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.
There is a global shortage of health care providers needed to address all levels of primary and specialty care. The recent COVID-19 pandemic also highlights the importance and added value of health professionals with specialty training in infectious diseases. In the United States, advanced practice providers (APPs) are being engaged to meet the expanding demand for generalist and specialist patient care. The history and development of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and physician assistants (PAs), are discussed as collaborative healthcare providers to promote better understanding of the ways they can be incorporated into a healthcare system. An example of how APPs are utilized to provide both inpatient and outpatient
... Show MoreSix house-hold Abyssinian pumps distributed in different villages of Mansoura (Mans-I, Mans-II and Mans-III) and Talkha (Talk-I, Talk-II and Talk-III) cities, Egypt, have been selected for regular seasonal water quality assessment during 2017. Water samples have been collected within the mid-periods of four seasons Standard assessment tools were employed for the integrated water quality assessment including Water Quality Index (WQI) and ISO standard algal toxicity test. WQI displayed remarkable local and seasonal variations with excellent (≥ 90) and good (70 - 89) only recorded for water samples collected from Mans-I pump located in sparsely populated area and far 50 meters only from the eastern (Damietta) branch of Nile River. WQI of
... Show MoreBackground: The timing of eruption of permanent teeth is of considerable importance to the dental health planning for diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic measures for children and teenagers. The purposes of this study were to determine timing of maxillary and mandibular permanent teeth emergence (except third molars) and to evaluate the effect nutritional status by anthropometric measures on the eruption time of permanent teeth, investigations had been done according to jaw and gender variations. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among four to fifteen years old children and teenagers from kindergarten and schools in Basrah city in the south region of Iraq. The total sample composed of 1807 children and teenagers that were
... Show MoreAphid Aphis spp (Hemiptera:Aphididae) and Thrips Thrips spp (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) an economically important pests on several crops in the world and Iraq, that transfer many viruses diseases to it. Field studies were conducted to assessment the population density of these insects and susceptibility of six varieties (Barin, Revera, Divela, Rudlph, Alazata and Pleny) to infestation during 2013 spring season. The results were showed that all Potato varieties were infested by Aphis and Thrips on spring plantation but with different percentage. The Divela variety was higher percentage of infestation and high population density of aphid which averaged 1.47 insect/ leaf while in Alazata was the lower population density which averaged 1.02 in
... Show MoreResearch aims to identify the immediate impact of the announcement of mergers in the stockholders and the feasibility of gain abnormal return and benefiting from asymmetric information during the announcement that unite 30 days before the announcement of the merger, and announcement day, and 30 days after the announcement of the merger. It was the largest and most important mergers and acquisitions pick that occurred during the global financial crisis, specifically in health care/pharmaceutical industry, Pfizer and Wyeth merger with Novartis acquisition on Alcon. search has adopted three hypotheses: the first hypothesis that ((achieves the target company's shareholders positive abnormal return (or negative) during and befor
... Show MoreIn this study, dead and live anaerobic biomass was used in biosorption of Pb(II), Cr(III) and Cd(II) ions from a synthetic wastewater. The biosorption was investigated by batch adsorption experiments. It was found that, the biosorption capacities were significantly affected by biosorbent dosage. The process follows Langmuir isotherm (regression coefficient 0.995, 0.99 and 0.987 for Pb(II), Cr(III) and Cd(II) ions, respectively, onto dead anaerobic biomass) model with uniform distribution over the biomass surface. The experimental uptake capacity was 51.56, 29.2 and 28 mg/g for Pb(II), Cr(III) and Cd(II), respectively, onto dead anaerobic biomass, compared with 35, 13.6 and 11.8 mg/g for Pb(II), Cr(III) and Cd(II), respectively, onto live
... Show MoreBackground: This in vitro study compares a self-etch primer (SEP) to an etch-and-rinse (EaR) for bonding sapphire brackets by evaluation of the enamel etch-pattern, shear bond strength, amount of remnant adhesive and enamel surface damage following thermal and fatigue cyclic loading. Material and Methods: Ceramic (sapphire) brackets were bonded to 80 extracted human premolars using two enamel etching protocols: conventional EaR using 37% phosphoric acid (PA) gel (control), and a SEP (Transbond Plus). Each group was subdivided into two subgroups (n=20 teeth) according to the time of bracket debonding: after 24 h water storage or following 5000 thermo-cycles plus 5000 cycles fatigue loading, to determine the shear bond strength (SBS), adhesiv
... Show MoreThe electron correlation for inter-shells (1s 2p), (1s 3p) and (1s 3d) was described by the inter-particle radial distribution function f(r12). It was evaluated for Li-atom in the different excited states (1s2 2p), (1s2 3p) and (1s2 3d) using Hartree-Fock approximation (HF). The inter particle expectation values for these shells were also evaluated. The calculations were performed using Mathcad 14 program.
The study aimed to determine the effect of soybean meal on the histological
structure and some functional parameters of the thyroid gland was investigated in
this study. For this purpose, 24 white male rats were divided into four groups each
of six rats, as following (G1): normal control rats, at the prepubertal life stage, were
dissected after 40 days from the weaning (i.e., from Postnatal Day "PND" 21),
(G2): prepubertal rats, were treated with high dose of soybean meal "40% of daily
diet" for 40 days after the weaning, (G3): normal control rats, at the postpubertal
stage, were dissected after 40 days from the puberty (i.e., from PND 60), (G4):
postpubertal rats, were treated with high dose of soybean meal (40%)
The present study aimed to estimate percentage of red and white muscles fibers in two species of bony fishes belong to two different families which represented by Tenualosa ilisha (Hamilton , 1822) that belongs to the family Clupeidae and Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus , 1758) that belongs to the family Cyprinidae . The samples were collected from local market at holy Karbala province. The results show difference clear in mean values of muscles numbers at different studied length groups, and the percentage of red muscles fibers were less than that of white muscle fibers at different body regions (R1,R2,and R3) among species. The total average of red muscle fibers values ranged between (4.23 - 11.08 %) while the total average of wh
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