Chitinase-3-like 1 protein (YKL-40) is a glycoprotein primarily produced in the arthritic joint and plays a crucial role in inflammatory processes. The aim of the study is to establish the role of YKL-40 as a biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to proinflammatory biomarkers and disease activity. The study included 58 patients and 18 control. Diseases activity score (DAS-28) and clinical disease activity index (CDAI) were measured. Serum level of YKL-40, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1B (IL-1β), erythrocyte sedimentation (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF), C-reactive protein (CRP), and anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) were assessed. The results showed that the median serum YKL-40 level which was 5.42 ng/ml, the TNF-a level which was 123.6 ng/ml, and the IL-1B level which was 204.365 pg/dl were significantly higher in patients compared to control 3.28 (1.58–4.99) ng/ml, 56.47 (9.38–77.01) ng/ml and 67.887 (15.493–122.689)pg/dl respectively. There was no correlation between serum YKL-40 and disease activity, while there were significant associations observed with TNF-α (r=0.5,p =0.0001) and IL-1β (r=0.41, p=0.001). YKL-40 indicating good levels of RA prediction at 2.47 ng/ml, sensitivity 87.9%, specificity 58.6%, accuracy 78.1%, PPV 80.9%, and NPV 70.8%. In conclusion, a higher level of serum YKL-40 is found in RA patients. The findings from our study suggest a strong association between YKL-40 and the proinflammatory biomarkers. As a result, these biomarkers together might play a role in RA pathogenesis, and YKL-40 may be used as a potential diagnostic biomarker for RA.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in men. A total of 110 Iraqi Arab individuals were included in this study; 60 individuals of them had prostate cancer with increased levels of TPSA (patients group); their age range 52-90 years. They were referred for diagnosis and treatment to the National Al-Amal Hospital for oncology in Baghdad during the period from July 2017 to October 2017. While the other 50 apparently healthy subjects were the control group, their age range similar to patients group. Sera and blood samples were collected from all patients and controls than used to assess for the level of IL-18 and DNA extraction, respectively. The polymorphisms were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction-single specific
... Show MoreThe study problem is about the role of Shaqra University in building the mental image of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision among its female students. The study aims to examine the university’s role in providing information about the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, its role in shaping the vision’s image, the university’s role in the behavioral aspect of the vision, along with studying the extent of differences in answers of the sample individuals towards the study themes attributed to the personal variables. The researcher adopted the descriptive survey method. A sample of (1399) female students was used to achieve the study objectives. The results showed that university’s role in building the mental image of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, among
... Show MoreThe world and the business environment are constantly witnessing many economic changes that have led to the expansion of the business' volume due to mergers and the increase in an investments volume and the complexity of business and the transformation of some systems, which was reflected on the size of the risk and uncertainty which led to necessity of a presence of transparent and objective accounting information In the way that reflects the financial performance of the economic units to be available to all users of that information, therefore, The need for the existence of indicators for transparency in the disclosure of accounting information that these units adhere to. Standards & Poor's indicators, which included items
... Show MoreBackground: Pleural effusion is a common clinical
problem.
Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the
diagnostic utility of Carcino embryonic antigen
(CEA), CA 15- 3, and alpha-feto protein ( AFP ) as
a tumor markers in serum and pleural effusion and
evaluate the value of combining them as a diagnostic
tools that are complementary to cytology in the
diagnosis of malignancies .
Methods: Forty patients (18 malignant and 22 benign
pleural effusion) were included in this study .The
serum and effusion levels of CEA, CA 15 – 3 and
AFP were measured using immunoradiometric assay
Results: from the 40 effusions studied 26 were
exudates and 14 were transudates. The level of
pleural effusions
In order to study the correlation between CMV infection and increase in blood pressure among Iraqi patients, 201 blood samples were collected including; 88 male, 113 female hypertensive patients and 40 control samples. Patients sera were grouped into patients who are under medication (T), and patients who do not take any treat-ment for hypertension(NT). Samples were tested for CMV-IgM/IgG by ELISA, ren-in enzyme and interleukin-6(IL-6) levels were determined by ELISA too. The opti-cal density readings difference for CMV-IgG were significant between (T) and (NT) groups as well as when each group compared to control, level of renin enzyme showed significant difference between patients group(T and NT) and between each group compared to the
... Show MoreIn this research, the preparation of bidentate Schiff base was carried out via the condensation reaction of both the salicylaldehyde with 1-phenyl-2,3-dimethyl-4-amino-5-oxo-pyrazole to form the ligand (L). The mentioned ligand was used to prepare complexes with transition metal ions Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II). The resulting complexes were separated and characterized by FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopic technique. Elemental analysis for Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen elements, electronic spectra of the ligand and complexes were obtained, and the magnetic susceptibility tests were also achieved to measure the dipole moments. The molar conductivities were also measured and determination of chlorine content in the complexes and
... Show MoreMassive multiple-input multiple-output (m-MIMO) is considered as an essential technique to meet the high data rate requirements of future sixth generation (6G) wireless communications networks. The vast majority of m-MIMO research has assumed that the channels are uncorrelated. However, this assumption seems highly idealistic. Therefore, this study investigates the m-MIMO performance when the channels are correlated and the base station employs different antenna array topologies, namely the uniform linear array (ULA) and uniform rectangular array (URA). In addition, this study develops analyses of the mean square error (MSE) and the regularized zero-forcing (RZF) precoder under imperfect channel state information (CSI) and a realist
... Show MoreAfter about twelve months or maybe more, some people can’t achieve pregnancy. This might be a sign of infertility as a reproductive system disease. The following study was carried out to investigate the DAZ 1 gene methylation level and its association with azoospermia in Iraqi patients. One hundred and fifty human blood samples were collected from from different regions in Baghdad governorate, including (private medicals Labs and the high institute for infertility diagnosis assisted reproductive techniques and Kamal Al- Samara'ay IVF Hospital) from both fertile and infertile men. The control group consists of 50 samples ranging from 22 to 51 years old, while the patient (infertile group) consists of 100 samples ranging between 25 and 51 y
... Show MoreSurvival analysis is one of the types of data analysis that describes the time period until the occurrence of an event of interest such as death or other events of importance in determining what will happen to the phenomenon studied. There may be more than one endpoint for the event, in which case it is called Competing risks. The purpose of this research is to apply the dynamic approach in the analysis of discrete survival time in order to estimate the effect of covariates over time, as well as modeling the nonlinear relationship between the covariates and the discrete hazard function through the use of the multinomial logistic model and the multivariate Cox model. For the purpose of conducting the estimation process for both the discrete
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