Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were given rituximab induction therapy and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) maintenance therapy. RTX was indicated for refractory and relapsing SLE. Several investigations done before and after RTX treatment and in the last follow up (done one year after starting Rituximab). Those included protein in urine, serum creatinine, double stranded DNA, C3, C4, and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). Proteinuria decreased significantly after RTX treatment and in the last measurement (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). Serum creatinine significantly decreased only in the last measurement (P=0.02). Double stranded DNA decreased remarkably after treatment (P=0.01) with a further decrease in the last measurement (P=0.006). C3 and C4 increased after treatment but the increase was significant only for C3 (P=0.002) and this increase continues till the last measurement (P=0.0006). Active urine sediments found in fifteen patients and disappeared after RTX treatment. Rituximab can be promising in treating lupus nephritis when used along with traditional immunosuppressants. It can reduce disease activity and improve renal function in such patients.
The current research dealt with the issue of organizational skillfulness as an entry point to reach strategic agility. The study has been tested in Iraq's mobile operators - Asia Cell, Zain Iraq and Cork Telecom. The study was applied to a sample of (93) managers distributed at various levels of management (board members, general managers, commissioners, department managers, people managers, unit managers, office managers). The survey used the questionnaire as a key tool for collecting data and information as well as personal interviews. It has sought to test a number of hypotheses related to correlation and influence relationships between the variables of the study, in order to answer the questions related to the problem of stud
... Show MoreThe research aims to shed light on the role of artificial intelligence in achieving Ambidexterity performance, as banks work to take advantage of modern technologies, artificial intelligence is an innovation that is expected to have a long-term impact, as well as banks can improve the quality of their services and analyze data to ensure that customers' future needs are understood. . The Bank of Baghdad and the Middle East Bank were chosen as a community for the study because they had a role in the economic development of the country as well as their active role in the banking market. A sample of department managers was highlighted in collecting data and extracting results based on the checklist, which is the main tool for the stu
... Show MoreBackground; paraphilias were studied in the sex
clinic, at Al-Rashad teaching mental hospital, in the
years 2009-2010, a subject never touched before in the
field of psychiatry in Iraq.
Aims of the study :
1-to identify the prevalence of types and number of
paraphilias in those patients.
2-to study the relationship of paraphilias with
sociodemographic factors of the patients.
Patients and methods; using the diagnostic criteria of
DSM IV TR, 52 patients from the outpatient sex clinic
at Al-Rashad mental hospital, collected and studied (41
males and 11 females).
Results; the ratio of men to women was 3.7 : 1, the
majority of our sample was in the age range of 21-30
years (36.35%), with a limited
BACKGROUND: The humeral shaft fractures have a good rate of union, despite this fact, still there is a significant rate of nonunion after nonoperative treatment and more often after operative treatment. AIM: The aim of the study is to evaluate the autogenous onlay graft with compression plate for treatment of persistent humeral shaft non-union with failed previous surgery both radiological and functional outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study on twenty patients having persistent aseptic non-union age between 20 and 60 years old, after failed surgical treatment of fractures humeral shaft in Al-Zahra teaching and Al-Kindy teaching hospitals, while infected nonunion, diabetes mellitus, secondary metastasis, smoking, a
... Show MoreStudies were conducted to evaluate the biological effects of the non-steroidal ecdysone agonist (Methoxyfenozide), on different developmental larval stages of cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) in the laboratory. The results showed that the early larval stages were the most susceptible to Methoxyfenozide which caused 100% mortality within 4-6 days after treatment at all used concentrations, while such percentage of mortality was achieved within 6 days after treatment for late larval stages when the highest concentration was used (0.2)g (ai) /L. Several morphological deformations were noticed on pupal stage, the results showed that the highest percentage of deformations was 1
... Show MoreTitanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V or Gr.23) was widely used as a dental alloy. In the current study, polymerization of eugenol (PE) on Gr.23 titanium alloys was conducted by an electrochemical process before and after being treated by Micro Arc Oxidation (MAO). The formed films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The corrosion behavior of Gr.23 alloy in an artificial saliva environment at a temperature range of 293–323 K has been studied and assessed by means of electrochemical polarization and impedance spectroscopy techniques. Three cases are taken into consideration; bare Gr.23, Gr.23 coated by PE, and Gr.23 coated by PE after MAO treatment. The maxi
... Show MoreKE Sharquie, HR Al-Hamamy, AA Noaimi, KA Ali, Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 2015 - Cited by 3
This study aims to design unified electronic information system to manage students attendance in Lebanese French university/Erbil, as a system that simplifies the process of entering and counting the students absence, and generate absence reports to expel students who passed the acceptable limit of being absent, and by that we can replace the traditional way of using papers to count absence, with a complete electronically system for managing students attendance, in a way that makes the results accurate and unchangeable by the students.
In order to achieve the study's objectives, we designed an information syst
... Show MoreIn this work, new di-acid monomers 4, 4’-di-carboxillic-2â€-chloro-4â€- nitro triphenylamine (Di-CO2H-1), 4, 4’- di-carboxylic -2â€,4â€,6â€-trichloro-triphenylamine (Di-CO2H-2) were synthesized by reaction of p-cyanobenzofluride with two aromatic amines (2-chloro 4-nitro aniline and 2,4,6-trichloro aniline by aromatic nucleophilc substitution method to produce two di cyano intermediates compounds 4, 4’-Dicyano-2â€-chloro-4â€- nitro triphenylamine (Di-CN1) and 4, 4’-dicyano-2â€,4â€,6â€-trichloro-triphenylamine (Di-CN2) which form final di-carboxylic monomers after alkaline hydrolysis. Finally, these monomers react with two different arom
... Show More