Background: Cystinosis is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease with high morbidity and mortality. It is caused by mutations in the CTNS gene that encodes the cystine transporter, cystinosin, which leads to lysosomal cystine accumulation. It is the major cause of inherited Fanconi syndrome, and should be suspected in young children with failure to thrive and signs of renal proximal tubular damage. The diagnosis can be missed in infants, because not all signs of renal Fanconi syndrome are present during the first months of life. Elevated white blood cell cystine content is the cornerstone of the diagnosis. Since chitotriosidase (CHIT1 or chitinase-1) is mainly produced by activated macrophages both in normal and inflammatory conditions which suggest that cystinosis should be included within the differential diagnosis of disorders associated with increased plasma chitotriosidase activity. This study is aimed to estimate serum chitotriosidase level, as a screening marker and therapeutic monitor for cystinosis disease in Iraqi children with cystinosis.
Subjects and Methods: The present study is a case-control study that included samples of 30 children with nephropathic cystinosis, compared to 25 healthy control children from those attending at The Genetic Rare Diseases Center / AL-Emamain AL-Kadhimain Teaching Hospital, Baghdad-Iraq.
Results: Our results reported that cystinotic children had a marked elevation of serum chitotriosidase activity, compared to age-matched healthy children, besides a significant associated with leukocyte-cystine content for cystinotic patients.
CHT1 as a Novel Biomarker
Conclusion: Estimation of serum chitotriosidase activity might aid in monitoring the therapeutic benefits of cysteamine therapy, as well as the prognosis of the disease when WBC cystine assessment is not available.
Key Words: Cystinosis, Cysteamine, Chitotriosidase.
A land magnetic survey was carried out along regional profile, which is located at the north part of the Iraqi western desert. It starts from al –Qaam City (at north) toward Rutba City (at south) with a total length of 238km. The survey was carried out along the paved road between the two cities, About 113 measuring points were done with inter-station distance of 2 km (for 198 km) and 2 to 5km (for 40km). Two proton magnetometers were used in this survey. One of them is used for base station monitoring, which was fixed as of Salah Aldin field (Akkas). Its readings were used for diurnal corrections. All magnetic measurements were corrected for normal and topographic corrections. The readings were reduced to a certain base level. The resu
... Show MoreThe building of the Babylonian theater is considered as one of the distinctive buildings where its foundations have remained steadfast in the face of geographical changes, social's erosion and groundwater that threatened almost all traces of Babylon despite the destruction of the outer structure of the building. The general directorate of antiques performed prospection for those foundations (the ground map), and then the building was completed by new bricks over the original scheme. It became clear when examining the building; its components and foundations, that the building is unique in comparison with the old buildings of the world throughout Iraq. There are similar buildings in other places like Jordan and North Africa such as
Background: Painful elbow joint over the lateral epicondyle especially with resisted wrist extension are common signs of lateral epicondyle tendinopathy, also called tennis elbow. Objective: To evaluate the clinical outcome of local platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection in patients with chronic tennis elbow compared with a steroid (Depomedrol 40 mg) injection. Methods: A total of 88 patients with chronic tennis elbow were treated at Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital and private clinics. All patients had chronic pain for about 24 weeks or more and had failed first line treatment. The patients dividing into two groups, Group A injected with PRP (n = 44), and group B injected with depomedrol 40 mg (n = 44). A good clinical result w
... Show MoreSeptember 11th attacks held the biggest tragedy in American history. It was a day of grief, and it proved that America was not immune to attacks and threat. Afterwards life has changed not only for the American Muslims but also American Christians and Jews and to people from other religions. The cruelty of that day has left its shed particularly on the Muslims’ life in America who in reality had nothing to do with the attacks. Arab American Muslim writer Laila Halaby’s novel, Once in a Promised Land, intensely displays the problems that Arab Muslims went through after September 11th attacks. This paper discusses this issue through analysing Halaby’s novel, where she deals with the issues such as discrimination, stereotype, and prejudi
... Show MoreBackground. Aneurysms of the distal anterior cerebral artery (DACA) are uncommon; they often form near the pericallosal-callosomarginal junction and are typically small. To our knowledge, giant DACA aneurysms developing from the more distant parts of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA), A4-5, have been described only once in the literature. Case description. A 66-year-old gentleman reported with a brief loss of consciousness followed by weakness in his right lower leg. The patient was admitted with a Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of 15. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the head revealed a left hyperdense mass in the frontal parasagittal supracallosal region. Contrast MRI revealed a heterogeneously enhancing mass measuring 35x30x25 mm. C
... Show MoreBackground: Painful elbow joint over the lateral epicondyle especially with resisted wrist extension are common signs of lateral epicondyle tendinopathy, also called tennis elbow.
Objective: To evaluate the clinical outcome of local platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection in patients with chronic tennis elbow compared with a steroid (Depomedrol 40 mg) injection.
Methods: A total of 88 patients with chronic tennis elbow were treated at Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital and private clinics. All patients had chronic pain for about 24 weeks or more and had failed first line treatment. The patients dividing into two groups, Group A injected with PRP (n = 44), and group B injected with d
... Show More<p>In combinatorial testing development, the fabrication of covering arrays is the key challenge by the multiple aspects that influence it. A wide range of combinatorial problems can be solved using metaheuristic and greedy techniques. Combining the greedy technique utilizing a metaheuristic search technique like hill climbing (HC), can produce feasible results for combinatorial tests. Methods based on metaheuristics are used to deal with tuples that may be left after redundancy using greedy strategies; then the result utilization is assured to be near-optimal using a metaheuristic algorithm. As a result, the use of both greedy and HC algorithms in a single test generation system is a good candidate if constructed correctly. T
... Show MoreThe load shedding scheme has been extensively implemented as a fast solution for unbalance conditions. Therefore, it's crucial to investigate supply-demand balancing in order to protect the network from collapsing and to sustain stability as possible, however its implementation is mostly undesirable. One of the solutions to minimize the amount of load shedding is the integration renewable energy resources, such as wind power, in the electric power generation could contribute significantly to minimizing power cuts as it is ability to positively improving the stability of the electric grid. In this paper propose a method for shedding the load base on the priority demands with incorporating the wind po
... Show MoreAdherence to cardiac medications makes a significant contribution to avoidance of morbidity and premature mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease. This quantitative study used cross‐sectional survey design to evaluate medication adherence and contributing factors among patients with cardiovascular disease, comparing patients who were admitted to a cardiac ward (