Background: Hand osteoarthritis (HOA) is a common joint disorder leading to considerable pain and with substantial impact on hand function. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) is a measurable index of the presence of atherosclerosis. Increased CIMT is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, so early diagnosis and management may improve quality of life.
Objective: To assess the relationship between carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and hand osteoarthritis (HOA), and to evaluate the predictors of this relationship.
Patients and Methods: One hundred Iraqi HOA patients and 100 healthy controls were included in this study. Full history was taken and complete clinical examination was done for all patients

Background: Factor V Leiden is considered the most common inherited risk factor for venous thrombosis in Caucasian populations, including those in the Eastern Mediterranean region. While several studies have addressed Factor V Leiden prevalence in patients with venous thrombosis in the Eastern Mediterranean countries, none have been reported from Iraq.
Objective: To study the prevalence of Factor V Leiden in an unselected group of Iraqi patients with Deep Venous thrombosis.
Materials and Methods: A total of 50 unselected patients with deep venous thrombosis referred to the Medical City Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, as well as 40 age and sex matched controls, were enrolled. The evaluation included in addition to detailed histo

The study involved 120 women, who were distributed into two groups of breast tumor patients (30 malignant and 30 benign) and a group of controls (60 women). The patients were referred to the Center for Early Detection of Breast Tumor at Al-Alwayia Hospital for Gynecology and Obstetrics (Baghdad) during the period June-December 2011. They were investigated for the frequency of ABO blood group phenotypes, menopausal status, oral contraceptive use, body mass index and family history of breast cancer or other cancers. The results demonstrated that 60.0% of malignant cases clustered after the age 50 years, while it was 20.0% in benign cases. Fifty percent of malignant breast tumor patients reached menopause, while in benign cases, the corresp

Background: Age progression is regarded as a critical risk factor in morbidity and mortality because of a weakened immune system. Although various studies have dealt with electrolyte imbalance in COVID-19 patients, the outcomes of these studies were partially understood. Objective: The current study aims to determine some biochemical parameters in old Iraqi COVID-19 patients and highlight the outcomes according to the aging role in the development of COVID-19 by suggesting new mechanisms. Materials and methods: forty COVID-19 patients were enrolled in the current study and divided into two groups: Gm includes (20) men, and Gf includes  (20) women. The parameters (Na+, K+, Cl-, LDH, and Hb ) were determined in sera of patients and c

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a common chronic and destructive autoimmune arthropathy .Treatment with infliximab gives great improvement to a large numbers of patients with RA ,however, in some patients after prolonged treatment infliximab can induce anti-infliximab antibodies formation and result to loss of infliximab efficacy and active persistent disease.
Objective: to investigate the frequency of anti-infliximab antibodies in Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Patients and methods: fifty Iraqi RA patients(36 females and 14 males) compared with 50 control( 25 healthy control and 25 case control (patients with RA on other treatment) ) were included in this study from begging of March 201

Background: Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most common form of cyanotic congenital heart disease and the catheterization and angiography still considered (in most centers) as essential preoperative diagnostic step. This retrospective aimed at evaluating the catheterization and angiographic finding in our Iraqi patients with diagnosis of TOF
Patients and methods: The catheterization and angiographic study of200 patients with TOF-' referred to Ibn Al-Bitar Cardiac Center had been reviewed.
Results: There were 126 males and 74 females and their ages ranged from 11 months to 37 years. The catheterization data showed that 88% of the patients had equal LV and RV pressure. The evaluation of pulmonary artery pressure showed that all pati

Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1) is an essential marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but its relationship with pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and inflammatory markers has been scantily covered in extant literature. To evaluate the level of CTHRC1 protein in the sera of 100 RA patients and 25 control and compare levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 10 (IL-10), RA disease activity (DAS28), and inflammatory factors. Higher significant serum levels of CTHRC1 (29.367 ng/ml), TNF-α (63.488 pg/ml), and IL-10 (67.1 pg/ml) were found in patient sera as compared to that in control sera (CTHRC1 = 15.732 ng/ml, TNF-α = 33.788 pg/ml, and IL-10 = 25.122 pg/ml). There was no significant correlation be

Folate metabolism is fundamental and essential for DNA structure synthesis and repair. Change in genes that participate in folate metabolism can be linked with different types of malignant tumor, Therefore, this study was conducted to find out the association between methylenetetrahydrofolatereductaseMTHFR gene polymorphisms and risk of breast cancer in a sample of Iraqi patients. One Single Nucleotide Polymorphism ( SNP) including MTHFR C677T was calculated using a tetra primer ARMS PCR experiment assay. The results explained that (MTHFR C677T) consists of three genotype (CC, CT, TT), The CC genotype was the most frequent in patients and control group ( 40.00%) and(60.00%) ,respectively, while the lowest frequency was for TT genotype(26

Interleukin-1 β (IL-1 β) is considered to be one of the most important mediators in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized with demyelination in central nervous system (CNS). There was believe that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-1β gene can alter the structure and function of the IL-1β and consequently may have play role in MS disease. In this this study the IL-1β gene polymorphism (rs16944, rs1143634) and their association with MS in Iraqi patients were investigated. Two SNPs including IL-1β-511 (rs16944) in promoter and IL-1B+3962 (rs1143634) in encoding region, were studied using Polyme