Abstract Aim: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder which affects communication and social interaction of children. It is a heterogeneous disease with various clinical presentations. Some genes are involved in its pathogenesis. It has been suggested that environmental exposure to lead can increase the risk of autism. The aim of our study was to compare blood lead levels among autistic and non-autistic children. Material and Method: This retrospective study included 107 children (60 with autism and 47 without autism) referred from the different Iraqi provinces, in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, to the poisoning consultation center in Baghdad. Data collection including age, gender, residence, referral source, family history and blood lead levels was taken from their medical records. Results: No significant differences were noticed between the prevalence of autism and both of age (P=0.843) and gender (P=0.699). The majority of children have no family history of autism (85%). Mean blood lead level for all participants was 16.01 μg/dl. The statistically significant difference in lead level was found between autistic and non-autistic children (17.38± 1.86 μg/dl in autism group versus 14.27± 1.57 μg/dl in non-autism group) with a P value of 0.001. Discussion: Mean blood lead level was high in all participants, compared to the international values, which might indicate a high level of lead exposure in Iraqi children due to environmental pollution. Autistic children have higher lead levels than non-autistic ones and this might explain the role of lead in the etiology of autism.
Background: Periodontitis (PD) is well-known chronic disease affecting the periodontal ligament and alveolar bone, Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disease with compound reasons characterized by synovial inflammation, subchondral bone remodeling, also the formation of osteophytes, that cause cartilage degradation. Chronic periodontitis and osteoarthritis are considered widely prevalent diseases and related to tissue destruction due to chronic inflammation in general health and oral health. The aim of this study is todetermine the association of chronic periodontitis and osteoarthritits in patients by analysing tumor necrosis factor alpha TNFα and high sensitive c-reactive protein (hsCRP) in the serum. Materials and Method: A tot
... Show MoreBackground:Nocturnal Enuresis is a common problem affecting 20% of five years old children and up to 2% of adolescent and young adult. Although it is a self limiting benign condition, it has social and psychological impact on the child and his family. Many pathophysiological theories had been suggested, but none is confirmed. Hypercalciuria has been suggested to be associated with higher incidence of nocturnal enuresis. Objectives:The aim of our study to test the value of Ca/Cr ratio, on random urine sample, in diagnosing hypercalciuria in enuretic children. Type of study: Cross sectional study.Methods:Forty four enuretic children were enrolled in this study and forty five children without nocturnal enuresis were taken as control group.
... Show MoreBackground: The association of olanzapine with hyperglycemia, an elevated lipid profile, and high blood pressure was early recognized after its approval and has become of increased concern. Objective: To determine the association of olanzapine use with blood sugar levels, lipid profiles, and blood pressure in hospitalized Iraqi patients with schizophrenia. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 50 hospitalized patients with schizophrenia who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-V diagnostic criteria and had taken olanzapine for at least two years was carried out between November 2022 and February 2023 at two facilities in Baghdad, Iraq (Ibn Rushd Psychiatric Teaching Hospital and Al Rashad Hospital
... Show MoreThe main parameter that drives oil industry contract investment and set up economic feasibility study for approving field development plan is hydrocarbon reservoir potential. So a qualified experience should be deeply afforded to correctly evaluate hydrocarbons reserve by applying different techniques at each phase of field management, through collecting and using valid and representative data sources, starting from exploration phase and tune-up by development phase. Commonly, volumetric calculation is the main technique for estimate reservoir potential using available information at exploration stage which is quite few data; in most cases, this technique estimate big figure of reserve. In this study
Geophysics is one of the branches of Earth sciences and deals with studying the Earth's interior by studying the variation of physical properties within rock layers. Applied geophysics depends on procedures that involve the measurements of potential fields, such as the gravitational method. One of the significant oil fields in southern Iraq is represented by the Nahr Omar structure. A power spectrum analysis (SPA) technique was used to collect gravity data within the chosen oil field area in order to confirm the salt dome in the subsurface layers. The analysis of SPA resulted from six surfaces representing the gravity variation values of the depths (m)14300, 3780, 3290, 2170, 810, and 93.5. Gravity surfaces have been converted to de
... Show MoreThis study focused on the expression and regulation of BRCA1 in breast cancer cell lines compared to normal breast. BRCA1 transcript levels were assessed by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in the cancer cell lines. Our data show overexpression of BRCA1 mRNA level in all the studied breast cancer cell lines: MCF-7, T47D, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 along with Jurkat, leukemia T-lymphocyte, the positive control, relative to normal breast tissue. To investigate whether a positive or negative correlation exists between BRCA1 and the transcription factor E2F6, three different si-RNA specific for E2F6 were used to transfect the normal and cancerous breast cell lines. Interestingly, strong negative relationship was found b
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