Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with increased oxidative stress and impaired endothelial function. Ticagrelor treatment improves antioxidant properties in addition to its antiplatelet effects. This study investigated the impact of Ticagrelor treatment on serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and other biochemical parameters in PAD patients. It also evaluated the potential diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of specific biomarkers based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Seventy individuals were categorized into healthy control (n=40), baseline PAD patients not on Ticagrelor (B-PAD, n=30), and same PAD patients after treated with Ticagrelor (A-PAD, n=30). Parameters measured included SOD concent

Renal function tests are commonly used in clinical practice to look for renal disease, the most common includes the serum urea, uric acid and creatinine. Heart failure patients have a higher incidence of renal function test abnormalities than individuals who do not have heart failure disease. Fifty subjects of adults (male) were divided in to two groups, 25 subjects (healthy) as control (group1) and 25 subjects with heart failure (group 2). Our results indicate that serum uric acid, urea, and creatinine values were significantly elevated (P≤0.05) in patients group (2) compared with healthy group (1). The results also showed, the effect of age categories on uric acid blood urea nitrogen and creatinine values (P≤0.05) and there were no si

Background: Congenital cardiac defects have a wide spectrum of severity in infants. About 30-40% of patients with congenital cardiac defects will be symptomatic in the 1^st year of life, while the diagnosis was established in 60% of patients by the 1^st month of age.

Objectives: To identify the occurrence of specific types of CHD among hospitalized patients and to evaluate of growth of patients by different congenital heart lesions.

Methods: A retrospective study, done on ninety-six patients (51 male and 45 female) with congenital heart disease (CHD) admitted to central teaching hospital of pediatrics, Baghdad from 1^st September 2009 to 30

Background: Poly cystic ovary syndrome is a common disorder in women of reproductive age, it is associated with disturbance of reproductive, endocrine and metabolic functions. The pathophysiology of PCOS appears to be multifactorial and polygenic. Leptin seems to play an important role in pathophysiology of PCOS especially in women with BMI ≥25kg/m2. Objectives: To assess leptin level in both PCOS and healthy women and explore the relation to their body weight and body mass index. Patient and Methods: A total of 120 women were enrolled in this study, 60 women (50%) had PCOS (study group) and the reminder 60 women (50%) were healthy women and considered as control group. BMI was calculated first. Both groups were further sub

 Background: The normal decline in systolic blood pressure during recovery phase of treadmill exercise dose not occur in most patients with coronary artery disease, in others recovery values systolic blood pressure may even exceed the peak exercise value. Objectives: Treadmill exercise test parameters indicating the presence and extent of coronary artery disease have traditionally included such as exercise duration, blood pressure and ST-segment response to exercise. The three –minute systolic blood pressure ratio is another important indicator of presence and significance of coronary artery disease is useful and obtainable measure that can be applied in all patients who are undergoing stress testing for evaluation of suspected is

Background:  Imaging has a critical role in the diagnosis and evaluation of cardiac diseases, beginning with chest radiography and fluoro-scopy and progressing to coronary angio-graphy, echocardiography, nuclear medicine and recently  multidetector computed tomo-graphy (MDCT) as well as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging

Objective: To highlight the role of Multi-detector CT in the evaluation of coronary artery disease and its importance of being noninvasive diagnostic technique.

Methods: A cross sectional study for 20 patients. Patients were asked to fast 6 hours prior to the examination and the patients with heart rates above 65 beats per minute were given cardio-

KE Sharquie, R Hayani, J Al-Rawi, A Noaimi, SH Radhy, CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY, 2010

Background: Chronic kidney disease is a condition that results from an indefinite change in the structure and function of the kidneys. A slow, steady progression characterizes it and is irreversible.  Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the findings of certain biochemical and hematological tests in samples from Iraqi CKD patients.  Methods: This study included 90 subjects, where 70 patients with chronic kidney disease and 20 healthy individuals. Blood samples were collected from the patients during their visits to Ghazi Al-Hariri Surgical Specialties' Hospital- Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq. Age, sex and body mass index were assessed for each participant followed by renal function tests [serum blood urea, creatinine, uric acid a

In this paper, a mathematical model consisting of a prey-predator system incorporating infectious disease in the prey has been proposed and analyzed. It is assumed that the predator preys upon the nonrefugees prey only according to the modified Holling type-II functional response. There is a harvesting process from the predator. The existence and uniqueness of the solution in addition to their bounded are discussed. The stability analysis of the model around all possible equilibrium points is investigated. The persistence conditions of the system are established. Local bifurcation analysis in view of the Sotomayor theorem is carried out. Numerical simulation has been applied to investigate the global dynamics and specify the effect