Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL). The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals of this study were to compare the QoL of Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseases modifying therapies(DMTs) administered orally, subcutaneously, and by slow infusion; namely, fingolimod,interferonB-1b, and natalizumab, respectively. And to assess the role of disability status, educational status, occupational status, MS duration, and treatment duration as a predictor for the QoL. Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS) questionnaire version 4 was used to assess QoL. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were tested by univariate and multivariate regression analyses to assess the contribution of these predictors to QoL. No significant differences were found in symptoms, thinking/fatigue subscales and FAMS total scores among the three DMTs. In conclusion: Iraqi MS patients using InterferonB-1b, fingolimod or natalizumab have a comparable low level of QoL. The expanded disability status scale (EDSS) is negatively associated with QoL of MS patients in all of the three therapies, while other predictors such as occupational status, educational status, smoking habit and MS duration have different impact in different treatments.
Poverty is defined as a low standard of living in the sense that a poor person can not afford a minimum standard of living. The phenomenon of poverty is one of the most serious problems that must be dealt with seriously. This phenomenon has persisted in Iraq for decades because of the harsh economic conditions and unstable security conditions due to the crises it has faced since 2013. This study requires much study and analysis. And rural areas as a special case. In this study, the researcher examined the poverty line as a criterion in estimating the poverty indicators, which include (poverty percentage H, poverty gap PG, poverty intensity PS), based on the continuous social and economic survey data for households in 2014. The ma
... Show MoreObjectives The gold standard in the field of periodontal research currently is to find a valid biomarker that can reliably be used for diagnosing periodontal diseases. Given the limitations of the current diagnostic tools that stall to predict susceptible individuals and determine whether active tissue destruction is occurring, there is an increased urge to develop alternative diagnostic techniques that would compensate for the problems inherited in these available methods, such as measuring levels of biomarkers present in oral fluids such as saliva; so the aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic potential of interleukin-17 (IL-17) and IL-10 to differentiate periodontal health
Communities seek to achieve the economic growth through the optimal use of resources. The human resource is considered the most important of those resources where the insurance institutions take the larger role in the protection of this resource and reducing the impact caused by dangers realization that endures. The general Iraqi insurance company is considered the leading in the field of life insurance since it was founded, and until now.
This research is based on an analyzing the relation between premiums and compensations of life insurance, for individual and the group insurance, and a reality of the
... Show MoreThis research studies the rheological properties ( plastic viscosity, yield point and apparent viscosity) of Non-Newtonian fluids under the effect of temperature using different chemical additives, such as (xanthan gum (xc-polymer), carboxyl methyl cellulose ( High and low viscosity ) ,polyacrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol, starch, Quebracho and Chrome Lignosulfonate). The samples were prepared by mixing 22.5g of bentonite with 350 ml of water and adding the additives in four different concentrations (3, 6, 9, 13) g by using Hamilton Beach mixer. The rheological properties of prepared samples were measured by using Fan viscometer model 8-speeds. All the samples were subjected to Bingham plastic model. The temperature range studi
... Show MoreRecently The problem of desertification and vegetation cover degradation become an environmental global challenge. This problem could be summarized as as the land cover changes. In this paper, the area of Al- Muthana in the south of Iraq will be consider as one of Semi-arid lands. For this purpose, the Ladsat-8 images can be used with 15 m in spatial resolution. In order to over Achieve the work, many important ground truth data must be collected such as, rain precipitation, temperature distribution over the seasons, the DEM of the region, and the soil texture characteristics. The extracted data from this project are tables, 2-D figures, and GIS maps represent the distributions of vegetation areas, evaporation / precipitation, river levels
... Show MoreAbstract: The present study aimed to evaluate calcium, potassium, albumin, protein, creatinine, urea, uric acid levels, and the level of total sialic acid in the sera of patients with chronic renal failure who had been infected with Hepatitis C virus and in the sera of patients with chronic renal failure, and compare them with healthy volunteers. A total of 90 subjects with age 25-55 years, were divided into three groups. G1 represents 30 patients with chronic renal failure who had treated by dialysis and infected with chronic Hepatitis C virus (positive group). G2 represents 30 patients with chronic failure who had been treated by dialysis (negative group), while G3 represents 30 healthy volunteers (control group). The results showed
... Show MoreThis study aimed to isolate and phenotype lymphocytes in untreated children patients with chronic allergic asthma. To reach such aim the study involved (25) patients from children (17 male and 9 female) whom their ages where between (3-10) years, in addition to (15) apparently healthy children (9 male and 6 female) in the same ages involved as control group. The data demonstrated that there was a significant increase in the mean percentages of T-lymphocytes (CD3+ cells) in the peripheral blood of patients (66.75±0.29)**, in comparison with control group (43.58±0.19), a significant increase in the mean percentages of T-helper lymphocytes (CD4+ cells) in the pe
... Show MoreBackground: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease. It is one of the major causes of disability in developed and developing countries. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) as part of immune system has a role in the disease process.Objectives: To investigate whether there is an association between HLA class II-DRB and OA.Methods: A case control study with 26 patients with osteoarthritis and 22 apparently healthy obese control persons matching in ethnicity were enrolled in this study during the period between October 2012 till March 2013. Direct interview was done with each patient and HLA typing was done by molecular method using Sequence Specific Primer (PCR-SSP) method using One Lambda Kit-USA. Results: The results showed that fem
... Show MoreThis research aims to provide insight into the Spatial Autoregressive Quantile Regression model (SARQR), which is more general than the Spatial Autoregressive model (SAR) and Quantile Regression model (QR) by integrating aspects of both. Since Bayesian approaches may produce reliable estimates of parameter and overcome the problems that standard estimating techniques, hence, in this model (SARQR), they were used to estimate the parameters. Bayesian inference was carried out using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques. Several criteria were used in comparison, such as root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and coefficient of determination (R^2). The application was devoted on dataset of poverty rates acro
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