All major organs may be impacted by the connective disease systemic lupus erythematosus, a separate risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Adhesion molecules like intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecules (VCAM) can detect endothelial damage and dysfunction, which appear to play a crucial role. This study investigated whether people with SLE had elevated subclinical and clinical atherosclerosis risk factors. Traditional CAD risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia cannot entirely explain this elevation. It is thought that immunological dysfunction also increases CAD risk in SLE patients. The study aimed to assess early endothelial changes in SLE Iraqi female patients w

Background: Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is gram-negative bacterium, which causes Legionnaires’ disease as well as Pontiac fever. Objective: To determine the frequency of Legionella pneumophila in pneumonic patients, to determine the clinical utility of diagnosing Legionella pneumonia by urinary antigen testing (LPUAT) in terms of sensitivity and specificity, to compares the results obtained from patients by urinary antigen test with q Real Time PCR (RT PCR) using serum samples and to determine the frequency of serogroup 1 and other serogroups of L. pneumophila. Methods: A total of 100 pneumonic patients (community acquired pneumonia) were enrolled in this study during a period between October 2016 to April 2017; 92 sam

The main objective of this study is to determine whether the use of He-Ne Laser (632.8 nm wavelength and power 0.5 mW) is an eligible and effective tool to kill or reduce the cell viability of Candida albicans isolated from complete upper dentures. Twenty one swabs were taken from the complete upper dentures. Only six swabs showed positive cultures for C. albicans. The isolate was divided into two groups, group I was not irradiated (control), and group II was irradiated by He-Ne Laser for different periods (10, 15, 20, and 30) min. After irradiation, the results showed a significant reduction in the viable cell count and colonies diameters especially at exposure periods 10 and 15 min. Although the low power He-Ne Laser was not eradicating t

The virulent genes are the key players in the ability of the bacterium to cause disease. The products of such genes that facilitate the successful colonization and survival of the bacterium in or cause damage to the host are pathogenicity determinants. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of virulence factors (esp, agg, gelE, CylA) in E. faecalis isolated from diverse human clinical collected in Iraqi patient , as well as to assess their ability to form biofilm and to determine their haemolytic and gelatinase activities. Thirty-two isolates of bacteria Enterococcus faecalis were obtained, including 15 isolates (46.87%) of the urine, 6 isolates (18.75%) for each of the stool and uterine secretions, and 5 isolates (15.62%) of the wo

Twenty four bacterial isolates were identified from (10) places for wandering sellers in south Baghdad city (Bayaa garage). They were Staphylococcus aureus (9 isolates), Bacillus subtilis (6 isolates), Salmonella spp. (4 isolates) and Psudomonas aeruginosa (5 isolates). Agar well diffusion method was used to definition sensitivity of the fresh and dried juice of Capsicum grossum L. and Allium cepal L. at different concentrations. The fresh juice had no inhibitory activity against the bacterial isolates in contrast to the fresh juice , dried juice which show marked activity against all bacterial isolates at (30) mg/ml.