All major organs may be impacted by the connective disease systemic lupus erythematosus, a separate risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Adhesion molecules like intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecules (VCAM) can detect endothelial damage and dysfunction, which appear to play a crucial role. This study investigated whether people with SLE had elevated subclinical and clinical atherosclerosis risk factors. Traditional CAD risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia cannot entirely explain this elevation. It is thought that immunological dysfunction also increases CAD risk in SLE patients. The study aimed to assess early endothelial changes in SLE Iraqi female patients without previous coronary artery lesions by exploring a potential relationship between circulating VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 as risk factors for atherosclerosis and the relationship of CAD with SLE disease and its severity; further, the study explained the effect of the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on the lipid profile levels of the patients. 92 female SLE patients were divided into mild, moderate, and severe, according to the SLE disease activity index 2000 (SLEDAI-2k), compared with 30 apparently healthy control individuals. All of them need a history of CAD. Serum VCAM-1, ICAM-1 level, VCAM-1/ICAM1 ratio, TC, HDL, LDL levels TC/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios were measured. sVCAM-1, sICAM-1 levels and VCAM-1/ICAM-1 ratio were significantly and gradually increased in patient groups compared with control. Serum TC, HDL and LDL levels were significantly reduced in the SLE patients compared to the control. At the same time, the TC/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios were significantly elevated with the severity of the SLE disease. sVCAM-1, sICAM-1 level and VCAM1/ICAM-1 ratio together with serum TC/HDL and LDL/HDL may improve coronary artery disease risk categorization in SLE patients without acute coronary syndromes. Furthermore, they were more sensitive in severe SLE instances than in moderate and mild ones, suggesting that they may be related to the extent of coronary lesions in SLE patients. VCAM-1 had a higher sensitivity than ICAM-1 in detecting and severity screening for CAD in SLE patients. Keywords: VCAM-1, ICAM-1, SLE, Atherosclerosis
Objective: Knee osteoarthritis is a common disabling chronic disease globally. Many pharmacological agents have been used efficiently in treatment of knee osteoarthritis. This study aims to evaluate metformin and serratiopeptidase together in treatment and stop of osteoarthritis progression by different mechanisms. Methods: Present study was a randomized clinical trial study conducted in Al-Kindi teaching hospital through the period from 1st January to 30th of May, 2017 on two groups of 80 osteoarthritis patients (group I; treated with metformin 850 mg oral tablets) and (group II; treated with metformin 850 mg oral tablets and serratiopeptidase 20 mg oral tablets). Parameters of two groups were compared with those of 40 normal healt
... Show MoreBackground: Colorectal is a worldwide health problem. Tumors stimulate the ground of host blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis, which is essential for supplying nutrients of the tumor, also stimulate the lymphatic vessels for metasatasis.
The qualified subjects for this study included 33 patients with benign and malignant oral tumors aged 15-75 years and 31 matched age and gender healthy subjects used as control. Proteins measurements included total protein, albumin, globulines in sera and saliva samples, and immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, IgA) in sera samples of control and patients. Meanwhile, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was used to differentiate between protein patterns in both serum and saliva samples among the studied groups. The gel was also stained for glycoprotein to evaluate as well the changes in glycoprotein contents. For total protein, the results revealed a signifigant increase (P?0.01) in both samples (serum and saliva) of patient group. Albumin conce
... Show MoreAndroid OS is developing very fast, and because of being an open source OS, it is vulnerable to many problems that are manifested to users directly or indirectly. Poor application launch time is one of these problems. In this paper, a set of sixteen experiments is established to distinguish the factors that have the most evident effects on application launch time in Android mobiles. These factors are application, launch and kill, events, and storage. Mann Kendall (MK) test, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Design of Experiment (DOE) are used to prove the influence of factors statistically. As a result of the experiments, the application factor, especially the third party applications level, has the most prominent effects on appl
... Show MoreThis study reflected on the relationship between contactin associated protein-like
2 gene (CNTNAP2) and autism spectrum disorders. The study includes forty autistic
patients and forty non autistic children as control groups (twenty unaffected sibling
and twenty unrelated children). DNA was extracted from Blood samples for
molecular detection of CNTNAP2 mutations associated with ASDs by using
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique and sequencing analysis. PCR reaction
was performed to amplify exon 20 of CNTNAP2 gene. The PCR results revealed that
identical bands related to exon 20 of CNTNAP2 gene were present in all samples.
Therefore, five samples (four from autistic patients and one from control sibling)
we
Background: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of CMV infection among HIV / AIDS patients in relation to disease progression, and to study the mortality during the period of the study.
Patients and Methods: The study included 155 HIV/AIDS patients (148 HIV- infected and seven AIDS patients) and 122 apparently "healthy" controls. CMV (IgG and 1gM) antibodies were determined by ELISA. The patients were followed up for a period of nine months, and retested frequently for development of active CMV infection.
Results: The prevalence of CMV (IgG) antibodies in the HIV/AIDS patients was 100%. A significant higher prevalence of CMV (IgM) among AIDS patients (42.9°/6) than among HIV infected
With the increasing rates of cancer worldwide, a great deal of scientific discourse is devoted to arguments and statements about cancer and its causes. Scientists from different fields try to seize any available chance to warn people of the risk of consuming and exposing to carcinogens that have, unfortunately, become essential parts of modern life. The present paper attempts to investigate the proximization strategy through which scientists construct carcinogen risk to enhance people’s preventive actions against these carcinogens. The paper targets the construction which depends on producing the conflict between the values of the people themselves and the contrasting values assigned to carcinogens. To achieve this aim, Cap’s (2
... Show MoreThis study was designed to compare the effect of two types of viral hepatitis A and E (HAV
and HEV) on liver functions in Iraqi individuals by the measurement of biochemical changes
associated with hepatitis.
The study performed on 58 HEV and 66 HAV infected patients compared with 28 healthy
subjects. The measured biochemical tests include total serum bilirubin, serum transminases (ALT
and AST) alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT).
The study showed that adolescent and young adults (17-29) years, were mostly affected by
HEV while children (5-12) years were frequently affected by HAV. The severity of liver damage in
HEV patients was higher than HAV patients as a result of high serum transa