BACKGROUND: HLA-B27 can effect clinical presentation and course of ankylosing spondylitis. Different detection techniques of HLA-B27 are available with variable sensitivities and specificities. OBJECTIVE: To compare serologic and molecular diagnostic techniques of detecting HLA-B27 status and to correlate it with some clinical variables among ankylosing spondylitis patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 83 Iraqi patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Clinical and laboratory evaluations were reported. HLA-B27 status was determined in all patients by real-time PCR using HLA-B27 RealFast™ kit; ELISA method was used as well to detect soluble serum HLA-B27 antigens using Human Leukocyte Antigen® kit. RESULTS:

The present study was set to demonstrate the prevalence of toxoplasmosis infection and its effects on patients with systemic  lupus erythematosus (SLE) through determining their serum levels of anti-dsDNA and IL-18 antibodies. For this purpose, the sera from 132 SLE and/or toxoplasmosis patients and 30 healthy women, were collected. The study sample was divided into four groups of SLE, toxoplasmosis, SLE coinfected with toxoplasmosis, and healthy control. Anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies were examined for all the samples using ELISA kit. The results showed a high mean level of anti-Toxoplasma IgG among SLE patients coinfected with toxoplasmosis (104.8792±12.31585pg/ml) in comparison to that in toxoplasmosis patients (91.1705±12.577

Bentonite is widely used in industrial applications. The present study reports the effect of adding different weights of ZnO to the Iraqi bentonite, on surface area, pore volume and real density. These surface properties were evaluated for pure and modified bentonite. The modification was made by adding different ZnO weights such as; ( 0.5%, 1%, 5%, 10% ). The effect of heat exposing for all modified clay samples at 500 ?C have been also evaluated. The results show that the addition of 0.5% ZnO leads to increase the surface area percentage about 36%, increase pore volume percentage about 5.48% and increase the real density percentage about 27.116%. When the samples exposed to 500 ?C, their surface area and pore volumes have been decreased a

A simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determing carbamate pesticides in both pure and water samples. The method is appropriate for the determination of carbofuran in the presence of other ingredients that are usually available in dosage forms. The effect of organic solvents on the spectrophotometric properties of the azo dye and the structure of the resulting product have also been worked out and it is found to be 1:1 benzidine :carbofuran. The method can be successfully applied to determination of carbofuran in water samples. The method is based on diazotization of Benzidine (4, 4 – diamino biphenyl) with sodium nitrite and hydrochloric acid followed by coupling with carbofuran

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of oral administration of hot aqueous extract of beetle cocoon Larinus maculatus Faldermann, in a two doses 50 and100mg/Kg/Bw for 25 and 45days respect- tively on some organs such as liver, lung, kidney, intestine, heart, spleen, and brain in male mice Mus musculus. The results indicated that there were toxicopathological changes in many tissues of experimental animals. Histo -pathological changes was dose and period dependent . It was found that the aqueous extract of beetle cocoon has undesirable effect at the administered doses, since the raw extract of this cocoon is currently being used in Folk medicine as treatment for cough, bronchitis in Iraq. This study revealed that the l

Periodontal diseases (PD) are worldwide diseases of humans either in childhood or adults. The present study aimed to find the correlation between some demographic and saliva immunological factors including the determination of saliva TLR-2, IL6, CRP, and α- amylase in patients with periodontal diseases. For this purpose, 60 patients out of which 33were males and 27 were females participated in this study from different Dental treatment Centers (Amirya Specialized Dental Center and Almaamon Specialized Dental Center ) in Baghdad/ Iraq, for the period starting from November / 2021 to February / 2022. Both age ranges for patients and control are (13-70) years, and patients’ mean ages are 34.29±15.01. Additionally, the c

Atrial fibrillation is associates with elevated risk of stroke. The simplest stroke risk assessment schemes are CHADS₂ and CHA₂DS₂-VASc score. Aspirin and oral anticoagulants are recommended for stroke prevention in such patients.

The aim of this study was to  assess status of CHADS₂ and CHA₂DS₂-VASc scores in Iraqi atrial fibrillation patients and to report current status of stroke prevention in these patients with either warfarin or aspirin in relation to these scores.

This prospective cross-sectional study was carried out at Tikrit, Samarra, Sharqat, Baquba, and AL-Numaan hospitals from July 2017 to October 2017. CHADS₂

Microbial activity of Ellagic acid when mixed with some types of candy toward Streptococcus mutans microorganism was studied. The main purpose of carrying out this study is to produce a new type of candy that contains Ellagic acid in addition to xylitol instead of sucrose to prevent dental caries. The results show that the inhibitory action of Ellagic acid was more effective when mixed with this type of candy for the purpose of reducing Streptococcus mutans microorganisms, while sensory evaluation was applied in this study to 20 volunteers to that candy sample evaluated which contain (5 mg/ml) Ellagic acid with 100g xylitol to determine consumers acceptability of this sample of candy. The results were expressed as mean value, slandered d