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.
Transient mixed convection heat transfer in a confined porous medium heated at periodic sinusoidal heat flux is investigated numerically in the present paper. The Poisson-type pressure equation, resulted from the substituting of the momentum Darcy equation in the continuity equation, was discretized by using finite volume technique. The energy equation was solved by a fully implicit control volume-based finite difference formulation for the diffusion terms with the use of the quadratic upstream interpolation for convective kinetics scheme to discretize the convective terms and the temperature values at the control volume faces. The numerical study covers a range of the hydrostatic pressure sinusoidal amplitude range and
... Show MoreThe Planning and Resource Development Department of the Iraqi Ministry of Health is very interested in improving medical care, health education, and village training programs. Accordingly, and through the available capabilities of the ministry, itdesires to allocate seven health centers to four villages in Baghdad, Iraq therefore the ministry needs to determine the number of health centers allocated to each of these villages which achieves the greatest degree of the overall effectiveness of the seven health centers in a fuzzy environment. The objective of this study is to use a fuzzy dynamic programming(DP) method to determine the optimal allocation of these centers, which allows the greatest overall effectiveness of these health centers
... Show MorePsoriasis is a complex autoimmune disorder characterized by skin inflammation with keratinocyte proliferation, and 85% of cases present as plaque-type psoriasis. Biologics such as ustekinumab (UST) are highly successful therapies for psoriasis. To achieve maximum clinical efficacy while minimizing undesirable effects, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for biologics has emerged. This study aims to measure the UST trough level (TL) and anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) and to evaluate clinical response in Iraqi patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis in order to make appropriate recommendations for modifying therapy. This cross-sectional study enrolled 75 patients, divided into two groups: Group 1, patients who achieved the UST target TL (≥0.6
... Show MoreIn this study we surveyed the dominant normal stool flora of randomly selected healthy, young (18-23 years old), unmarried (doctrinal) Iraqi college students (males and females) for the carriage of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC). ExPEC virulence was detected phenotypically by mannose resistant hemagglutination of human red blood cells (MRHA) and mannose sensitive (MS) agglutination of Bakers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisceae). From 88 college students, 264 E. coli isolates were obtained (3 isolates per person): 123 from 41 females and 141 from 47 males. Of these isolates, 56% (149/264) caused MS agglutination of yeast cells and 4.16% (11/264) showed MRHA. Eighty two percent (9/11) of the isolates with MRHA also caused MS agglu
... Show MoreEven though in recent decades a bulk of studies have been accomplished on the use of communicative language teaching (CLT) in English as a foreign language (EFL) environments, fairly a limited numbers of studies precisely dealt with investigating the attitudes of language teachers, students and supervisors concerning the principals of CLT in the context of Iraq. Henceforth, this study was designed to delve into the attitudes of teachers, learners and supervisors about the implementation. To this end, the study was accomplished using a mixed method design. The present study was carried out in two phases: designing and using a questionnaire plus interviewing the teachers, students and supervisors (51 language learners, 41 teachers and
... Show MoreThe aims of research is to identify the role of strategic human resource management Practices in organizational performance improvement in the Baghdad soft drinks company, as well as the implications of the results for both managers and practitioners.
In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the researcher designed questionnaire included (40) items to collect the initial data from the research sample consisting of (53) Single. In light of that has been collecting and analyzing data and test hypotheses using the statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS21), and use a number of statistical methods to achieve the goal of the research, including the means, standard deviations and simple correla
... Show MoreThe present research was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of a training program to improve some aspects of sensory integration disorder and its effect on self-direction among a sample of children with intellectual disabilities. The study sample consists of (10 subjects as an experimental group) were exposed to the training program، and the control group consists of (10 subjects as a control group) were not exposed to the training program. The study included the following tools: A scale of self-direction for intellectual disability (prepared by the researcher). Training program (prepared by the researcher). The Results of the study showed the following: There are no statistically significant differences between the means ranks
... Show MoreThe study aims to examine the problem of forced displacement and its social and economic problems in light of the Syrian crisis. Such an aim helps to know the difficulties and challenges facing the children of displaced families in learning, and the reasons for their lack of enrolment. It also clarifies whether there are significant statistical differences at among the attitudes of the children of the displaced families towards education regarding the following variables: (the work of the head of the family, the economic level of the family, and the work of the children). The study has adopted the descriptive-analytical approach; a questionnaire was adopted as a tool to collect information. The study was applied to a sample o
... Show MoreThis study was undertaken to introduce a fast, accurate, selective, simple and environment-friendly colorimetric method to determine iron (II) concentration in different lipstick brands imported or manufactured locally in Baghdad, Iraq. The samples were collected from 500-Iraqi dinars stores to establish routine tests using the spectrophotometric method and compared with a new microfluidic paper-based analytical device (µPAD) platform as an alternative to cost-effective conventional instrumentation such as Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). This method depends on the reaction between iron (II) with iron(II) selective chelator 1, 10-phenanthroline(phen) in the presence of reducing agent hydroxylamine (HOA) and sodium acetate (NaOAc) b
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