Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were given rituximab induction therapy and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) maintenance therapy. RTX was indicated for refractory and relapsing SLE. Several investigations done before and after RTX treatment and in the last follow up (done one year after starting Rituximab). Those included protein in urine, serum creatinine, double stranded DNA, C3, C4, and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). Proteinuria decreased significantly after RTX treatment and in the last measurement (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). Serum creatinine significantly decreased only in the last measurement (P=0.02). Double stranded DNA decreased remarkably after treatment (P=0.01) with a further decrease in the last measurement (P=0.006). C3 and C4 increased after treatment but the increase was significant only for C3 (P=0.002) and this increase continues till the last measurement (P=0.0006). Active urine sediments found in fifteen patients and disappeared after RTX treatment. Rituximab can be promising in treating lupus nephritis when used along with traditional immunosuppressants. It can reduce disease activity and improve renal function in such patients.
A simple, accurate, precise, rapid, economical and a high sensitive spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of tadalafil in pharmaceutical preparations and industrial wastewater samples, which shows a maximum absorbance at 204 nm in 1:1 ethanol-water. Beer's law was obeyed in the range of 1-7?g/ mL ,with molar absorptivity and Sandell ? s sensitivity of 0.783x105l/mol.cm and 4.97 ng/cm2respectively, relative standard deviation of the method was less than 1.7%, and accuracy (average recovery %) was 100 ± 0. 13. The limits of detection and quantitation are 0.18 and 0.54 µg .ml-1, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of tadalafil in some pharmaceutical formulations
... Show MoreTo date, comprehensive reviews and discussions of the strengths and limitations of Remote Sensing (RS) standalone and combination approaches, and Deep Learning (DL)-based RS datasets in archaeology have been limited. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to review and critically discuss existing studies that have applied these advanced approaches in archaeology, with a specific focus on digital preservation and object detection. RS standalone approaches including range-based and image-based modelling (e.g., laser scanning and SfM photogrammetry) have several disadvantages in terms of spatial resolution, penetrations, textures, colours, and accuracy. These limitations have led some archaeological studies to fuse/integrate multip
... Show MoreMobile ad hoc network security is a new area for research that it has been faced many difficulties to implement. These difficulties are due to the absence of central authentication server, the dynamically movement of the nodes (mobility), limited capacity of the wireless medium and the various types of vulnerability attacks. All these factor combine to make mobile ad hoc a great challenge to the researcher. Mobile ad hoc has been used in different applications networks range from military operations and emergency disaster relief to community networking and interaction among meeting attendees or students during a lecture. In these and other ad hoc networking applications, security in the routing protocol is necessary to protect against malic
... Show MoreLet R be a 2-torision free prime ring and ?, ?? Aut(R). Furthermore, G: R×R?R is a symmetric generalized (?, ?)-Biderivation associated with a nonzero (?, ?)-Biderivation D. In this paper some certain identities are presented satisfying by the traces of G and D on an ideal of R which forces R to be commutative
Substantial research has been performed on Building Information Modeling (BIM) in various topics, for instance, the use and benefit of BIM in design, construction, sustainable environment building, and Facility assets over the past several years. Although there are various studies on these topics, Building Information Modeling (BIM) awareness through facilities management is still relatively poor. The researcher's interest is increased in BIM study is based heavily upon the perception that it can facilitate the exchange and reuse of information during various project phases. This property and others can be used in the Iraqi Construction industry to motivate the government to eliminate the change resistance to use innovat
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