Background: Hormonal changes during pregnancy have been suggested to predispose women to gingivitis. Furthermore, advance periodontal infection in pregnant women may pose a threat to the placenta and uterus and may increase the like hood of preterm delivery. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of salivary interleukin -6 (IL-6) level and periodontal health among preterm postpartum women. Materials and Methods: Salivary samples were taken from 33 preterm postpartum women (study group) and 33 full term postpartum women (control group). The supernatant salivary samples were assayed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Plaque, calculus and gingival indices were used for recording the oral hygiene and gingivitis also probing

Giardia lamblia is the worldwide most common intestinal protozoan parasite. It was indicated that Giardia is the most important agent that causes acute and chronic diarrhea in infants, young children and travelers. The aim was to detect the influence of host HLA alleles on the susceptibility to infection with G. lamblia in a sample of Iraqi patients. A total of (40) patients with giardiasis aged (14-39) years were registered. All of them were symptomatic and (40) healthy individuals matched age and sexes were included as controls. All patients were prepared to stool examination to detect G. lamblia and eliminated other pathogens, as well as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles (DRB1) typing. The most common detected alleles in pat

Chronic periodontitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease affecting tooth supporting structures in response to bacterial dental plaque causing irreversible tissue destruction. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an effective mediator in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Polymorphisms in the COX-2 gene may contribute to its overexpression and increased disease susceptibility. To evaluate the association between -1195 A/G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promotor area of the cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) gene and severity of chronic periodontitis in a sample of Iraqi population. -1195A/ G COX-2 SNP was investigated in 70 chronic periodontitis (CP) cases and 30 healthy controls. CP cases composed of 2 subgroups (35 moderate CP cases and 35 severe CP

The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of cytokines IL-1?, IL-10 and IL-17A in the serum of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD) and down syndrome (DS). The results showed that Serum level of IL-1? was significantly increased in AD patients (3.79 ± 0.26 pg/ml) as compared with DS patients (2.78 ± 0.39 pg/ml) or controls (2.78 ± 0.22 pg/ml), while no significant difference was observed between AD and VD (3.25 ± 0.20 pg/ml) patients or between VD patients, DS patients and controls. The serum level of IL-10 was approximated in VD and DS patients and controls (3.39 ± 0.24, 2.77 ± 0.39 and 3.41 ± 0.35 pg/ml, respectively), but was significantly (P ? 0.05) increased in AD patients (5.73 ± 0.55 pg/ml

Evaluation of the Serum Level of Interleukin-6 in Patients Undergoing Surgical Removal of Impacted Mandibular Third Molars, Hussain A Taher*, Salwan Y Bede

It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 fem

Interleukins (IL-2 and IL-4) are increased in asthmatics and were reported to induce resistance to steroid therapy in some patients who fail to get benefit from glucocorticoids when used in full dose and for long period of time. In this context, the present study was conducted on Iraqi patients to provide additional laboratory mean, beside the clinical diagnosis, for the decision whether the asthma is steroid sensitive or resistant by monitoring the level of immunoglobulins, complement proteins and interleukins among asthmatic patients (steroid sensitive or resistant) and the possible contribution of other factors like age, sex and environments in the development of steroid resistance. A total number of 55 asthmatics and 28 normal subjec

Background: Few updated retrospective histopathological-based studies in Iraq evaluate a comprehensive spectrum of oro-maxillofacial lesions. Also, there was a need for a systematic way of categorizing the diseases and reporting results in codes according to the WHO classification that helps occupational health professionals in the clinical-epidemiological approach.

Objectives: to establish an electronic archiving database according to the ICD-10 that encompasses oro-maxillofacial lesions in Sulaimani city for the last 12 years, then to study the prevalence trend and correlation with clinicopathological parameters.

Subjects and Methods:  A descri