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: Aortic valve stenosis results from minor to severe degrees of aortic valve maldevelopment. This stenosis causes mild to severe obstruction of the left ventricular outflow .
Objectives : to study the immediate and intermediate results of percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty in patients with congenital valvular aortic stenosis .
Type of the study: A prospective study.
Methods: The study was done on thirty five patients with congenital valvular aortic stenosis who had percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty in Ibn Al- Bitar Center for Cardiac Surgery from May 2009 to February 2011.
Results
... Show MoreAntioxidant status imbalance and inflammatory process are cooperative events involved in type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study aimed to investigate superoxide dismutase as a potential biomarkers of antioxidant imbalance, matrix-metaloprotinase-9, and interleukin -18 as biomarkers of inflammation in serum and to estimate the effects of other confounding factors gender, age and finally measuring the relation among the interested biomarkers.
This case - control study included 50 patients, and 45 of healthy subjects matched age –gender were also enrolled in this study as a control group. The focused  
... Show MoreThe invasion and spread of cancer cells are two of the most notable characteristics of malignant tumors. Recent studies suggest that the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been linked to this significant occurrence. It is linked to the absence of the epithelial brow and the presence of mesenchymal facial hair. The aims of the present study were to explore the immunohistochemical staining of vimentin and E-cadherin ex vivo as EMT markers and assess their potential as predictive biomarkers for transitional cell cancer (TCC). In this study, 55 paraffin-embedded biopsies from TCC patients and 10 autopsies that appeared to be normal were included. Immunohistochemistry was used to produce patterns of vimentin and E-cadherin expression. W
... Show MoreType-1 diabetes is defined as destruction of pancreatic beta cell, virus and bacteria are some environmental factor for this disease. The study included 25 patients with type-1 diabetes mellitus aged between 8 – 25 years from Baghdad hospital and 20 healthy persons as control group. Anti-rubella IgG and IgM, anti-Chlamydia pneumonia IgG and IgM were measured by ELISA technique while anti-CMV antibody were measured by immunofluorescence technique. The aim of current study was to know the trigger factor for type-1 diabetes. There were significant differences (P<0.05) between studied groups according to parameters and the results lead to suggest that Chlamydia pneumonia, CMV and rubella virus may trigger type-1 diabetes mellitus in Iraqi pat
... Show MoreDiabetes is a complex set of diseases require continuous medical care, to control blood sugar and prevent complications is .The aim of this research is to determine the effect of administration of L carentin to diabetics on the lipid profile. The research was conducted on sixty diabetic patients were selected from endocrinology and diabetes center / Al-Rusafa, within selected criteria. The patients divided into 3 groups (control group of healthy people and two groups of patients with diabetes who were on metformin and glibenclamide, one group took a L carnitine in a dose of 1000 mg twice daily and a group dealing with a placebo for a period of 3 months continuously). The study found that patients who took Lc
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to examine the concordance between FISH/CISH techniques for assessment of amplification of her2neu gene in Iraqi breast carcinoma patients. Seventy four (74) Iraqi breast cancer patients were involved at the study from the Histopathology Department at the Central Public Health Laboratory in Bagdad, Iraq. Amplification of HER2neu was detected in (33.8%) by fluorescence in situ hybridization and (13.51%) showed high amplification by chromogenic in situ hybridization and (32.43%) showed low amplification. The results of chromogenic in situ hybridization were significantly correlated with the results of two-color fluorescence in situ hybridization with the same tumors. In addition, the study involved the correlation betw
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the most diagnosed form of malignant tumour in Iraqi women. Tamoxifen and trastuzumab are highly effective adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. This study's objectives were to define the patient's belief in tamoxifen or trastuzumab when used as adjuvant therapy and to determine the variation in belief between the two medications in a sample of Iraqi breast cancer patients. The cross-section survey was conducted using the BMQ-Specific questionnaire. Ninety-seven participants (sixty-seven tamoxifen, thirty trastuzumab) participated in this study. The mean of specific-necessity scale for tamoxifen was (3.7) and for trastuzumab (4). The findings showed a high necessity for both medicines, and there were
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