Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disorder with various clinical types. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is significantly elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients compared with that of healthy controls. The aim of this study is to evaluate serum levels of GFAP in relation to disease activity in relapsing-remitting MS patients and to compare them with those of healthy controls. Method: This study involved 58 MS patients of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) type, 22 in an active stage of the disease and 36 in remission, and 50 healthy individuals as age- and sex-matched controls. Blood samples were taken from the patients at the MS Clinic of the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, and the serum levels of GFAP were determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Results: Mean GFAP serum levels in 22 patients presenting in the active state of the disease (6.47±3.39 ng/ml) and 36 cases in remission were (5.33±2.82 ng/ml) (p=0.074) were determined as indicated. When RRMS patients (n=58) were compared with the healthy controls (n=50, 1.89±1.21), the difference in serum levels of GFAP was statistically significant (p<0.001). The area under the curve of the serum measures of GFAP obtained through the receiver operating characteristics was 0.903, which was also statistically significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: GFAP biomarker is an indicator of disease activity in RRMS patients, and its serum level may correlate with the state of remission or exacerbation.
Background: University dental students perceived a higher level of stress prior to the final exam associated with raised salivary cortisol levels which could be considered as a useful noninvasive biomarker for measuring acute stress. Using a Helkimo anamnestic and clinical dysfunction scoring for temporomandibular disorders can give a better insight about the association of this marker and temporomandibular joint disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluation level of salivary cortisol in stressor students with temporomandibular disorder and the relation between this marker in relation to temporomandibular disorder severity. This might give a better understanding to the role of psychological stress as an etiological factor for developin
... Show MoreCorrosion behavior of aluminium in 0.6 mol. dm-3 NaCl solution in acidic medium 0.7 was investigated in the absence and presence of different concentrations of amino acid, methionine, as environmentally – friendly corrosion inhibitor over temperature range (293-308)K. The investigation involved electrochemical polarization method using potentiostatic technique and optical microscopy, the inhibition efficiency increased with an increase in inhibitor concentration but decreased with increase in temperature. Results showed that the inhibition occurs through adsorption of the inhibitor molecules on the metal surface and it was found to obey Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Some thermodynamic parameters ∆. and activation ener
... Show MoreIris recognition occupies an important rank among the biometric types of approaches as a result of its accuracy and efficiency. The aim of this paper is to suggest a developed system for iris identification based on the fusion of scale invariant feature transforms (SIFT) along with local binary patterns of features extraction. Several steps have been applied. Firstly, any image type was converted to grayscale. Secondly, localization of the iris was achieved using circular Hough transform. Thirdly, the normalization to convert the polar value to Cartesian using Daugman’s rubber sheet models, followed by histogram equalization to enhance the iris region. Finally, the features were extracted by utilizing the scale invariant feature
... Show MorePituitary adenomas are the anterior pituitary tumors. Patients with an Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor-Interacting Protein (AIP) mutation (AIP- mut) tend to have more aggressive tumors occurring at a younger age. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in many studies have been related to metabolic comorbidities in the general population. Study aims investigated the role of AIP gene SNPs with susceptibility to acromegaly pituitary- adenoma, with levels of LH, FSH, TSH, Testosterone, IGF1,GH, FT4 , Prolactin hormones and blood sugar levels. The study was conducted on a group of acromegaly patients, including 50 patients) both Genders( with hyperplasia of the ends, and apparently healthy control group. Genotyping of
... Show MoreHeat shock proteins (HSPs) are a group of intracellular proteins that promote proteins folding and unfolding under normal and/or stress conditions. In addition to their intracellular location, HSPs are found on the plasma membranes of stressed, but not normal, cells and in the extracellular milieu where they can trigger an immune response. For instance, the inducible form of heat shock protein 70 (HSPA1A) was found to be overexpressed, intra or extracellularly, by many types of stressed cells. In our study, we aim to investigate the levels of HSPA1A in the serum of untreated lung tumor patients and its expression in the tissues derived from lung tumors and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and healthy
... Show MoreIn this paper, we introduce new conditions to prove that the existence and boundedness of the solution by convergent sequences and convergent series. The theorem of Krasnoselskii, Lebesgue’s dominated convergence theorem and fixed point theorem are used to get some sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions. Furthermore, we get sufficient conditions to guarantee the oscillatory property for all solutions in this class of equations. An illustrative example is included as an application to the main results.
Historically, medicinal herbs have been utilized as an important origin of chemicals with particular therapeutic potentials, and they continue to be a great place to find new medication candidates. Parthenocissus quinquefolia L. is a member of the grape-growing family Vitaceae. It is indigenous to Central and North America. It is widely dispersed in Iraqi gardens and plant houses from north to south. Traditionally, it has many uses, like relieving constipation, treating jaundice, expectorant, emetic, and others. At the same time, its proven activities include antioxidant activity, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, thrombin inhibitor effect, and medicine for treating eyelid eczema. Parthenocissus quinquefolia contains valuable phytochemicals lik
... Show MoreMany people take protein supplements in an effort to gain muscle. However, there is some controversy as to whether this is really effective. There is evidence suggesting that consuming high level s of protein may in fact have negative side effects for health. The current study included 29 young Iraqi building muscles in two different groups (taken and not protein supplements) (age range=17-31 years), the cases were selected from family, friends, college students, and Gyms), from November 2014 to March 2015. A careful history was obtained from each volunteer including age, duration of sports, type of supplements, and family history of diseases. Some biochemical parameters like (glucose, urea, uric acid, creatinine, bilirubin, serum protei
... Show MoreOften times, especially in practical applications, it is difficult to obtain data that is not tainted by a problem that may be related to the inconsistency of the variance of error or any other problem that impedes the use of the usual methods represented by the method of the ordinary least squares (OLS), To find the capabilities of the features of the multiple linear models, This is why many statisticians resort to the use of estimates by immune methods Especially with the presence of outliers, as well as the problem of error Variance instability, Two methods of horsepower were adopted, they are the robust weighted least square(RWLS)& the two-step robust weighted least square method(TSRWLS), and their performance was verifie
... Show MoreBackground: Malignant lymphomas represent about 5% of all malignancy of the head and neck region which can involve lymph nodes as well as soft tissue and bone of the maxillofacial region. Apoptosis is considered a vital component of various processes including normal cell turnover, proper development and functioning of the immune system. Inappropriate apoptosis is a factor in many human conditions including neurodegenerative diseases, ischemic damage, autoimmune disorders and many types of cancer. Expression of p53 Proteins in Hodgkin׳s and Non Hodgkin׳s lymphomas suggested that it can help in monitoring of patients and the markers may aid in controlling the progression of lymphoma and detect the degree of aggressiveness of the diseas
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