Researchers have recently increased their focus on the link between autoimmune diseases and infections. Most of the recent research indicates that silent human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), may have diverse roles in the initiation, development, and exacerbation of autoimmune diseases, such as coeliac Disease (CD) and inflammatory bowel disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of HCMV infection in Iraqi patients with CD. Serum samples were obtained from 60 patients with CD, and from 60 healthy subjects. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine the Anti-Transglutaminase IgG/IgA, Anti-gliadin IgA/ IgG, as well as the HCMV IgM/ IgG levels in the serum samples. Significantly higher percentage of positivity for seru

KE Sharquie, R Hayani, J Al-Rawi, A Noaimi, SH Radhy, CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY, 2010

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di

Background: Congenital cardiac defects have a wide spectrum of severity in infants. About 30-40% of patients with congenital cardiac defects will be symptomatic in the 1^st year of life, while the diagnosis was established in 60% of patients by the 1^st month of age.

Objectives: To identify the occurrence of specific types of CHD among hospitalized patients and to evaluate of growth of patients by different congenital heart lesions.

Methods: A retrospective study, done on ninety-six patients (51 male and 45 female) with congenital heart disease (CHD) admitted to central teaching hospital of pediatrics, Baghdad from 1^st September 2009 to 30

Renal function tests are commonly used in clinical practice to look for renal disease, the most common includes the serum urea, uric acid and creatinine. Heart failure patients have a higher incidence of renal function test abnormalities than individuals who do not have heart failure disease. Fifty subjects of adults (male) were divided in to two groups, 25 subjects (healthy) as control (group1) and 25 subjects with heart failure (group 2). Our results indicate that serum uric acid, urea, and creatinine values were significantly elevated (P≤0.05) in patients group (2) compared with healthy group (1). The results also showed, the effect of age categories on uric acid blood urea nitrogen and creatinine values (P≤0.05) and there were no si

 Background: The normal decline in systolic blood pressure during recovery phase of treadmill exercise dose not occur in most patients with coronary artery disease, in others recovery values systolic blood pressure may even exceed the peak exercise value. Objectives: Treadmill exercise test parameters indicating the presence and extent of coronary artery disease have traditionally included such as exercise duration, blood pressure and ST-segment response to exercise. The three –minute systolic blood pressure ratio is another important indicator of presence and significance of coronary artery disease is useful and obtainable measure that can be applied in all patients who are undergoing stress testing for evaluation of suspected is

The haplotype association analysis has been proposed to capture the collective behavior of sets of variants by testing the association of each set instead of individual variants with the disease.Such an analysis typically involves a list of unphased multiple-locus genotypes with potentially sparse frequencies in cases and controls.It starts with inferring haplotypes from genotypes followed by a haplotype co-classification and marginal screening for disease-associated haplotypes.Unfortunately,phasing uncertainty may have a strong effects on the haplotype co-classification and therefore on the accuracy of predicting risk haplotypes.Here,to address the issue,we propose an alternative approach:In Stage 1,we select potential risk genotypes inste

Background:  Imaging has a critical role in the diagnosis and evaluation of cardiac diseases, beginning with chest radiography and fluoro-scopy and progressing to coronary angio-graphy, echocardiography, nuclear medicine and recently  multidetector computed tomo-graphy (MDCT) as well as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging

Objective: To highlight the role of Multi-detector CT in the evaluation of coronary artery disease and its importance of being noninvasive diagnostic technique.

Methods: A cross sectional study for 20 patients. Patients were asked to fast 6 hours prior to the examination and the patients with heart rates above 65 beats per minute were given cardio-

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with increased oxidative stress and impaired endothelial function. Ticagrelor treatment improves antioxidant properties in addition to its antiplatelet effects. This study investigated the impact of Ticagrelor treatment on serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and other biochemical parameters in PAD patients. It also evaluated the potential diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of specific biomarkers based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Seventy individuals were categorized into healthy control (n=40), baseline PAD patients not on Ticagrelor (B-PAD, n=30), and same PAD patients after treated with Ticagrelor (A-PAD, n=30). Parameters measured included SOD concent