Background: Several infectious lung diseases often develop in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), especially during immunosuppressive medication, including disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The present study aimed to determine the role of respiratory tract bacterial infection in RA activity. Methods: Blood and sputum samples were collected from 31 patients with RA and 12 healthy subjects as control. The bacterial isolates were isolated and identified in collected sputum by biochemical tests and Vitec 2 system. Results: In the present study, thirty-one patients with RA were compared with 12 healthy subjects. Eight patients with RA were not infected with pathogenic bacteria (RA-NIPB) (25.8%). Twenty-three RA patients were infected with pathogenic bacteria (RA-IPB) (74.19%). From 23 RA-IPB, 10 RA patients were infected with Staphylococcus aureus, 6 RA patients were infected with Klebsiella pneumonia, 4 RA patients were infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae, and 3 RA patients were infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. No pathogenic bacteria were isolated from the sputum of a healthy subjects. There was no significant difference between RA-NIPB and RA-IPB in terms of the level of disease activity score DAS28. Conclusion: The current study showed that patients with RA have a higher incidence of being infected with pathogenic bacteria than the healthy control group. No significant effect of bacterial species infection on the level of DAS28. The present study is the pioneer study that showed no effect of bacterial respiratory infections and different RA treatments on RA disease activity.
The crystalline zeolite, namely faujasite type Y with SiO2/Al2O3 mole ratio of 5 was used as raw material for preparation of isomerization catalysts. A 0.5 wt % Pt/HY-zeolite catalyst was prepared by impregnation of the decationized HY-zeolite with chloroplatinic acid. The dectionized HY-zeolite was treated with HCl, HNO3 and HI promoters using different normalities and with different concentrations of Sn, Ni and Ti promoters by impregnation method to obtain acidic and metallic promoters' catalysts, respectively. A 0.5 wt% of Pt was added to above catalysts using impregnation method. Isomerization of n-hexane was carried out at different prepared catalysts. The isomerization temperature varied from 250–325° C over weight hourly space
... Show MoreIt 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
... Show MoreIntroduction and Aim: Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) are the key regulators controlling the activity of Treg cells, which are crucial for maintaining immune tolerance and reducing autoimmune reactions. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential utility of elevated levels of FOXP3 and IL-10 gene expression as a diagnostic indicator in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and Methods: The study used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to examine the expression levels of FOXP3 and IL-10 transcripts in whole blood samples from Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A group of healthy control subjects were also included in the study. Results: In blood samples taken fr
... Show MoreBackground: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res
... Show MoreTumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists’ therapy are expensive and has a non-responsive rate between 30% to 40% in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Genetic variation plays a vital role in the responsiveness to this type of therapy.The aim of this study is to investigate if the presence of genetic polymorphism in the TNF-α gene promoter region at locations -376 G/A (rs1800750), -806 C/T (rs4248158), and -1031 T/C (rs1799964) affects rheumatoid arthritis patient's tendency to be a non-responder to etanercept.
Eighty RA patients on etanercept (ETN) for at least six months were recruited from the Rheumatology Unit at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Based on The European League Against Rheumatism response (EULAR) criteria, patient
... Show MoreThe present study was carried out to determine the bacterial isolates and study their antimicrobial susceptibility in case of burned wound infections. 70 burn wound swabs were taken from patients, who presented invasive burn wound infection from both sex and average age of 3-58 years, admitted to teaching medical Al- Kendi hospital from October 2007 to June 2008. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found to be the most common isolate (48.9%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (24.4%), Citrobacter braakii (13.3%), Enterobacter spp. (11.1%), Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (11.1%), Proteus vulgaris (6.66%), Corynebacterium spp. (6.66%), Micrococcus (6.66%), Proteus mirabilis (4.44%), Enterococcus faecalis (4.44%), E.coli (4.44%), Klebsiella spp. (2.22
... Show MoreEffect of Chlorococcum humicola alcoholic algae extract was studied on the growth of, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumonia, which were isolated from contaminated water. The extract of Ch. humicola showed a high efficiency in reducing the numbers of the two types of bacteria. . The removal rate of K. pneumonia were 0.0, 48.4 and 57.0, The removal rate of P. aeruginosa were 63.1, 79.8 and 82.9% after24,48, 72 h respectively. The results improved that the K. pneumonia is more sensitive than P. aeruginosa for algae extract concentrations used in study ,and the beast effective time is 24h for the two bacterial species The aim of the study was to eliminate microorganisms using the Alcoholic algae extract. Especially P. aeruginosa and
... Show MoreBackground: Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that affects mainly the synovial membranes and articular structures and is characterized by chronic, systemic inflammation involving multiple joints.Being a synovial joint, the Temporomandibular Joint is subject to the same disorders affecting other synovial joints, including RA.Beside it was considered as a specific serological marker for diagnosing RA disease ,antibodies to cyclic citrullinated peptide have proven to be associated with joints destruction, though; it may play a potential role in the prediction of the disease severity. Materials and Methods: Sixty nine individuals (69) were enrolled in this study, forty nine (49) were patients diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a
... Show MoreThis study aimed at isolating uropathogenic Escherichia coli from urinary tract infections (UTIs) of human and cattle to examine the molecular diversity and phylogenetic relationship of the isolates. A total of 100 urine samples were collected from UTIs of human and cattle. The isolates identification was done using routine diagnostic methods and confirmed by Vitek2. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested against 10 antimicrobials. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was applied to identify the genetic diversity among E. coli isolates from human and animal origin by using five different octamer primers. The gelJ software for the phylogenetic analysis created Dendrograms. Out of 50 human urine samples, E.
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