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.
Background: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer-related mortality worldwide, and its prevalence is increasing among many nations. Aim of the study: Investigate the predictive value of carbohydrate antigen 242 (CA242) in comparison to the CEA biomarker and to estimate the significance of CA242 as prognosis maker in colorectal cancer patients. Methods: a case-control study with a total of 150 individuals, 100 patients (59 males, 41 females) and 50 healthy controls (26 males, 24 females). using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) to determine the serum levels of CA242 and CEA. The study was carried out at the gastroenterology consultation clinic of the oncology teaching hospital between November 2020 and February
... Show MoreUnstable angina pectoris often leads to acute myocardial infarction. Since uric acid is thought to be risk factor for cardiovascular disease and considered a major antioxidant in human blood .The level of uric acid and lipid peroxidation in the sera of patients with unstable angina and myocardial infarction were measured and compared to the healthy individuals. Twenty-nine patients with unstable angina and twenty-nine patients with myocardial infarction were studied and compared to twenty-five healthy individuals. Uric acid was measured by using Human Kit. Malondialdelyde (MDA) a lipid peroxidation marker, was measured by thiobarbituric acid method .Significant elevation of uric acid and MDA were observed in the sera of pati
... Show MoreSickle cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary ailment that can cause severe pain and suffering to people who are affected. However, with continued investment in research and treatment options, we can make progress towards improving the lives of those with SCD. Over 40% of patients experience painful vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs), so we must work towards finding solutions and providing support for those living with this condition, These episodes, a hallmark of SCD, significantly contribute to morbidity, mortality, and a diminished quality of life, while also incurring substantial healthcare costs. Chronic pain particularly affects older adolescents and adults with SCD, with over half reporting daily discomfort. Opioid-based analgesics, though sti
... Show MoreVitiligo is an acquired idiopathic skin disorder characterized by depigmented macules due to loss of cutaneous melanocytes. A potential role of the immune dysfunction has been suggested in vitiligo, so to test this hypothesis, certain cytokines (IL-17A and TNF-?) and immunoglobulins (IgM, IgG, IgA and total IgE) were investigated in all participants. The study included: 60 patients with age range between (6-55) year; 30(11 males and 19 females) were untreated and 30(12 males and 18 females) were treated with Narrow Band Ultraviolet-B (NB-UVB) and 30 (14 males and 16 females) apparently healthy control. Serum was separated and cytokines (IL-17A and TNF-?) and total immunoglobulin E (IgE) were detected by using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Ass
... Show MoreBackground: Hypothyroidism is the most prevalent thyroid disorders worldwide. Hypothyroidism manifestations are wide spectrum, affecting various systems in human body including the nervous system. Hypothyroidism can cause neuropsychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression and diminishing in attention, memory and executive function. Aim: to investigate the level of anxiety and depression in patients with hypothyroidism receiving levothyroxine treatment. Method: a cross-sectional study was conducted at Baghdad Center for Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Therapy from March to June 2022. The study population included patients of both genders, aged 18-65 years, diagnosed with hypothyroidism, were receiving levothyroxine treatment and
... Show MoreThe subgrade soil is the foundation plate form of the roadway; it should sustain its structural characteristics throughout the design life of the roadway with minimal requirements for maintenance. When Gypseous soil is implemented in the construction of subgrade, problems regarding collapsibility and poor structural capacity usually occur when the subgrade came in touch with excess water. Asphalt stabilization could furnish a proper solution to such problems. In this investigation, an attempt has been made to monitor the variations in compressibility characteristics of asphalt stabilized subgrade soil subjected to 30 cycles of (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling). Data have been observed after each 10 cycles, and compared with that of r
... Show MoreIn this research, we discussed and analyzed the relationship between oil prices and the U.S. dollar exchange rate in Iraq. The study adopted the descriptive analysis and econometrics analysis. The descriptive analysis refers to the rise (fall) in crude oil price lead to appreciate (depreciate) in the Iraqi dinar exchange rate, though the channel of the international reserves. The econometrics analysis is based on monthly data covered the period (December/2002 – December/2011), the unit root test, co-integration test, vector error correction model, and Granger causality test have been adopted in this research to check the existence and direction of this relationship. The results refer to the lon
... Show MoreThe traditional centralized network management approach presents severe efficiency and scalability limitations in large scale networks. The process of data collection and analysis typically involves huge transfers of management data to the manager which cause considerable network throughput and bottlenecks at the manager side. All these problems processed using the Agent technology as a solution to distribute the management functionality over the network elements. The proposed system consists of the server agent that is working together with clients agents to monitor the logging (off, on) of the clients computers and which user is working on it. file system watcher mechanism is used to indicate any change in files. The results were presente
... Show MoreDust is a frequent contributor to health risks and changes in the climate, one of the most dangerous issues facing people today. Desertification, drought, agricultural practices, and sand and dust storms from neighboring regions bring on this issue. Deep learning (DL) long short-term memory (LSTM) based regression was a proposed solution to increase the forecasting accuracy of dust and monitoring. The proposed system has two parts to detect and monitor the dust; at the first step, the LSTM and dense layers are used to build a system using to detect the dust, while at the second step, the proposed Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT) model is used as a forecasting and monitoring model. The experiment DL system
... Show MoreManual 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
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