Background: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is inflammation of the sacroiliac joints and spine, associated with clinical symptoms such as pain and stiffness in the vertebral column, after which, in a considerable number of individuals, new bone growth occurs. Objective: The current research study attempted to find out whether the presence of SNPs in TNF receptor [TNFRSF1A (rs767455), TNFRSF1B (rs1061622)] encoding genes could influence patients' outcomes to etanercept in a specimen of Iraqi AS patients. Patients and methods: Sixty patients with established AS receiving only etanercept were selected to be enrolled in this research with a mean age of 40.75 ± 8.67 years, 51 patients of them were males and only 9 patients were females. Patients were classed as "responders" if just obtained a BASDAI 50 clinical response and as "non-responders" if they can't achieve a BASDAI 50 clinical elaboration after at least 6 months treatment. After PCR products amplification of purified blood DNA, TNF receptor (TNFRSF1A and TNFRSF1B) genes SNPs were established by Sanger sequencing. Results: The analysis of this study expressed that there was a significant incidence of TT genotype of rs1061622 (P = 0.022) in responder group, whereas the TG genotype of the same SNP was considerably present in the group that did not respond (P = 0.002). Finally, a non-significant difference existed in alleles and genotypes frequency between responder and non-responder groups of rs767455 SNP in TNFRSF1A gene. Conclusions: The wild TT genotype of rs1061622 predicts etanercept responsiveness in ankylosing spondylitis patients. The TG genotype of the same SNP increases the probability of non-responding
Background: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most commonly encountered valve lesion in modern clinical practice. Severe mitral regurgitation may cause systolic dysfunction. Left ventricular ejection fraction may not be an accurate measurement of LV function in patients with mitral insufficiency. Myocardial performance index (MPI) is a simple non invasive measure of myocardial function. Methods: The study involved 50 patients with valvular mitral regurgitation and 50 healthy subjects as a control group. Transthoracic echocardiography was carried out for all patients and control group. The echocardiographic measurements included left ventricular end diastolic and end systolic dimensions, left atrial diameter, ejection fraction (EF), and myoca
... Show MoreThis work studies the role of serum apelin-36 and Glutathione S-transferases (GST) activity in association with the hormonal, metabolic profiles and their link to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in healthy and patients' ladies with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A total of fifty-four (PCOS) patients and thirty-one healthy woman as a control have been studied. The PCOS patients were subdivided on the basis of body-mass-index (BMI), into 2-subgroups (the first group was obese-PCOS with BMI ≥ 30 and the second group was non-obese PCOS MBI<30). Fasting-insulin-levels and Lipid-profile, Homeostatic-model assessment-of-insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR), follicle-stimulating-hormone (FSH), luteinizing-hormone (LH), testosterone and
... Show MoreThe work in this research presents an experimental and a theoretical study to obtain the effect of using a low permeability geosynthetic material on the longitudinal and lateral coefficients of dispersion. This would have its effect on the contaminants migration through an isotropic, homogenous and saturated soil. The first stage of this research involves the study of the geosynthetic material and in calculating the longitudinal and lateral coefficients of dispersion for an Iraqi sandy soil by using an experimental set-up to simulate the processes. To investigate the effect of using a geosynethtic material on the dispersion coefficients, the test was conducted for each velocity that was used in the experimental work and as follows: with
... Show MoreGypseous soil is a collapsible soil, which causes large deformations in buildings that are constructed on it. Various methods have been used to minimise this effect, such as replacing the gypseous soil or using soil stabilisation (grouting or soil improvement). This study was carried out on four types of gypseous soils that have different properties and various gypsum contents. The testing was carried out on remoulded samples to evaluate the compressibility of gypseous soil under different conditions. The samples were grouted with acrylate liquid. The relationships between the injection pressure and the radius of flow, between time of injection and radius of flow, and between time and quantity of acrylate liquid are investigated on
... Show MoreBackground: Intramedullary astrocytomas
account for about 1% of all CNS tumors and
6–8% of spinal cord tumors. The vast majority
of intramedullary astrocytomas are slowgrowing
lesions.
Objectives: The goal in this study was to
review a series of patients who underwent
surgical removal of intramedullary high-grade
astrocytomas, focusing on the functional
outcome and the effect of multimodality
treatment on the survival of patients with high
grade intramedullary astrocytoma.
Methods: Between June 1999 and June 2004,
22 patients underwent removal of
intramedullary high-grade astrocytomas in four
neurosurgical hospital in Baghdad/ Iraq
(Neurosurgical hospital, Al Shaheed Adnan
Hospital for
This study aimed to identify the changes in total protein in saliva and sera samples of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma in comparison to those of healthy controls. These changes were followed using electrophoresis (PAGE). Meanwhile, determinations of albumin, globulin and albumin to globulin ratio were carried out on sera samples only.Two groups were the participants in the present study, 18 patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC), and 20 ages and gender matched healthy controls.