Objectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and secondly, non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were selected from the patients attending Ibn AL-Haitham hospital for ophthalmology and a specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes. Venous blood samples of all participants were drawn after an overnight fast, and serum samples were stored at -20ºC until DKK-1 assay. Results: Serum DKK-1 showed significantly lower levels in diabetic patients with (6.1 ± 2 ng/mL) or without DR (14 ± 6.2 ng/mL) when compared to those of controls (34 ± 12.25 ng/mL) (p 0.05). Furthermore, serum DKK-1 levels were lower in the late stage of DR compared to the early stage 5.6 ± 1.7 and 7 ± 1.9 ng/mL, respectively. Furthermore, DPP-4 inhibitors cause a better increment in DKK-1 levels when compared to SU in the NDR group. Conclusions: Reduced serum levels of DKK-1 are related to the existence and worsening of DR and have the prospect to serve as an indicator for this condition.
Background: Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is the result of aninitial episode of acute otitis media and is characterized by a persistent discharge from the middle ear through a tympanic perforation for at least 2 weeks duration. It is an important cause of preventable hearing loss, particularly in the developing world.Methods. 1. To get an overview on the bacterial ear infection profile in general 2. To assess the antibiotic resistance of Pseudomonal infection (PS) particularly since it is usually the commonest infection to cause otitis media and the most difficult to treat due to the problem of multi drug resistance... A cross sectional study was done which included 405 patient of CSOM patients196 (48%) case were males ,209 (52
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is the result of an initial episode of acute otitis media and is characterized by a persistent discharge from the middle ear through a tympanic perforation for at least 2 weeks duration. It is an important cause of preventable hearing loss, particularly in the developing world.Objective: To get an overview on the bacterial ear infection profile in general and to assess the antibiotic resistance of Pseudomonal infection (PS) particularly since it is usually the commonest infection to cause otitis media and the most difficult to treat due to the problem of multi drug resistance..Methods: A cross sectional study was done which included 405 patients of CSOM patients, 196 (48%) case were mal
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by persistent joint inflammation, which is a defining feature of this chronic inflammatory condition. Considerable advancements have been made in the field of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medicines (DMARDs), which effectively mitigate inflammation and forestall further joint deterioration. Anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) drugs, which are a class of biological DMARDs (bDMARDs), have been efficaciously employed in the treatment of RA in recent times Adalimumab, a TNF inhibitor, has demonstrated significant efficacy in reducing disease symptoms and halting disease progression in patients with RA. However, its use is associated with major side effects and high costs. In addition,
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This paper presents a stylistic analysis of two poems of well-known poets of the English literature, namely; E.E. Cummings and the Irish noble laureate Seamus Heaney. The researcher's attempt here is to approach Cummings’s poem “maggie and milly and molly and may” and Heaney’s “A Kite for Aibhín” from the stylistics’ point of view. The paper also analyzes the poems using the tools of linguistics with a view to make their meaning explicit.
It is worth noting that stylistics as a scientific discipline is really beneficial to those who are teaching and studyi
... Show MoreWar as a human phenomenon, has its own literature. Poetry is a major genre in this literature. This paper is an attempt to investigate and analyse some stylistic features in two selected, English and Arabic, war poems. These poems share the same theme.Both promote the principle of sacrificing one’s own life for the sake of homeland. This paper limits itself to analyse, thecontent words, tenses, semantic grouping of vocabulary and foregrounding in the two poems. The areas of analysis show great similarities in distributing the general content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs). In the analysis of the semantic areas of each content word, these poems reveal some similarities and some differences in their frequency rates.
... Show MorePurpose: The research aims to determine the relationship between E-Learning and Total Quality Management (TQM) in Educational institutions in Nineveh Governorates.
Methodology / Design: The researchers distributed (30) questionnaires to employees (teachers and administrators) of Nineveh Governorate education who represent the community of the research sample, as they were analyzed using the SPSS V.20
The importance of research: The importance of the research in the fact that it focuses on one of the educational methods represented in integrating the traditional method and relying on modern technologies using computers and the Internet in the field of education to improve the reali
... Show MoreBackground: All diseases concerning bone destruction such as osteoporosis and periodontal diseases share common pattern in which the osteoclast cells are absolutely responsible for bone resorption that occurred when osteoclast activity exceeds osteoblast activity. Osteoprotegrin (OPG) considered as novel soluble decoy receptor known as “bone protector†since it prevents extreme bone resorption through inhibition of differentiation and activity of osteoclast by competing for binding site. It binds to receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) and prevent its interaction with receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B (RANK), thus inhibits osteoclast formation. TNF-α is a pro-inflammatory cytokines having
... Show MoreThis research deals with the relationship between television advertising and buying random cosmetics, where we find that TV ads influence on the purchasing behavior of women, has conducted research in the field on a sample of women in the University of Baghdad, was a random sample taken from 150 different women in the age and social levels educational and cultural students and employees and teachers in order to sample representative be for the research community, and designed a questionnaire for this purpose form as a tool to collect data and information search and analyzed they answered the sample surveyed using a statistical program (spss) to extract percentages And correlation coefficients and testing square Kay , The study found Of w
... Show MoreThis study aims to identify the role of forensic accounting in resolving banking disputes in the Iraqi environment, and to achieve this goal, the fiel
d survey method was used, as it is the most appropriate for studying the phenomenon in question and achieving its objectives. A sample of (50) male and female employees was selected, distributed among five banks listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange in the Baghdad governorate. The questionnaire tool prepared for this purpose was applied to them, which consisted of two main axes. The first axis included paragraphs of questions related to the importance of forensic accounting. The second axis relates to disputes At the end of the research, we reached a set of conclusions, the most import
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