The present study was set to demonstrate the prevalence of toxoplasmosis infection and its effects on patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) through determining their serum levels of anti-dsDNA and IL-18 antibodies. For this purpose, the sera from 132 SLE and/or toxoplasmosis patients and 30 healthy women, were collected. The study sample was divided into four groups of SLE, toxoplasmosis, SLE coinfected with toxoplasmosis, and healthy control. Anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies were examined for all the samples using ELISA kit. The results showed a high mean level of anti-Toxoplasma IgG among SLE patients coinfected with toxoplasmosis (104.8792±12.31585pg/ml) in comparison to that in toxoplasmosis patients (91.1705±12.57746pg/ml). However, the mean value of anti-dsDNA antibodies showed significant (P≤0.01) elevation in SLE patients and SLE patients coinfected with toxoplasmosis (71.2134±9.22131pg/ml and 72.3699±9.67917 pg/ml, respectively), compared to those infected with toxoplasmosis only and healthy control. Furthermore, the IL-18 mean value in the sera of the studied patients showed significant (P≤0.01) elevation (418.4000±43.18072pg/ml) in SLE patients with toxoplasmosis in comparison to SLE patients (354.4400±35.29257pg/ml). The present investigation suggests that the levels of anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies seem to increase in patients with SLE.
Abstract: Background: High percentage of diabetes patients complain from post extraction hemorrhage. Many types of hemostatic materials are used to stop bleeding after teeth extraction: diode lasers are good hemostatic agents owing to their highly absorption by hemoglobin therefore they are used in soft tissue procedures with relatively no effects on dental hard tissues due to their poorly absorption by water and hydroxyapatite. Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of diode laser to assist the clot formation after tooth extraction for type II diabetes patients with minimum temperature elevation to prevent periodontal destruction. Materials and methods: From 12 type II diabetes patients (7 males and 5 females wi
... Show MoreBackground: The discriminative power of the classical WHO parameters in relation to male fertility is quite low, because they only address few aspects of sperm quality and function. This has led investigators to focus their attention on the male gamete and in particular its genome.Objective: To explore which of the sperm DNA damage parameters measured by comet assay are more reliable, and their relations with the standard semen parameters.Methods: Study was done on 40 infertile men selected from couples attending the Institute of Embryo Reasearch and Infertility Treatment at Al-Kadhimiya City/ Baghdad in the period between February 2009 and May 2009, with a history of infertility of ≥1 years; and 15 healthy volunteers of proven fertili
... Show Morehe planning process is generally aimed at developing the city and making it meet the needs of different citizens. The green areas constitute one of the basic needs of the city and with the rapid and unusual growth in the size of cities, especially in the third world countries, which is often embodied in capitals. Which was achieved as a result of many reasons, including political, economic and social and even enshrined through some of the decisions that were issued and the city of Baghdad, but a clear example of these cities. The city and the environment are inseparable terms. The city is where people spend their lives and their daily experiences, and the environment is the center in w
... Show MoreInterleukin-6 (IL-6) is a proinflammatory cytokine implicated in the immunopathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB). TB is recognized worldwide as an important public health issue. To study the relationship between the age of patients with pulmonary TB and serum IL-6 levels, from the other hand, the severity of this disease with IL-6 levels. This study included 30 patients (16 female and 14 male) with pulmonary TB and 10 healthy persons (5 female and 5 male) as control group for comparison. An ELISA assay was used to quantify IL-6 in the sera. The results showed a significant increase of IL-6 levels with increase of age of patients, in (23-38) year old patients the IL-6 levels (median= 17.9 pg/ml, range 12.3-29.1), while in (50-70) year old patien
... Show MoreThis study was designed to evaluate the effect of anesthesia on thyroid hormones (T3, T4, rT3), thyrotropin(TSH), and cortisol levels in patients undergoing major urological surgery. The study included fifty patients scheduled for elective major urological surgery where 70% of the patients underwent general anesthesia, while30% underwent regional anesthesia. All patients were in stable control general conditions. The study showed that the thyroid hormones, thyrotropin and cortisol levels were affected with general anesthesia more than regional. The levels of these hormones responded to anesthetics and surgical stresses. This response was thought to be mainly mediated by afferent neurogenic impulses from the area of injury. Therefore, ab
... Show MoreMost dinoflagellate had a resting cyst in their life cycle. This cyst was developed in unfavorable environmental condition. The conventional method for identifying dinoflagellate cyst in natural sediment requires morphological observation, isolating, germinating and cultivating the cysts. PCR is a highly sensitive method for detecting dinoflagellate cyst in the sediment. The aim of this study is to examine whether CO1 primer could detect DNA of multispecies dinoflagellate cysts in the sediment from our sampling sites. Dinoflagellate cyst DNA was extracted from 16 sediment samples. PCR method using COI primer was running. The sequencing of dinoflagellate cyst DNA was using BLAST. Results showed that there were two clades of dinoflag
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