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.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the levels of trace elements Magnesium (Mg), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), and Selenium (Se) in blood sera of asthmatic patients by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). The concentrations of Mg, Cu, and Zn have been determined by Flame Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS), and Se with flameless Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (GFAAS). The study involves (55) asthmatic patients as study group and (28) subjects as control from both genders. Serum levels of Mg, Cu, and Se were significantly higher (p<0.001 for all) in patients when compared with healthy subjects, while Zn level was relatively significant (p<0.05). Our observations confirm the efficacy and applicability of (AAS) in
... Show MoreIn light of the rapid changes in the business environment and the entry of administrative leaders in the challenges of the atheist and twenty- increasing competition between sectors and the desire to acquire the skills, the traditional methods are no longer viable, which requires doing evaluates performance according to a more holistic, rather than limiting the performance evaluation on the financial hub that has not longer enough alone, as well as benchmarking method that has proven successful in developed countries as a way to develop and improve products and services.
I've touched your search to the development of indicators evaluating the performance and preparation of a mechanism for making comparisons of reference between o
... Show MoreSupport vector machines (SVMs) are supervised learning models that analyze data for classification or regression. For classification, SVM is widely used by selecting an optimal hyperplane that separates two classes. SVM has very good accuracy and extremally robust comparing with some other classification methods such as logistics linear regression, random forest, k-nearest neighbor and naïve model. However, working with large datasets can cause many problems such as time-consuming and inefficient results. In this paper, the SVM has been modified by using a stochastic Gradient descent process. The modified method, stochastic gradient descent SVM (SGD-SVM), checked by using two simulation datasets. Since the classification of different ca
... Show MoreUsing sodium4-((4,5-diphenyl-imidazol-2-yl)diazenyl)-3-hydroxynaphthalene-1-sulfonate (SDPIHN) as a chromogenic reagent in presence of non-ionic surfactant (Triton x-100) to estimate the chromium(III) ion if the wavelength of this reagent 463 nm to form a dark greenish-brown complex in wavelength 586 nm at pH=10,the complex was stable for longer than 24 hours. Beer's low, molar absorptivity 0.244×104L.mol-1.cm-1, and Sandal's sensitivity 0.021 µg/cm2 are all observed in the concentration range 1-11 µg/mL. The limits of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ), respectively, were 0.117 µg/mL and 0.385µg/mL. (mole ratio technique, job's method) were employed to
... Show MoreBackground: The use of electronic apex locators for working length determination eliminates many of the problems associated with the radiographic measurements (interference of anatomical structures, errors in projection such as elongation or shortening, and lack of three-dimensional representation). Its most important advantage over radiography is that it measures the length of the root canal to the apical constriction, not to the radiographic apex. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of a new fifth generation apex locator (Joypex 5) in recording the apical constriction and comparing it with a third generation apex locator (Root ZX) in vitro. Materials and method: Twenty four single-rooted sound human premolars, extracted for t
... Show MoreThe aim of the present research is to measure the degree of strategic effectiveness (fahs) in the development of grammar skills of high school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to achieve the goal of the researcher the researcher used the semi-experimental approach; On ten arbitrators specializing in grammar, morphology, curricula and methods of teaching the Arabic language. After confirming the validity of the guideline, the researcher prepared an achievement test consisting of (22) paragraphs of the type of short answer and multiple choice. The researcher trained a teacher to apply the strategy to the experimental research sample using the (screening) component of (30) students, and the same parameter taught the control sampl
... Show MoreLet/. It :0 ---0 G be any two self maps of a compact connected oriented Lie group G. In this paper, for each positive integer k , we associate an integer with fk,hi . We relate this number with Lefschetz coincidence number. We deduce that for any two differentiable maps f, there exists a positive integer k such that k 5.2+1 , and there is a point x C G such that ft (x) = (x) , where A is the rank of G . Introduction Let G be an n-dimensional com -pact connected Lie group with multip-lication p ( .e 44:0 xG--+G such that p ( x , y) = x.y ) and unit e . Let [G, G] be the set of homotopy classes of maps G G . Given two maps f , f G ---• Jollowing [3], we write f. f 'to denote the map G-.Gdefined by 01.11® =A/WO= fiat® ,sea Given a point g
... Show MoreIn this study serum total sailie acid concentration were tested as a scrological marker of discases activity to cvalute the result of the test in the diagonosis oe enteric fever(TSA) was measured in the serum od (50) patines with typhi fever(50)pa-tients
Objectives: To assess patients' satisfaction to nursing care at hemodialysis units and determine the relationship
between patients' satisfaction and patients' demographic data.
Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at hemodialysis units of Baghdad teaching hospitals from Feb.
4
th
, 2010 through Sep. 5
th, 2010. A purposive (non-probability) sample of (150) patients ta hemodialysis units ni
Baghdad teaching hospitals was selected. The data were collected through the use of constructing questionnaire
and by means of an interview technique with the patients; the questionnaire consists of two parts (1)
demographic data (2) patients' satisfaction to nursing care. The validity of the study questionnaire w