Background: Osteoarthritis is a complicated, chronic disorder of cartilage and bone, associated with homeostasis of bio-elements. The current study aims to assess the role of serum progranulin levels among Iraqi patients with knee osteoarthritis. Patients and Methods: The study encompassed 50 patients aged 52.50 ± 3.12 years (25 males and 25 females), admitted to the at the Baghdad Medical City through the period from November 2021 to March 2022. All individuals were identified by physicians in a Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic and the clinical data was collected along with the assess¬ment of biochemical parameters. Fasting serum glucose, lipid profile, calcium, magnesium, alkaline phosphatase, vitamin D3, and progranulin levels were determined. Results: All patients in this study had higher levels of serum glucose and dyslipidemia with significant increases (p < 0.05) in alkaline phosphatase and progranulin levels and considerable reduced (p < 0.05) in serum calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D3 as compared to healthy group. Additionally, hypovitaminosis D were appeared in all patients and progranulin levels were (56.30±8.50 ng/mL) vs. (40.45 ± 8.90 ng/mL) in control group with OR and CI= 1.54 (0.97-2.58). Conclusions: Inflammation has an integral role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. Serum vitamin D3 level is considerably low in patients with knee osteoarthritis paralleled to healthy individuals. However, this study demonstrates increased progranulin levels in knee osteoarthritis patients and associates with vitamin D level, disease activity, and inflammation among those patients. Keywords: Knee osteoarthritis, Calcium, Magnesium, Alkaline phosphatase,Vitamin D3, Progranulin.
The study aims to reveal the level of professional development in basic education schools from the male and female teachers’ viewpoint in the Sultanate of Oman. It further aims to examine its relationship with some variables in light of Sullivan theory, and the differences in the level of professional development (teachers’ skills, professional participation, professional development problems) according to the gender variable, and the educational stage (first cycle/ second cycle). The study sample consisted of (93) teachers distributed as such: (46) male teachers, and (47) female teachers. A questionnaire was prepared and applied to measure the level of the professional development of the male and female teachers. The questionnaire c
... Show MoreThe world faced many communication challenges in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic, the most important of which was the continuation of schooling. Therefore, the research aimed to analyze the current reality of the studied universities in terms of strengths and weaknesses and measure the implementing level of quality requirements of e-learning. This research studies the impact of knowledge sharing in its dimensions (behavior, organizational culture, work teams, and technology) on the e-learning quality and its dimensions (e-learning management, educational content, evaluation ,and evaluation). After conducting the survey, there was a difference in the universities’ application of the quality requirements of e-learning, as the study
... Show MoreThis study investigates the requirements of total quality management (TQM) and the determinants affecting its application in Al-Zaman newspaper, one of Iraq’s leading private press institutions. The research employed a survey methodology, using a structured questionnaire administered to 30 participants representing journalistic, administrative, and technical staff. Five TQM dimensions, each measured through four indicators, were assessed to capture the perceptions of employees regarding the availability and effectiveness of quality practices. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results revealed that while senior management at Al-Zaman demonstrates formal support for TQM, there is a
... Show MoreBackground: In young adults, multiple sclerosis is a prevalent chronic inflammatory demyelinating condition. It is characterized by white matter affection, but many individuals also have significant gray matter involvement. A double-inversion recovery pulse (DIR) pattern was recently proposed to improve the visibility of multiple sclerosis lesions. Objective: To find out how well a DIR sequence, FLAIR, and T2-weighted pulse sequences can find MS lesions in the supratentorial and infratentorial regions. Methods: A total of 37 patients with established diagnoses of multiple sclerosis were included in this cross-sectional study. Brain MRI was done using double inversion recovery, T2, and FLAIR sequences. The number of lesions was count
... Show MoreBackground: Arterial stiffness is related with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease events. Patients with atherosclerotic disease show to have larger diameters, reduced arterial compliance and lower flow velocities. Aim of study : To compare between patients of two age groups with concomitant diseases diabetes and hypertension in regard to intima media thickness and blood flow characteristics in order to estimate the blood perfusion to the brain via the common and internal carotid arteries. Subject and Methods : 40 patients with (diabetic and hypertension) diseases were enrolled , they were classified according to age. Color Doppler and B mode ultrasound was used to determine lumen Diameter (D), Intima – media thickness (IMT)
... Show MoreAsthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of respiratory airways characterized by distinctive history of respiratory symptoms due to variable airflow obstruction which reverses either spontaneously or in response to certain medications. Acetylcholine is a parasympathetic neurotransmitter which plays fundamental roles in the development of persistent asthma. Treatment guidelines recommend using medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids in addition to another controller bronchodilator instead of using high doses inhaled steroid alone for treatment of moderate to severe persistent asthma. The inhaled long acting muscarinic antagonist, tiotropium, was approved recently to control unresponsive asthma to inhaled corticosteroid with or without a long
... Show MoreObjective: Atorvastatin therapy is now recommended for reduction of cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM), based on convincing evidence of reductions in mortality and vascular events in major clinical outcome trials. The aim is to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin on proinflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-6), HbA1c andleptin in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Sixty fivenewly diagnosed T2DM patients were randomly allocated into 2 groups; group I treated with metformin only; in group II atorvastatin was added with metformin. Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled as control group. While maintaining their usual eating habits, fasting blood samples were collected at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment. Results
... Show MoreConsistent with developments emerging environmental and canaccept by Iraq of the opportunities and challenges ahead in many fields,including economic areas, it requires the face of those developments andadaptation by adopting a lot of related concepts, including the concept ofcorporate governance and commitment to its principles, standards andmechanisms, especially those related to the formation of audit committeesand identify the tasks and duties entrusted to its members and terms oftheir independence as well as the rehabilitation of both scientific andpractical manner that is consistent with the interests of shareholders andother stakeholders in the companies, including banks, research sample, theresearch aims to shed light on the conc
... Show MoreThe current research aims to identify: 1. The level of mathematical construct among the Department of Mathematics students in the colleges of education and basic education. 2. The level of effective mathematical operations in both sides of the brain at the Department of Mathematics students in the colleges of education and basic education. 3. The strength and direction of the correlation between the mathematical construct and effective mathematical operations on both sides of the brain at the Department of Mathematics students in the colleges of Education and Basic Education. To investigate the research objectives, the researcher formulated zero-main hypothesis for each aim and from the same hypothesis, three sub-zero hypotheses are deri
... Show MoreAbstract
quality issue is the only issue the interesting in recent years of the last century, but also came out of sync with the other issue is the issue of environment, Where they have become represent two sides of one currency, challenges faced by the world and raised by the environmental problems have made industrial organizations pay great attention to the environment by improving their environmental performance, and that's where the oil industry is one of the most dangerous industries, influential and damaging to the environment due to the organizations move away from oil for adoption The application of EMS then a tool to improve environmental performance has been chosen sam
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