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.
All businesses seek to improve their levels of profits through various means, most notably their marketing channels, which ensure the delivery of their products to their customers in a safe manner in a timely manner. It considers losses to a minimum and that insurance companies place great interest in marine insurance losses because they often constitute huge amounts compared to other losses, hence the problem of research, which is centred on the type and size of the impact owned by the channel The Iraqi insurance company was chosen to be applied according to the intentional sample method because this company is closely related to the subject matter. The research has reached a set of conclusions, most notably that the choice of i
... Show MoreBackground: Beta thalassemia major is an inherited disorder that may affect general and oral health.The purpose of this study was toassess the severity of dental caries in relation to oral cleanliness, mutans streptococciamong a group of boys with beta thalassemia majorin comparison with a control group. Materials and Methods: The study involved 30 boys with BTM aged 10-12 years compared to 30 healthy boys with the same age group. d1-4mfs and D1-4 MFS indices were applied (Muhlemann, 1976), the viable counts of mutans streptococci in stimulated saliva were also determined. Results: The entire thalassemic group was caries-active. For both dentitions, a higher dmfs/DMFS values were recorded for study compared to control group, difference was
... Show MoreAbstract:
Central banks seek to control and supervise credit and follow it up effectively due to the high credit risks surrounding it that may lead to damage to banks, and may even lead to damage to the reputation and confidence of the banking system as a whole.
The main role of supervisory control is to control credit by controlling it from excessive expansion during periods of economic inflation or its revitalization and improvement and expansion of credit transactions in cases of economic recession, or when central banks desire to support the national economy or support a sector of various
... Show MoreBackground: Therapeutic communication is the basis of interactive relationships among nursing team and their children: that affords opportunities to establish rapport, understand the client’s experience, formulate individualized or client interventions and optimize health care resources.
Objectives: The main aim of the study is to determine the Effectiveness of Education Program on Nurses’ Knowledge about Communication Skills with Children.
Methodology: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in Children Welfare Teaching Hospitals from 7th, October 2018 to the 20th, May 2019. The program and instruments have been constructed by the researcher for the purpose of the study. A non- prob
... Show MoreWhat is important about this study is whether there is a relationship between the ability to balance and beating overwhelming for the Iraqi national team volleyball? The study aims to identify the percentage of the equilibrium contribution and its variables with the accuracy of the skill of beating the high spike Diagonal center (4) in the players. In the national volleyball team season (2016-2017), the researchers used the descriptive approach in the style of associative relationships to suit the problem of research. The research community included all the players specialized in the high beating of the Iraqi national team applicants in the ball The researchers concluded that the equilibrium variables contributed accurately and quickly to t
... Show Moreorder to increase the level of security, as this system encrypts the secret image before sending it through the internet to the recipient (by the Blowfish method). As The Blowfish method is known for its efficient security; nevertheless, the encrypting time is long. In this research we try to apply the smoothing filter on the secret image which decreases its size and consequently the encrypting and decrypting time are decreased. The secret image is hidden after encrypting it into another image called the cover image, by the use of one of these two methods" Two-LSB" or" Hiding most bits in blue pixels". Eventually we compare the results of the two methods to determine which one is better to be used according to the PSNR measurs
The study aims to design an electronic puppet educational theater by Camtasia studio and identify the effectiveness in learning some of the artistic gymnastics skills for first grade, the research curriculum is experimental by designing two equal groups, and the research sample first grade students are distributed among 4 grade, and by the pumpkin determines two divisions (15 from each) representing the experimental group and control group, the main experiment conducted for 8 weeks by two educational units per week after which the post-tests were conducted, SPSS was used to process the results, and it was found that the electronic puppet educational theater contributed by making the learning process enjoyable and interesting and meeting the
... Show MoreThe research tried to show the importance of Administrative Control being one of the important means in administrative work; they work on the review and audit work done and error handling explored in the work and prevent the occurrence and ascertain the extent of implementation of the planned targets, and therefore this is reflected in raising the efficiency of the performance of the tax examiner and complete the work as soon as possible and the highest efficiency and reduce the gaps that may occur between the parties of the tax settling accounts and dealt with in the theoretical side of the search to the research problem, namely with whether operating management oversight to improve the performance and increase the efficiency of t
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