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.
Television culture has become the most dangerous of our time. It manipulates with minds and hearts together; and forms consciousness. It transforms societies into actual forces rejecting certain principles by guiding the media landscape through visible connotations acceptable to the public; or provokes the citizen against elements that put a burden on the viewer or the public in order to create a positive reaction to the subject of combating terrorism by combining these ads in line with what the public wants of security and tranquility and a decent living after suffering from terrorism in the past years.
Therefore, this research deals with television advertisements as one of the most important fo
... 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 title takes its realistic connotations with its symbols, slogans and historical extensions in Iraq, also, the repercussions of the organic crisis that afflicted it for almost half a century, especially after the abortion of the July 14 Revolution and the spread of the culture of weapons, violence and death that we are living in Iraq nowadays.
The topic is suitable for critical analytical studies carried out by specialists in scientific and academic research centers and cultural institutions because they have an important feasibility at the strategic cultural level in Iraq, the Middle East and the world.
Research in Iraq has fallen to the extreme and is no longer effective, to the extent that it represents a severe cri
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: The humeral shaft fractures have a good rate of union, despite this fact, still there is a significant rate of nonunion after nonoperative treatment and more often after operative treatment. AIM: The aim of the study is to evaluate the autogenous onlay graft with compression plate for treatment of persistent humeral shaft non-union with failed previous surgery both radiological and functional outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study on twenty patients having persistent aseptic non-union age between 20 and 60 years old, after failed surgical treatment of fractures humeral shaft in Al-Zahra teaching and Al-Kindy teaching hospitals, while infected nonunion, diabetes mellitus, secondary metastasis, smoking, a
... Show MoreTitanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V or Gr.23) was widely used as a dental alloy. In the current study, polymerization of eugenol (PE) on Gr.23 titanium alloys was conducted by an electrochemical process before and after being treated by Micro Arc Oxidation (MAO). The formed films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The corrosion behavior of Gr.23 alloy in an artificial saliva environment at a temperature range of 293–323 K has been studied and assessed by means of electrochemical polarization and impedance spectroscopy techniques. Three cases are taken into consideration; bare Gr.23, Gr.23 coated by PE, and Gr.23 coated by PE after MAO treatment. The maxi
... Show MoreStudies were conducted to evaluate the biological effects of the non-steroidal ecdysone agonist (Methoxyfenozide), on different developmental larval stages of cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) in the laboratory. The results showed that the early larval stages were the most susceptible to Methoxyfenozide which caused 100% mortality within 4-6 days after treatment at all used concentrations, while such percentage of mortality was achieved within 6 days after treatment for late larval stages when the highest concentration was used (0.2)g (ai) /L. Several morphological deformations were noticed on pupal stage, the results showed that the highest percentage of deformations was 1
... Show MoreThe study aimed to identify the level of health awareness and health education among mothers zones, urban and rural areas as well as to identify the differences between them and to achieve this study was conducted on a sample of (121) or been Akhittarhn randomly, aged (20 - 43 years) and applied them to a questionnaire to measure the health awareness, which formed from a group of paragraphs, and after the collection of data was treated using the statistical software (SAS), where research showed many of the results are:
1/ Reached the age group ranging between (20-30 years), the highest rate for the present, where was (40.51%), while in the countryside matched by age group (31-40 years old) in terms of (54.76%)./ It turns out that the
This study aims to identify the impact of social support on breast cancer patients’ psychological rigidity using a sample in Ramallah and al-Bireh. A descriptive correlative approach was adopted to fulfill the goals of the study and a questionnaire consisted of two criteria: social support and psychological rigidity, which was adopted as a tool for data collection for the study. In order to achieve the goals of the study, the researcher selected a convenient sample that consisted of 123 female breast cancer patients in Ramallah and al-Bireh. This sample represented 50% of the original patient population. The study showed that the average estimated percentage of social support and psychological rigidity for women with breast cancer, in
... Show MoreThis study aims to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adaptation among a sample of gifted students in intermediate and high schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study also seeks to examine the differences between group means in emotional intelligence and academic adaptation due to demographic variables (gender and school level). In addition, the study aims to examine the role of emotional intelligence in predicting the level of academic adaptation. The researcher performed the descriptive, correlational, predictive, and comparative approaches to collect the data from a sample comprised of (309) gifted students using the emotional intelligence scale developed by Bar-on (2000), whi
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