Inflammatory bowel disease includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic, progressive relapsing disease of gastrointestinal tract that require long-term treatment or maintenance therapy. Taking patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication in consideration had been shown to be an important factor that affects compliance of the patient in whom having positive beliefs is a prerequisite for better compliance. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among a sample of Iraqi patients with inflammatory bowel disease and to determine possible association between these beliefs and some patient-specific factors.

This study is a cross-sectional study carried out o

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the common chronic disease, which lead to great disability and chronic pain, and has a main adverse economic and social effect upon patients. The reason for the addition of quality of life as a pointer for health outcome result is attributed to the affectability of this measure for the evaluation of patient's health status after taken treatment and its health outcome. The purpose of the current study was to assess quality of life among a sample of Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis and to determine the possible association between health’s related quality of life and some patient-certain factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 250 already diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis pat

Diabetes mellitus is a common health problem worldwide counting about 1.2 million cases in Iraq in 2015. Taking in account of the patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication had been reported to be one of the most important factors that affects adherence where holding positive beliefs about medications is a prerequisite for intentional adherence. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among type 2 diabetic patients and to determine possible association between this belief and glycemic control as well as some patient-specific factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 380 (mean age 56.58± 10.06 years) already diagnosed T2DM patients who attended the National Diabetes

Background: Despite the importance of vaccines in preventing COVID-19, the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines is lower among RA patients than in the general population. Objective: To determine the extent of COVID-19 knowledge among RA patients and their attitudes and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenology approach was performed through face-to-face, individual-based, semi-structured interviews in the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, rheumatology unit. A convenient sample of RA patients using disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs was included until the point of saturation. A thematic content analysis approach was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: Twenty-five RA pa

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with decreased antioxidant state .This study aim to investigate the status of oxidant/antioxidant in a sample of  Iraqi patients with RA and the role of peroxynitrite and its natural scavenger uric acid in them .This case-controlled study was conducted at Baghdad teaching hospital /Baghdad from December 2010-May 2011 . Twenty-five patients with mean age 39 years and 25 apparently healthy subject as controls with mean age 29 years were included in the study .Investigations include estimation of serum levels of nitric oxide (NO)  ,peroxynitrite (PN) , malondialdehyde (MDA)  , and uric acid (UA) .Serum PN levels were significantly elevated in RA patients a

Cytokines play a prominent role in etiology and pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and one of these cytokines is interleukin-1β (IL-1β). The association between IL1B gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: rs16944) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a sample of Iraqi patients was investigated. Fifty-one RA patients (21 males and 30 females) were enrolled and their age range was 20 - 63 years (44.9 ± 1.5 years). In addition to patients, 45 apparently healthy control subjects were also enrolled in the study. They matched patients for ethnicity (Iraqis), gender (14 males and 31 females) and age (41.3 ± 1.3 years). Analysis of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) in RA patients and controls revealed that the IL1B ge

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

     Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflamed chronic autoimmune disease in which genetics and environment are the most common causative factors. Peptidyl arginine deiminase type IV (PADI4) is an enzyme responsible for the posttranslational conversion of arginine residues into citrulline. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a specific technique was used to determine gene polymorphism. One hundred twenty three patients molecularly confirmed with RA and sixty healthy control subjects were recruited. By applying the logistic regression analysis, some alleles and genotypes were associated with susceptibility to RA. Under the allelic model, C allele frequency was significantly increased in RA patients compared

mucosal secretions as well as in secondary granules of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Anti-Elastase antibodies, anti-Lactoferrin antibodies,anti-Cathapsin G antibodies and anti-Lysozyme antibodies, which belong to Perinuclear Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibodies(pANCA) have been described in several immunomediated diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis .
Objectives: Investigate the prevalence of anti-Elastase antibodies, anti-Lactoferrin antibodies,anti-Cathapsin G antibodies , anti- Lysozyme antibodies and rheumatoid factor in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in comparison to healthy control.
Patients &Methods: The study involved 40 Rheumatoid Arthritis patients who were referred to Immunolog

Thirty serum samples of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis after screening of rheumatoid factor, C-reactive protein and ESR were collected and including in present study to detect the IgG antibody against Chlamydia pneumoniae by ELISA test. The results showed only 2(6%) patients had seropositive of C. pneumoniae, this lead to suggest that C. pneumoniae may be one of the etiological or trigger factor in patients of rheumatoid arthritis.