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
Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a common autoimmune disease that affects mainly young females and nephritis is an important complication of the disease that may end with end stage renal disease (ESRD). Early diagnosis and proper treatment is important in decreasing the morbidity. Multiple immunesupressor agents used and according to the histopathology stage of the disease, still the proper drug used and the duration and dose required not settled. Rituximab which is monoclonal antibody that reacts against CD20 antigen on lymphocytes that cause B cells depletion is recently introduced in treatment of lupus nephritis .
Objectives: to see the effect of different immunosuppressive age
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is the relationship between blood group and group A Beta-Hemolytic Streptococci, Ninety patients with tonsillitis were included in this Study from both genders and different age group for blood group study. They were attended at Ramadi Teaching Hospital during the period extended from January 2011 to June 2011. Their ages range from 3-35years.The control group included 20apparently healthy persons, while patient divided into, chronic and recurrent acute tonsillitis. Diagnostic tools were Bacteriological methods (Bacitracin method to identify and count Streptococcus pyogenes group A beta hemolytic streptococci (GABHS ).Results of blood grouping showed a reduced frequency of blood group AB- with tonsillitis and increa
... Show MoreBackground: Ischemic heart disease is a major cause of the diastolic heart failure. Risk of heart failures was increased with microvascular coronary disease, which is characterized by left ventricular stiffness with impaired relaxation and reduced compliance. Aim of this study is to estimate the effect of the severity of myocardium ischemia on the left ventricle ejection fraction and left ventricular volume using SPECT with 99mTc MIBI and to compare the results with the echocardiography. The study included 117 subjects with ischemic heart disease were examined using SPECT and echocardiography techniques. The following
... Show MoreIn this paper an improved weighted 0-1 knapsack method (WKM) is proposed to optimize the resource allocation process when the sum of items' weight exceeds the knapsack total capacity .The improved method depends on a modified weight for each item to ensure the allocation of the required resources for all the involved items. The results of the improved WKM are compared to the traditional 0-1 Knapsack Problem (KP). The proposed method dominates on the other one in term of the total optimal solution value of the knapsack .
Meerkat Clan Algorithm (MCA) is a nature-based metaheuristic algorithm which imitates the intelligent behavior of the meerkat animal. This paper presents an improvement on the MCA based on a chaotic map and crossover strategy (MCA-CC). These two strategies increase the diversification and intensification of the proposed algorithm and boost the searching ability to find more quality solutions. The 0-1 knapsack problem was solved by the basic MCA and the improved version of this algorithm (MCA-CC). The performance of these algorithms was tested on low and high dimensional problems. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm had overcome the basic algorithm in terms of solution quality, speed a
... Show MoreThe syntheses, characterization and experimental solid state X-ray structures of five low-spin paramagnetic 2-pyridyl-(1,2,3)-triazole-copper compounds, [Cu(Ln)2Cl2], are presented in this study, for the following five Ln ligands: L1 = 2-(1-(p-tolyl)-1H-(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine), L2 = 2-(1-(4- chlorophenyl)-1H-(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine), L3 = 4-(4-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)benzonitril), L4 = 2-(1-phenyl-1H-(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine) and L5 = 2-(1-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-1H-(1,2,3- triazol-4-yl)pyridine). These five [Cu(Ln)2Cl2] complexes each contain two bidentate 2-pyridyl-(1,2,3)- triazole (Ln) and two chloride ions as ligands, with the Cu–N(pyridine) bonds, Cu–N(triazole) and Cu–Cl bonds trans to each othe
... Show MoreBackgrund: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of chlamydia the pneumonia in community-acquired pnevmonia in Iraq.
The continuous pressure of work and daily life and the increasing financial and social stress that Iraqi women are experiencing (both inside and outside Iraq) is one of the main causes of anxiety, particularly in those of working class women. This group of women carry the burden of carrying out multiple roles and responsibilities at the same time. All this collectively make them more prone to developing anxiety compared to men. In addition, the physiological and psychological nature of women, as females, on top of the other roles in life, like being a wife or mother or daughter or sister, all add extra pressure on women especially for those who are considered as productive working individuals in the society. In order to study the relatio
... Show MoreBackground: Low birth weight (LBW) is the main leading cause of infant death. It is contributing to a variety of short and long term poor health outcomes. Determination of risk factors associated with LBW is important to select a suitable action to prevent or reduce this outcome. Studies on LBW and maternal risk factors in the Kurdistan region of Iraq are scarce.
Objectives: This study aimed to determine risk factors associated with Low birth weight in Sulaimania city, Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Cases and Methods: This study was carried out in the Maternity Hospital in Sulaimania from first of July, 2019 to first of February, 2020. Participants were 300 randomly selected mothers who gave a live birth. The questionnaire form, which c