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: Pregnancy is a stressful state of increased inflammatory activity, and pregnancy – associated hormone changes can influence periodontal tissues, these inflammatory activity lead to production of inflammatory mediators. Interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokines that is consistently associated with periodontal diseases. This study was designed to determine the periodontal health status and detect the serum level of IL-1β in the healthy pregnant women at first, second and third trimester and compare it with healthy non pregnant women, and determine its correlation with different clinical periodontal parameters. M
... Show MoreAcute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the commonest hematological malignancies affecting children and adults. Recent evidence suggests an involvement of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in ALL pathogenicity. Epigenetic aberration, especially altered DNA methylation marks, is a key event of cancer development. The present study aims to investigate how the ALL epimethylome reacts to viral infection through the assessment of the total 5-methylcytosine (5mC) levels in ALL patients, according to EBV infection. The 5mC global DNA methylation levels in 50 diagnosed ALL patients (age mean 26.23 yrs; age range 10-60 yrs) and 25 age-matched healthy controls were assessed using MethylFlash™ Methylated DNA Quantification Kit. Acute pri
... Show MoreHepatitis C virus ( HCV) is a significant global health threat that is responsible for approximately 170 million chronic infections worldwide. A feasible research was conducted to provide more understanding of viral load, effectiveness of Harvoni drug on virus concentration, and distribution of virus genotypes in Iraqi patients. Ninety eight HCV cases were investigated in this research , including 52 untreated, with an average age ± SE of 45.26 ± 2.97 years, and 46 treated with Harvoni therapy, with an average age of 39.30 ± 3.90 years. In addition, eighty healthy persons with an average age of 29.40 ± 2.84 years were included as control. These cases were attending to the Special Nursing Home Hospital in Baghdad between December 2018
... Show MoreMycobacterium tuberculosis is the cause of the major world health issue, tuberculosis (TB). The cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) has been implicated in protection against TB in the early stages of the disease. TNF-α is an effective cytokine in the killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis. This study inducted to investigate whether there is any relationship between levels of TNF-α in sera of TB patients and their recovery, and is there any difference in the level of this cytokine in sera of female and male TB patients. This study included 29 patients with pulmonary TB (18 female and 11 male), their ages ranging from 37 to 59 years. All of them received first line TB therapy. They were consulted at Pasture Center during Septem
... Show MoreHuman resistin is an adipokine, with a possible link to coronary heart disease.A few studies were done about resistin in acute phase of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) especially in Iraqi patients. Accordingly we design a study to investigate the association between resistin concentration and acute phase of STEMI in Iraqi patients.
The present study was carried out at Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital from December 2011 until June 2012. Serum resistin levels were measured in 50 patients with acute STEMI (mean age: 58.16 ± 11.73 years) at the first 12 hours of admission and 34 normal controls (mean age: 53.98 ± 15.46 years) matched for age, sex and other risk factors.
Resistin level in patients wi
... Show MoreAxial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a chronic rheumatic inflammatory disease affecting mainly the spine and sacroiliac joints. Since the copper-to-zinc ratio (Cu/Zn) indicates an inflammatory response, the change in ratio is expected to correlate with axSpA. This study compared levels of Cu/Zn in the serum of axSpA patients. Serum samples were obtained from 53 patients with axSpA divided according to biological treatment into cohorts A and B, and 28 healthy control as cohort C. Serum levels of Cu and Zn were determined first by a fully automated chemistry analyzer TC-Matrix Plus, then the ratio was obtained. The elevated serum Cu concentration means of cohort B (189.32 ± 13.808 µg/dL) compared to cohort A (168.85 ± 7.244 µg/dL) a
... Show MoreFifty celiac disease (CD) patients (21 males and 29 females) with an age range of 2-35 years and 25 apparently healthy controls were investigated for 10 autoantibodies (anti-tissue transglutaminase IgA antibody; ATA, anti-tissue transglutaminase IgG antibody; ATG, anti-gliadine IgA antibody; AGA, anti-gliadine IgG antibody; AGG, anti-nuclear antibody; ANA, anti-double strand DNA antibody; AdsDNA, anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody; ATP, anti-phospholipid antibody; APP, anti-myeloperoxidase antibody; AMP and anti-proteinase 3 antibody; AP3) in their sera. Six autoantibodies (ATA, ATG, AGA, AGG, AMP and AP3) showed significant variations between CD patients and controls. The first four antibodies were not detected in sera of controls, while
... Show MoreThe oral cavity has the second major and most diverse microflora after the gut. Since it is the starting point of digestion; the oral microbiota is essential for maintaining oral and systemic health. Thus, this study aimed to find the bacterial isolates which act as a causative agent of periodontal diseases in Iraqi patients and their relation with some immune oral parameters. Saliva specimens and oral swabs of 91 patients (51) and control individuals (40) were collected in this study. The specimens of patients were collected from Al-Amirya and Almaamon Specialized Dental Centers in Baghdad for a period from November/2021 to February/2022. The microbiological results revealed, that the most prevalent bacterial isolates were re
... Show MoreABSTRACT Background: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most important reproductive and endocrine disorders in women at reproductive age. It's associated with metabolic disorder, obesity, insulin resistance and oxidative stress chronic periodontitis and PCOS both of them associated with low chronic grade of inflammation. The prevalence of periodontal disease seems to be higher in women with PCOS. Superoxide dismutase enzyme (SOD) is an important circulating marker and protecting enzyme helping the body tissues to get rid of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage the tissue. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to measure and compare the levels of (SOD) among group of chronic periodontitis patients with PCOS, group
... Show MoreThe qualified subjects for this study included 33 patients with benign and malignant oral tumors aged 15-75 years and 31 matched age and gender healthy subjects used as control. Proteins measurements included total protein, albumin, globulines in sera and saliva samples, and immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, IgA) in sera samples of control and patients. Meanwhile, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was used to differentiate between protein patterns in both serum and saliva samples among the studied groups. The gel was also stained for glycoprotein to evaluate as well the changes in glycoprotein contents. For total protein, the results revealed a signifigant increase (P?0.01) in both samples (serum and saliva) of patient group. Albumin conce
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