twenty-five obese women with PCOS were treated with pioglitazone 15mg/bid for 12 weeks. Modifications in fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum fasting insulin (FSI), chemerin and vaspin serum levels, follicle stimulation hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (T), and in baseline and post-therapy were assessed. Body mass index decreased without any substantial variance after 12 weeks of piogl
... Show MoreThis work examines numerically the effects of particle size, particle thermal conductivity and inlet velocity of forced convection heat transfer in uniformly heated packed duct. Four packing material (Aluminum, Alumina, Glass and Nylon) with range of thermal conductivity (from200 W/m.K for Aluminum to 0.23 W/m.K for Nylon), four particle diameters (1, 3, 5 and 7 cm), inlet velocity ( 0.07, 0.19 and 0.32 m/s) and constant heat flux ( 1000, 2000 and 3000 W/ m 2) were investigated. Results showed that heat transfer (average Nusselt number Nuav) increased with increasing packing conductivity; inlet velocity and heat flux, but decreased with increasing particle size.Also, Aluminum average Nusselt number is about (0.85,2.
... Show MoreThe study aims to identify the impact of the implementation of the integrated education strategy in the curriculum of the Arabic language for the seventh grade on the academic achievement in the schools of the capital Amman. The researcher adopted the experimental method, where two divisions of the seventh grade students were chosen from the secondary school for girls. The sample of the study was 60 students divided into two equal groups: 30 students represented the experimental group (A) and (30) students represented the control group. To collect the needed data, a test of (40) Multiple Choices was used. The results showed statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group who were taught acc
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