Background: While warfarin and direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are used to manage thromboembolic events, they possess several features that impact adherence. Objective: To assess medication adherence and self-efficacy in patients receiving warfarin or DOAC treatment. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed at Ibn Al-Bitar Hospital in Baghdad from December 2022 to May 2023 on patients receiving either warfarin or DOACs. The Arabic version of the Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale (ARMS) questionnaire and the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease 6-Item Scale (SES6C) questionnaire were used to assess adherence and self-efficacy. Results: 181 patients were enrolled in the study, of whom 56.9% received warfarin an
... Show MoreAIM: The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of myeloproliferative disorders in a sample of Iraqi patients and to measure the changes in patients’ blood parameters. BACKGROUND: Myeloproliferative disorders are a group of neoplasms affecting the bone marrow progenitor cells characterized by excess cells with a risk of transforming to acute leukemia. There is a gap in knowledge about the prevalence of Iraqi population. Thus, we investigated the prevalence and distribution of different types of myeloproliferative disorders in a sample of Iraqi patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study is done at the National Center of Hematology from November 2019 till March 2020 on 75 patients who were diagnosed
... Show MoreThe H-Point Standard Addition Method (H-PSAM) has been applied for spectrophotometric simultaneous determination of Cimetidine and Erythromycin ethylsuccinate using Bromothymol Blue (BTB) as a chromogenic complexing agent in a buffer solution at pH 5.5.
Objectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and s
... Show MoreImage quality has been estimated and predicted using the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and SNR measurements in PET imaging using patient studies with liver cancer. Three groups of 59 patients (24 males and 35 females) were divided according to BMI. After intravenous injection of 0.1 mCi of 18F-FDG per kilogram of body weight, PET emission scans were acquired for (1, 1.5, and 3) min/bed position according to the weight of patient. Because liver is an organ of homogenous metabolism, five region of interest (ROI) were made at the same location, five successive slices of the PET/CT scans to determine the mean uptake (signal) values and its standard deviat
... Show MoreLipid disorders and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk are known to be increased in patients with diabetes mellitus. The effects of statins on serum lipid levels are well known; however, previous studies did not compare the effects of statins on serum lipid levels in diabetic patients with non-diabetic patients. To investigate the effects of Atorvastatin on serum lipid profiles in hyperlipidemic patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in comparison with hyperlipidemic patients without diabetes.This study was conducted on 33 type 2 diabetic patients & 34 non-diabetic patients; their age range was 40-80 years, all of them were hyperlipidemic, who had been administered 10, 20, & 40 mg daily of Atorvastatin and completed a 6-month foll
... Show MoreBackground: COVID-19 has caused a considerable number of hospital admissions in China since December 2019. Many COVID-19 patients experience signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome, and some are even in danger of dying. Objective: to measure the serum levels of D-dimer, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), and neopterin in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in Baghdad, Iraq. And to determine the cut-off values (critical values) of these markers for the distinction between the severe patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 and the controls. Materials and methods: In this case-control study, we collect blood from 89 subjects, 45 were severe patients hospitalized in many Baghdad medical centers who were diagnosed with COVID
... Show MoreBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 and Heparanase in salivary pleomorphic adenoma, and to correlate the two studied markers with each other and with clinicopathological parameters including: age, sex, tumor site and histopathological presentation. Methods: Sections of twenty five formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks specimens of salivary pleomorphic adenoma were immunostained using monoclonal antibodies (Fibroblast growth factor-2 and Heparanase) to assess their expression in this tumor. Results: The expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 and Heparanase were positive in all pleomorphic adenoma cases (100%). The positive expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 was signi
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