Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the second leading cause of mortality among women in Iraq forming 23% of cancer related deaths. The low survival from the disease is a direct consequence to the advanced stages at diagnoses. Aim: To document the composite stage of breast cancer among Iraqi patients at the time of diagnosis; correlating the observed findings with other clinical and pathological parameters at presentation. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study enrolling the clinical and pathological characteristics of 603 Iraqi female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The composite stage of breast cancer was determined according to UICC TNM Classification System of Breast Cancer and the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging. The studied parameters comprised age of the patient, stage of the disease, marital and educational status, history of lactation and hormonal intake (for a minimum period of 6 months), family history of breast or any other cancer, the effected breast side, hormone (Estrogen and Progesterone) receptor (ER, PR) and Her2 contents of the primary cancer. Statistical analysis was performed to correlate the recorded composite stages at diagnosis with the corresponding clinical and pathological data utilizing SPSS version 16.0 statistical program. Results: Out of 603 patients, seven (1.2%) had ductal carcinoma in situ (Stage 0). Stages I, II and III and IV were documented in 9.5%, 47.1%, 33.2% and 9.1% of the patients at the time of diagnoses. Overall 70.8% of patients presented in the age group (40-59 years), 79.3% were married and 32.2% were highly educated. History of lactation, hormonal intake, family breast cancer and contralateral breast involvement was observed in 73.4%, 26.5%, 20.2% and 6.5% respectively. No correlation was elicited between the stage of breast cancer and the age of the patients, history of lactation or contralateral breast involvement. On the other hand, significant associations were demonstrated with respect to the marital and educational status, history of hormonal intake and breast cancer in the family. Immuno-histochemical evaluation revealed ER+PR+Her2+ (Triple Positive/Luminal B), ER-PR-Her2- (Triple Negative), ER+PR+Her2- (Luminal A) and ER-PR-Her2+ (Her2) subtypes in 13.4%, 11.8%, 48.2% and 9.8% of the examined breast samples respectively. When correlating the composite stage at diagnosing breast cancer with the corresponding subtypes the relationship was highly significant at p<0.01. Conclusions and Recommendations: The study reports a regression in Stage IV breast cancer at the time of initial presentation among Iraqi patients specifically in those with family history of the disease; pointing out to the fruitful outputs of initiating the National Program for Early Detection of Breast Cancer in the country. Further professional efforts, endorsed by practical policy decisions, are recommended to down stage breast cancer through promoting evidence based protocol guidelines and adopting comprehensive well designed diagnostic, screening and cancer control strategies.
Manual probing and periodontal charting are the gold standard for periodontal diagnosis that have been used in practice over a century. These methods are affordable and reliable but they are associated with some drawbacks that cannot be avoided. Among these issues is their reliance on operator’s skills, time-consuming and tedious procedure, lack sensitivity especially in cases of early bone loss, and causing discomfort to the patient. Availability of a wide range of biomarkers in the oral biofluids, dental biofilm, and tissues that potentially reflect the periodontal health and disease accurately encouraged their use as predictive/diagnostic/monitoring tools. Analysing biomarkers during care-giving to the patient using chairside kits i
... Show MoreData mining has the most important role in healthcare for discovering hidden relationships in big datasets, especially in breast cancer diagnostics, which is the most popular cause of death in the world. In this paper two algorithms are applied that are decision tree and K-Nearest Neighbour for diagnosing Breast Cancer Grad in order to reduce its risk on patients. In decision tree with feature selection, the Gini index gives an accuracy of %87.83, while with entropy, the feature selection gives an accuracy of %86.77. In both cases, Age appeared as the most effective parameter, particularly when Age<49.5. Whereas Ki67 appeared as a second effective parameter. Furthermore, K- Nearest Neighbor is based on the minimu
... Show MoreBackground: Insulin resistance is present in 50% or more of patients with primary hypothyroidism. Metformin can decrease TSH levels in these patients by a complex matter, this can be of great help in clinical practice.
Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of metformin in reducing TSH levels in patients with primary hypothyroidism.
Methods: Hundred patients with primary hypothyroidism, 82 females, 18 males were included in this study, everyone was followed up for two months after adding metformin 850 mg twice daily in addition to thyroxin.
Results: 36 patients (36%) have a normal baseline TSH and no change after 2 months, 64 pa
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify ways of upgrading the quality level of university education at the Middle Technical University in light of its application for the National Ranking project for the quality of Iraqi universities in order to obtain advanced grades among the Iraqi universities , Which is qualified to enter the Ranking of universities worldwide, through displaying the mechanism of the Application of National Ranking project for the quality of Iraqi universities in the Middle Technical University and its formations consisting of (5) technical colleges and (11) technical institute.
The results of the application showed several observations: The most
... Show More
Background: Tuberculosis (TB), caused by
One of the key molecules in the conversion of sphingosine to sphingosine-1- phosphate is SPHK-1, also known as Sphingosine Kinase 1 (SPHK-1). Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a lipid that acts as a signaling molecule and plays an essential role in inflammatory and immunomodulatory responses. S1P has recently been identified as a mediator and a biomarker in inflammatory bone diseases such as osteoporosis and inflammatory osteolysis based on the biological effects of S1P in osteoclastic and osteoblastic cells and immune cells. According to recent research, S1P may play a role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis, an inflammatory bone-destructive condition. This study assesses the salivary level SPHK-1 in periodontitis and its correlat
... Show MoreBackground: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Clopidogrel, antiplatelet drug, has been widely used for management of CAD. Arylesterase, the activity of Paraoxonase-1 (PON-1), is mainly contributed in the biotransformation of clopidogrel to its active thiol form. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of receiving clopidogrel drug on the arylesterase activities in CAD patients. The effect of receiving clopidogrel drug on the antioxidant activity of arylesterase was also monitored by determination of malondialdehyde (MDA) level. Methods: One hundred CAD patients, who were followed-up for 5 days after reciving clopidogrel, and 50 healthy volunteers were included in our study
... Show MoreBackground: The main purpose of this study is to find if there is any correlation between the level of C-reactive protein (CRP) in gingival crevicular fluid with its serum level in chronic periodontitis patients and to explore the differences between them according to the probing depth. Materials and methods: Forty seven male subjects enrolled in this study. Thirty males with chronic periodontitis considered as study group whom further subdivided according to probing depth into subgroup 1 with pocket depth ≤6mm, subgroup 2 with pocket depth >6mm. The other 17 subjects considered as controls. For all subjects, clinical examination where done for periodontal parameters plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP),
... Show MoreY Adnan, H Atiyah, IH Neamah…, International Development Planning Review, 2024