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: left ventricular hypertrophy is independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The presence of diabetic complications such as autonomic neuropathy and retinopathy may predict cardiac structural changes in diabetic patients. Objective: To explore the chance of occurrence of left ventricular hypertrophy in diabetic patients and whether it is related to the presence of other diabetic complications. Methods: ninty seven (97) normotensive diabetic patients (57) type II with mean duration of diabetes of (12±6 y) and forty (40) type I with mean duration of (8±6 y) were studied by echocardiography and compared with 41 patients as control. Results: The LVMI was significantly higher in type II diabetics compared
... Show MoreSignificant risks to human health are posed by the 2019 coronavirus illness (COVID-19). SARS coronavirus type 2 receptor, also known as the major enzyme in the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), connects COVID-19 and RAS. This study was conducted with the intention of determining whether or not RAS gene polymorphisms and ACE-2 (G8790A) play a part in the process of predicting susceptibility to infection with COVID-19. In this study 127 participants, 67 of whom were deemed by a physician to be in a severe state of illness, and 60 of whom were categorized as "healthy controls" .The genetic study included an extraction of genomic DNA from blood samples of each covid 19 patients and healthy control
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune diseasecharacterized by chronic inflammationthat affects joints and cartilage. Bone complications such asRA-relatedosteoporosis are one of the most extra-articular manifestations. Many inflammatory mediators are released during RA disease pathophysiology; these mediators stimulate osteoclast genesis of bone by direct effects on RANKL and OPG. The study aimedto measure RANKL, OPG in RA patients treated with Etanercept only and other groups treated with Methotrexate onlyat baseline and after three months to evaluate bone state. An observational case-control prospective study was done on 30 RA patients who received MTX, 30 RA patients who received ETN, and 30 healthy,age-matched control groups. The
... Show MoreFor many years it was argued that there may be a gender differences in adverse drug reactions (ADRs). This assumption was based on many possible factors such as hormonal or behavior differences, and it was not clearly identified since the female gender was not preferred to be enrolled in many clinical trials. The primary aim of this study was to assess the extent of possibly relevant gender differences in drug–ADRs regarding causality, severity, preventability, seriousness, expectedness and outcome. While the secondary aim was to assess for which group of drugs and for which ADRs gender differences are identified most often. The study was a retrospective one that depends on processing a specially selected group of data obtained from th
... Show MoreBackground: Patients with decompensated cirrhosis are often given therapeutic and prophylactic drugs. Polypharmacy raises both the likelihood of prescription errors and the complications associated with drugs. Clinical pharmacists are excellent at recognizing, addressing, and preventing clinically significant drug-related problems.
Objectives: Identification types of pharmacist interventions to address drug-related problems in patients with decompensated cirrhosis and assess the acceptance/implementation of these recommendations. And identify patient factors associated with accepting pharmacist recommend
... Show MoreThe aim of this research to examine the impact of different level of Insulin certain biomarkers of local roosters semen after being cooling for varying lengths of periods, roosters semen pooled, diluted with extender, and distributed randomly among five groups: Diluted semen put through the semen cryopreservation technique; the control treatment (C1) 0 insulin; (C2) contained 4 IU/insulin; (C3) contained 5 IU/insulin; (C4) contained 6 IU/insulin; and (C5) contained 7 IU/insulin. After 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours, cooling semen were evaluated for plasma membrane integrity(MI), acrosome integrity(AI), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TCA). The result showed significant d
Various heavy metals, cations and anions of the Tigris River water in Baghdad regionwere studied during the winter, spring, summer and autumn of 2009, for 4 samplingsites. In the present investigation the levels of studied heavy metals, cations and anionswere found in the range of (0.011-0.333 mg/L) for As, in the water samples(undetectable-0.0043 mg/L) for Sb,( 0.011-0.080 mg/L) for Ti, (0.150-0.730 mg/L) forV, (0.01-1.06 mg/L) for Fe, (0.1-0.4 mg/L) for Zn, (0.011-0.15 mg/L) for Pb, (0.01-0.05mg/L) for Cd, (0.01-0.04 mg/L) for Ni, (50-290 mg/L) for Ca, (97-270 mg/L) for Mg,(0.65-1.74 mg/L) for K, (11-38.33) for Na, (35-113 mg/L) for Cl, (150-256 mg/L) forHCO3, (96-479 mg/L) for SO4, (0.93-3.9 mg/L) for NO3 and (undetectable - 0.360 mg/L)f
... Show MoreCeliac disease (CD) is an inflammatory small intestinal disorder that can lead to severe villous atrophy, and malabsorption . Since the measurement of α-amylase activity is the most widely used biochemical test for the diagnosis of pancreatic and non pancreatic disease , therefore serum α-amylase were studied in the present study in an attempt to evaluate the usefulness of this enzyme in the diagnosis of celiac disease and its relationship with anti gliadin IgA and IgG and serum glucose . Thirty one patients with celiac disease were studied and compared with twenty four healthy individuals . Significant elevation of α-amylase activity , glucose and anti gliadin IgA and IgG were observed in the sera of patients with celiac diseas
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