Background: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs occurs in all aspects of anticancer drug handling. Proper recommendations and guidelines should be applied to control and reduce exposure. Objective: To assess pharmacists' knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of anticancer drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at seven major hospitals in Baghdad City, Iraq, from December 2023 to February 2024. A pre-designed questionnaire was given to pharmacists who handled anticancer drugs in chemotherapy units. The questionnaire comprises sociodemographic data, knowledge of the safe handling of cytotoxic drugs and thoughts about exposure and risk, practices for safely handling cytotoxic drugs, and challenges for safely handling cytotoxic drugs. Results: A total of 126 pharmacists were enrolled in the study. Less than half of the participants (46%) received training on anticancer drugs. While more than a third (42.9%) of the pharmacists were handling more than 100 cytotoxic preparations weekly, the total knowledge score was 7.14, while the total practice score was 73.36, with less than half of the pharmacists having good knowledge (44.44%) or practice (48.41%). Pharmacists who received training had significantly higher total practice scores than those who did not. Pharmacists with more than 100 weekly preparations were more knowledgeable than those with 50–99 preparations. Conclusions: The majority of participating pharmacists had fair to excellent knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of cytotoxic medications. However, there were some gaps regarding important knowledge and practice issues. To improve knowledge and practices regarding anticancer handling, training is necessary.
The research study focused on the need to clarify the relationship between the Websites of Iraqi Newspapers and their roles in covering the internal crises in Iraq. The selection of Iraqi websites for the newspapers Al-Zaman and Al-Sabah was adopted as one of the most important media with a wide audience; and as a model of hot news and continuous coverage of those sites since 2003 so far. As a result, this necessitated the emergence of new types of methods of editing and writing news stories related to Iraq.
Consequently, the enormous and rapidly changing amount of Iraq news, the process of preparing and creating news has become a complex industry
... Show MoreTen blue swimming crabs Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775) were collected from the north west of the Arabian Gulf off the Iraqi marine waters from October to November 2017 at 29ᵒ 37′ N to 48ᵒ 47′ E.
The barnacle Octolasmis angulata (Aurivillius, 1894) was found on the gills of the present species of crab, the mean incidence of infestation was 30%, while the mean Intensity of infestation was 12.3. The barnacle have a long and slim shaped calcareous plate with the presence of carina and the absence of tergum, in addition to the elongated shape of carina and scutum. The current study represents the first record of the barnacle O. angulata in the Ar
... Show MoreThe aim of this study was to establish the existence and interaction of TMPRSS2 – ERG gene fusion status with clinicopathological features of prostate cancer patients. This research consisted of 123 embedded formalin-fixed tissues obtained from the prostate tumor patients. The above gene fusion is detected through the technique of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) by means of a triple color probe. Seven samples have not been scored due to technical difficulties and 46 patients have fusion (39.6%), while the remaining (70) have not been seen with fusion. Of the 46 fusion-positive, 17 (36%) were caused by ERG-translocation, of the other 29 (63%) were caused by the interstitial segment deletion between the two genes due to the
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the commonest cancer affecting women worldwide. Different studies have dealt with the etiological factors of that cancer aiming to find a way for early diagnosis and satisfactory therapy. The present study clarified the relationship between genetic polymorphisms of BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes and some etiological risk factors among breast cancer patients in Iraq. This investigation was carried out on 25 patients (all were females) who were diagnosed as breast cancer patients attended AL-Kadhemya Teaching Hospital in Baghdad and 10 apparently healthy women were used as a control, all women (patients and control) aged above 40 years. The Wizard Promega kit was used for DNA isolation from breast patients and normal individuals. B
... Show MoreThe present study aims to estimating the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disorders in Iraqi infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Eighty-five Iraqi women, with age range (19-45) years, were divided into three groups; first group included 33 women with PCOS; second group included 30 women without PCOS; while third group included 22 fertile women as controls. The clinical data [age, body mass index (BMI), and menstrual status] have been recorded. Blood samples were collected to determine the levels of reproductive hormones [estradiol (E2), luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)]; and thyroid hormones [triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxin (T4)]. Also, autoimmune thyroid antibodies assessment h
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The work of this paper is an investigation to improve the condenser performance of the automobile air conditioning system by enhancing the air-side heat transfer from the condenser through the use of an air guide net installed in front of the condenser face which is basically an aluminum plate having a circular entrance shape for the air passage. The A/C system was examined under two types of test. The first test was conducted the air guide net, while the second was done with the air guide net. The performances of the A/C system under these tests were compared. For the second type of test, the experiment was carried out with three different size of air guide net, three different circular diameters (2, 3 and 3.5 cm) a
... Show MorePulsed liquid laser ablation is considered a green method for the synthesis of nanostructures because there are no byproducts formed after the ablation. In this paper, a fiber laser of wavelength 1.064 µm, peak power of 1 mJ, pulse duration of 120 ns, and repetition rate of 20 kHz, was used to produce carbon nanostructures including carbon nanospheres and carbon nanorods from the ablation of asphalt in ethanol at ablation speeds of (100, 75, 50, 10 mm/s). The morphology, composition and optical properties of the synthesized samples were studied experimentally using FESEM, HRTEM, EDS, and UV-vis spectrophotometer. Results showed that the band gap energy decreased with decreasing the ablation speed (increasing the ablation time), the mi
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