Severe periodontitis is ranked as the sixth most prevalent disease affecting humankind, with an estimated 740 million people affected worldwide. The diagnosis of periodontal diseases mainly relies upon assessment of conventional clinical parameters. However, these parameters reflect past, rather than current, clinical status or future disease progression and, likely, outcome of periodontal treatment. Specific and sensitive biomarkers for periodontal diseases have been examined widely to address these issues and some biomarkers have been translated as point-of-care (PoC) tests. The aim of this review was to provide an update on PoC tests for use in the diagnosis and management of periodontal diseases. Among the PoC tests developed so

Plumbago (Plumbaginaceae) is a genus of 10-20 species of flowering plants used in traditional Indian medicine, native to warm temperature to tropical regions of the world. The roots of Plumbago europaea, the Iraqi species of Plumbago, have been used for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and dysmenorrhea. The main active constituents from dried powdered leaves and roots of Plumbago europaea were extracted by Soxhlet apparatus using ethyl acetate, the main active constituent was characterized by spectroscopic analysis (IR, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR)   as plumbagin. Quantitative and qualitative study of plumbagin in the roots and leaves extracts was carried out by HP

The pharmacokinetics and bioequivalence of a newly developed extended-released (ER) tablet containing 400 mg pentoxifylline as a test product was compared with the reference brand product Trental^® 400 mg ER tablet produced by Sanofi-Aventis. Two separate studies were conducted simultaneously. The first study was conducted under fasting condition, whereas, the second study was conducted under fed condition; using the same batches of the test and reference products in both studies. In each study, both products were administered to 32 healthy male adult volunteers applying a single-dose, two-treatment, two-period, two-sequence, randomized crossover design with one-week washout period between dosing. Twenty two blood samples we

1, 3, 4-oxadiazole-5-thion ring (2) successfully formed at position six of 2-methylphenol and five of their thioalkyl (3a-e). Furthermore 6-(5-(Aryl)-1, 3, 4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-2-methylphenol (5a-i) were formed at position six by two method. The first method was from cyclization their correspondinghydrazones (4a-e) of 2-hydroxy-3-methylbenzohydrazide (1) using bromine in glacial acetic acid. The second method was from cyclization the hydrazide with aryl carboxylic acid in the presence of phosphorusoxy chloride. The newly synthesized compounds were characterized from their IR, NMR and mass spectra. The antioxidant properties of these compounds were screened by 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazide (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) a

Hypothyroidism is the decrease in thyroid hormones production and thyroid gland function. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common cause of hypothyroidism with production of autoantibodies directed toward autoantigens thyroglobulin (Tg) and thyroid peroxidase (TPO). This study was carried out to determine and compare serum and salivary levels of thyroid antibodies (TPO-Ab and Tg- Ab) in hypothyroid patients (with and without periodontitis) and healthy control; as well as to estimate the possibility to evaluate and measured these antibodies in the saliva as measured in the serum. Serum and saliva samples were collected from sixty hypothyroid patients with age ranged (20-64) years (30 of patients were with periodontitis and 30 without per

Electromyography (EMG) is being explored for evaluating muscle activity. For gait analysis, EMG needs to be small, lightweight, portable device, and with low power consumption. The proposed superficial EMG (sEMG) system is aimed to be used in rehabilitation centers and biomechanics laboratories for gait analysis in Iraq.

The system is built using MyoWare, which is controlled by using STM32F100 microcontroller. The sEMG signal is transferred via Bluetooth to the computer (about 30m range) for further processing. MATLAB is used for sEMG signal conditioning. The overall system cost (without computer) is about $80. The proposed system is validated using wired NORAXON EMG using the mean root mean squared metho

To study the comparative use of some soil minerals (zeolite, bentonite, phosphate rock, and limestone) in the adsorption and release of lead and its removal rates from its aqueous solutions using adsorption equations. Two laboratory experiments were carried out for the adsorption and release of lead. The adsorption experiment took 0.5 g of some of the above soil minerals. Lead was added as Pb (NO3)2 at levels of 3.0, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, 0.5, and 0.0 mmol L-1 containing a concentration of 0.01M of calcium chloride. The experimental unit’s number was 72, the concentration of dissolved lead in the equilibrium solution was estimated and the amount of lead adsorbed was calculated. As for the lead release experiment, samples fo