Abstract Background Infections with helminths are associated with deficient sanitary facilities, unsafe human waste disposal, inadequate and lack of safe drinking water, and low socioeconomic status. Objective To determine the prevalence of some gastrointestinal helminths among Iraqi people, and association of infections with age, sex, and region in Iraq. Method This study is retrospective, including reported cases of infections using an available surveillance database from January 2013 to December 2013 of all provinces of Iraq by the Ministry of Health. Result The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal helminthiasis was 1.39%. Enterobius vermicularis found to be the predominant helminth parasite. No significant (P < 0.05) relationship was found between sex and infection, although male individuals tended to show greater helminthiasis, while a significant relationship was found between age and infection. The common infections were more frequent among the 5-14 year age group. We found a lower prevalence of helminth infections in the northern (Ninevah, Suleimaniyah, Ta’mim, Erbil, and Dohuk) and middle Euphrates (Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Qadisiyah, and Muthanna) region provinces, compared with the middle (Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, and Salahuddin) and southern (Wasit, Dhi-qar, Misan, and Basrah) region provinces where the prevalence was higher. Conclusion In this study, we found lower prevalence of infections in Iraq than similar studies conducted in other parts
Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1) is an essential marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but its relationship with pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and inflammatory markers has been scantily covered in extant literature. To evaluate the level of CTHRC1 protein in the sera of 100 RA patients and 25 control and compare levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 10 (IL-10), RA disease activity (DAS28), and inflammatory factors. Higher significant serum levels of CTHRC1 (29.367 ng/ml), TNF-α (63.488 pg/ml), and IL-10 (67.1 pg/ml) were found in patient sera as compared to that in control sera (CTHRC1 = 15.732 ng/ml, TNF-α = 33.788 pg/ml, and IL-10 = 25.122 pg/ml). There was no significant correlation be
... Show MoreThe research dealt with a comparative study between some semi-parametric estimation methods to the Partial linear Single Index Model using simulation. There are two approaches to model estimation two-stage procedure and MADE to estimate this model. Simulations were used to study the finite sample performance of estimating methods based on different Single Index models, error variances, and different sample sizes , and the mean average squared errors were used as a comparison criterion between the methods were used. The results showed a preference for the two-stage procedure depending on all the cases that were used
Background: Cigarette smoking is an important risk factor that has a clear strong association with the prevalence and severity of chronic periodontitis (CP). Salivary biochemical parameters may be affected by both smoking and CP together. Materials and methods: Eighty systematically healthy male patients were included in this study. They were grouped based on their periodontal and smoking status. Unstimulated whole saliva (UWS) was collected from all subject. Salivary flow rate (FR) was measured during sample collection. Parameters such as salivary pH, total protein (TP), albumin (Alb), total fucose (TF), protein bound fucose (PBF) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were estimated. Results: Salivary flow rate was not altered regarding to smoking
... Show MoreCollagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1) is an essential marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but its relationship with pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and inflammatory markers has been scantily covered in extant literature. To evaluate the level of CTHRC1 protein in the sera of 100 RA patients and 25 control and compare levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 10 (IL-10), RA disease activity (DAS28), and inflammatory factors. Higher significant serum levels of CTHRC1 (29.367 ng/ml), TNF-α (63.488 pg/ml), and IL-10 (67.1 pg/ml) were found in patient sera as compared to that in control sera (CTHRC1 = 15.732 ng/ml, TNF-α = 33.788 pg/ml, and IL-10 = 25.122 pg/ml). There was no significant correlati
... Show MoreSeven fish species were collected from the drainage network at Al-Madaen region, south of
Baghdad with the aid of a cast net during the period from March to August 1993. These fishes
were infected with 22 parasite species (seven sporozoans, three ciliated protozoans, seven
monogeneans, two nematodes, one acanthocephalan and two crustaceans) and one fungus
species. Among such parasites, Chloromyxum wardi and Cystidicola sp. are reported here for
the first time in Iraq. In addition, 11 new host records are added to the list of parasites of
fishes of Iraq.
Background: Listeria monocytogenes, a member of the genus Listeria, is widely distributed in agricultural environments, such as soil, manure and water. The genus of Listeria bacteria is about 15-17 species. It is a pathogenic bacterium that can cause a rare but dangerous infection called listeriosis.
Objectives: Studying the rate of salads contaminated with Listeria bacteria. and Listeria monocytogenes according to International, Arabic and Iraqi specifications and finding the correlation between commitments of restaurants to standard health conditions with contamination with these bacteria
Methods: The study included
... Show MoreAccording to the prevalence of multidrug resistance bacteria, especially Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in which the essential mechanism of drug resistance is the ability to possess an efflux pump by which extrusion of antimicrobial agents usually occurs, this study aims to detect the presence of mexB multidrug efflux gene in some local isolates of this bacteria that show resistance towards three antibiotics, out of five. Sensitivity test to antibiotics was performed on all isolates by using meropenem (10μg/disc), imipenem (10μg/disc), amikacin (30 μg/disc), ciprofloxacin (5μg/disc) and ceftazidime (30 μg/disc). Conventional PCR results showed the presence of mexB gene (244bp) in four isolates out of ten (40%). In addition,25, 50μg/ml of cur
... Show MoreSoil that has been contaminated by heavy metals is a serious environmental problem. A different approach for forecasting a variety of soil physical parameters is reflected spectroscopy is a low-cost, quick, and repeatable analytical method. The objectives of this paper are to predict heavy metal (Ti, Cr, Sr, Fe, Zn, Cu and Pb) soil contamination in central and southern Iraq using spectroscopy data. An XRF was used to quantify the levels of heavy metals in a total of 53 soil samples from Baghdad and ThiQar, and a spectrogram was used to examine how well spectral data might predict the presence of heavy metals metals. The partial least squares regression PLSR models performed well in pr