Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a collection of chronic, recurrent inflammatory illnesses of the gastrointestinal system, including Crohn's disease (CD). Infliximab is one of the biological medications used to treat CD. Therapeutic drug monitoring has evolved as a treatment in IBD, aiming to optimize benefit while meeting more demanding, objective end criteria. Objective: To determine the achievement of target trough level (TL), develop anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) to infliximab, assess response to therapy, and study TL relations with different variables. Methods: The present study was cross-sectional and conducted from May 2022 to November 2022. It included 40 CD patients allotted into 2 groups: group 1 patients achieved the TL target, and group 2 patients did not achieve the TL target. Results: Twenty-two patients achieved target TL, while 18 patients did not. Dose escalation is recommended for 11 patients, switching therapy for 15 patients, and continuing the same dosage regimen for 14 patients. In addition, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, serum calprotectin and ADAs were significantly lower in patients who achieved target infliximab TL. Only serum calprotectin can be used to predict the achievement of the target TL of infliximab. Conclusions: Therapeutic drug monitoring of infliximab to determine the TL and ADAs can help to explain why some patients do not respond to this drug. Serum calprotectin may be used as a novel marker to predict the TL and response to infliximab.
HBV and HCV are the major causes of chronic liver diseases throughout the world, and constitute a major global health risk. There is accumulated evidence that the imbalance of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine production may play an important role in the pathogenesis of viral hepatic infections and may influence the clinical outcome and disease progression. This study was undertaken to analyze the circulating levels of Tumor Necrotic Factor (TNF-α) and Th2 cytokine IL-10 in patients infected with Hepatitis B and C virus. The study population consisted of 30 patients with chronic HBV, in addition to other 30 patients with chronic HCV infection were recruited on their first examination at the Al-Kindy General Hospital in Baghdad
... Show MoreAbstract:Leukemia is a cancer of early blood forming cells. Most of them are cancers of white blood cells , however some leukemias start in other blood cell types.Electrolytes have modulatory effects on several biological mechanisms in the body namely as stabilizers,element of structures, essential element for hormonal function and also co-factors for a number of enzymes.In this study serum electrolytes levels were measured in patients with acute leukemia (AL) disorders before and after chemotherapy(anthracycline, doxorubicin, cytarabine ,prednisone, vincristine and doxorubicin) during one month and compared with that of control group. Blood samples were obtained from (43) patients (28 males and 15 females) aged (15-55)years;juset before an
... Show MoreBackground: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a well-recognized cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.Objectives: To evaluate the prognostic implications of the restrictive left ventricular filling pattern (RFP) in dilated cardiomyopathy.Methods: Patients with DCM admitted to Ibn AL-Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery, Baghdad-Iraq, from May 2006 to August 2008, underwent a full clinical evaluation and Doppler echocardiography study. Patients were classified into three groups: Group I had persistent restrictive filling pattern; Group II had reversible restrictive filling pattern; and Group III had nonrestrictive filling pattern. Results: The current study was conducted on a total number of 80 patients with DCM, fifty (62.5 %) were
... Show MoreBackground: Obesity and dental caries are multifactorial diseases related to poor eating habits and show a close relationship with the sociodemographic characteristics of individuals presenting these diseases. This research aimed to investigate the severity of dental caries among group of obese boys aged 12 year in relation to salivary interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) of unstimulated whole saliva in comparison with normal weighted boys of the same age. Materials and Methods: The study group included 40 obese boys, with an age of 12 year. The control group included 40 normal weighted boys of the same age. The total sample involved for nutritional status assessment using Body Mass Index specific for age and gender according t
... Show MoreLimitations of the conventional diagnostic techniques urged researchers to seek novel methods to predict, diagnose, and monitor periodontal disease. Use of the biomarkers available in oral fluids could be a revolutionary surrogate for the manual probing/diagnostic radiograph. Several salivary biomarkers have the potential to accurately discriminate periodontal health and disease. This study aimed to determine the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of salivary interleukin (IL)‐17, receptor activator of nuclear factor‐κB ligand (RANKL), osteoprotegerin (OPG), RANKL/OPG for differentiating (1) periodontal health from disease and (2) stable a
This study investigated the prevalence of quinolones resistance proteins encoding genes (qnr genes) and co-resistance for fluoroquinolones and β-lactams among clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Out of 150 clinical samples, 50 isolates of K. pneumoniae were identified according to morphological and biochemical properties. These isolates were collected from different clinical samples, including 15 (30%) urine, 12 (24%) blood, 9 (18%) sputum, 9 (18%) wound, and 5 (10%) burn. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) assay revealed that 15 (30%) of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin (≥4µg/ml), 11 (22%) of isolates were resistant to levofloxacin (≥8 µg/ml), 21 (42%) of isolates were re
... Show More1-Objective:- Polyphenols are biochemical compounds with antioxidant activity against differences diseases related to Lipid peroxidation such as diabetes mellitus. Polyphenols distributed widely in medical plants, the aim of the study is to extract and analyze some polyphenolic compounds from grape seeds and examine their effects on (STZ) induced diabetic mice. 2-Methods:- In the present study , a group of polyphenols has been extracted from Iraq
... Show MoreThe changes that have occurred in the business environment and scientific and technological progress, as well as the complexity of administrative problems resulting from its practice of various activities, have led to an increase in the responsibilities entrusted to it, and for the purpose of achieving its strategic objectives, which has made the pillars of corporate governance an inevitable matter required by the nature of modern scientific management of the governorate, the success that companies seek is based on the fertile environment and the dialectical relationship between the individual and the company, and to achieve this success there must be a compatible and harmonious audit environment between the internal and external
... Show MoreBackground : Although development and progress in various diagnostic methods, but still identification of remnants of skeletal and decomposing parts of human is one of the most difficult skills in forensic medicine . Gender and age estimation is also considering an important problem in the identification of unknown skull. The aims of study: To estimate volume and dimension of maxillary sinus in individuals with dentate and edentulous maxillae using CT scan, and to correlate the maxillary sinus volume in relation to gender and age. Materials and Methods : This study included 120 patients ranged from (40-69 years), divided into two groups, dentate group with fully dentate maxilla and edentulous group with complete edentulous maxilla, and e
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