Background: Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is an inflammatory, systemic rheumatic condition that mostly affects the axial skeleton. Tenascin-C (TN-C) is a hexameric glycoprotein of considerable size, upregulated in many inflammatory conditions, while Interleukin-17 (IL-17) a cytokine that plays an important role in SpA symptoms. Objective: to investigate the upregulation between the serum levels of TN-C and IL-17 in Iraqi axSpA patients and the disease characteristics. Patients and Methods: Seventy-four axSpA patients and 28 matched controls were studied. Fifty-four patients received a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) and 20 did not. Serum TN-C and IL-17 concentrations were determined using the ELISA technique. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) was assessed. For statistical tests, Chi Square, Mann Whitney, Independent Samples T, and Pearson's correlation tests are used. Results: Patients mean age was 35.6±0.9 years, 65 males and 9 females, and disease duration was 5.18±0.6 years. 47.4% were smokers, 47% had inflammatory low back pain, and HLA-B27 was present in 91%. BASDAI mean was 6.1±0.4 in non-TNFi and 2.6±0.3 in those on TNFi. The serum TN-C concentration was significantly increased in patients, especially those on non-TNFi (79±9.6 pg/mL) compared to those on TNFi (69.1±3.2 pg/mL) and control (53±3.9 pg/mL) (p=0.003). Serum IL-17 was significantly elevated in those receiving TNFi (877.9±257 pg/mL) compared to non-TNFi (487.2±234 pg/mL) and control (182.4±36.6 pg/mL) (p=0.033). The TN-C significantly correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=0.27, p=0.02) and with hemoglobin (Hb) concentration (r=0.26, p=0.02). TN-C and IL-17 were non-significantly related (r=0.14, p=0.2). Conclusions: axSpA Patients demonstrated high levels of serum TN-C, particularly in those not receiving TNFi, and high IL-17 levels in those receiving TNFi, suggesting that there is an association with tissue injury from the disease and stimulation of immunological and resident tissue cells. Patients who had not received TNFi showed significantly higher disease activity than others.
Pituitary adenomas are the anterior pituitary tumors. Patients with an Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor-Interacting Protein (AIP) mutation (AIP- mut) tend to have more aggressive tumors occurring at a younger age. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in many studies have been related to metabolic comorbidities in the general population. Study aims investigated the role of AIP gene SNPs with susceptibility to acromegaly pituitary- adenoma, with levels of LH, FSH, TSH, Testosterone, IGF1,GH, FT4 , Prolactin hormones and blood sugar levels. The study was conducted on a group of acromegaly patients, including 50 patients) both Genders( with hyperplasia of the ends, and apparently healthy control group. Genotyping of
... Show MoreThe system of accounting information role in the success of the economic unit, whether for-profit or non-purposeful, and through the availability of financial reports of information accounting for quality properties in the financial reports, which are the final product of all departments, sections and other parties, including help in strengthen the decisions of the administration and operations of Information economic Unity. The municipalities of economic units, non-profit, which is characterized by certain characteristics, including the multiplicity of activities (service, productivity, construction) and multiple sources of access to resources, so the accounting information system that seeks to provide decision makers with information o
... Show MoreBackground: In capturing a negative image, the digital impression secures a digital record for the purposeof designing and creating restorations. The introduction of scanning system presents a paradigm shift in the way of the dental impression procedure and encourages the accuracy of obtained restoration especially in the marginal area as a result of producing accurate final impression The digital system offers many advantages over the Conventional method.. The objective of this present in vitro study was to evaluate the marginal fitness of all ceramic crowns fabricated by direct digital scanning of the prepared tooth using two types of intra-oral cameras (Bluecam camera with strip light projection technique and Omnicam camera with video sa
... Show MoreBackground: This study was conducted to assess the effects of various beverages on the shear bond strength of light-cured orthodontic composite used to bond stainless steel orthodontic brackets on human teeth and to determine the site of bonding failure of this material. Materials and Methods: Fifty extracted human premolars were selected and randomly divided into five equal groups each with 10 teeth according to the beverage type (Control, One Tiger, Milk, Green tea and Coffee). After bonding, the teeth were immersed in specific beverages for 5 minutes twice daily with equal intervening intervals then washed and stored in distilled water at 37º C for the reminder of the day. The process was carried out for 30 days. The samples were then
... Show MoreUnconfined compressive strength (UCS) of rock is the most critical geomechanical property widely used as input parameters for designing fractures, analyzing wellbore stability, drilling programming and carrying out various petroleum engineering projects. The USC regulates rock deformation by measuring its strength and load-bearing capacity. The determination of UCS in the laboratory is a time-consuming and costly process. The current study aims to develop empirical equations to predict UCS using regression analysis by JMP software for the Khasib Formation in the Buzurgan oil fields, in southeastern Iraq using well-log data. The proposed equation accuracy was tested using the coefficient of determination (R²), the average absolute
... Show MoreThis research includes the synthesis of some new N-Aroyl-N \ -Aryl thiourea derivatives namely: N-benzoyl-N \ -(p-aminophenyl) thiourea (STU1), N-benzoyl-N \ -(thiazole) thiourea (STU2), N-acetyl-N ` -(dibenzyl) thiourea (STU3). The series substituted thiourea derivatives were prepared from reaction of acids with thionyl chloride then treating the resulted with potassium thiocyanate to affored the corresponding N-Aroyl isothiocyanates which direct reaction with primary and secondary aryl amines, The purity of the synthesized compounds were checked by measuring the melting point and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and their structure, were identified by spectral methods [FTIR,1H-NMR and 13C-NMR].These compounds were investigated as a
... Show MoreThe highest incidence of injury is seen in adolescent playing pivoting sports such as soccer, basketball, and handball. Objective: To examine the effectiveness of a neuromuscular prevention program in reducing knee and ankle injuries in adolescent male soccer players.
The mobile phone is widespread all over the world. This technology is one of the most widespread with more than five billion subscriptions making people describe this interaction system as Wireless Intelligence. Mobile phone networks become the focus of attention of researchers, organizations and governments due to its penetration in all life fields. Analyzing mobile phone traces allows describing human mobility with accuracy as never done before. The main objective in this contribution is to represent the people density in specific regions at specific duration of time according to raw data (mobile phone traces). This type of spatio-temporal data named CDR (Call Data Records), which have properties of the time and spatial indications for th
... Show MoreInternational news websites, including Russia Today, pay special attention to the media image of Afghan women, especially after the Taliban movement took control of Afghanistan. Therefore, it was necessary to know the image of the Afghan woman, the fate of the rights she acquired in recent years, and the transformations that affected her after the Taliban took control of the government, and studied them on international news sites, specifically Russia Today.
The researcher summarized the problem of this study in the following question: What is the media image of the Afghan woman on the Russia Today news site?
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