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.
The research addresses the most important elements of the ancient Iraqi heritage represented by architecture and plastic arts being the direct means that preserved the heritage due to the ease of preserving them and the speed of circulating them and diversity of their topics. Through the features of these elements, the research problem has been defined in the form of questions including: what are the most important elements of the ancient Iraqi heritage? What are the plastic arts? What are the most important topics adopted? What is the concept of palm in the ancient Iraqi heritage? What is the evidence for that?
Has it been employed in the Iraqi contemporary art? What is the evidence for that? How to employ it in the arts and t
The research aims to employ one of the most important strategies for recovery from the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, which ravaged the economies of the entire world and its various sectors, including the banking sector, through financial technology that is based on digital transformation to achieve financial sustainability and the creation of innovative financial value chains in light of the decline in the banking sector as a result of The negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, be guided by the relevant international accounting standards to control the risks associated with financial technology. To recover from the Covid-19 crisis, the research came out with a set of recommendations, most notably financial technology from
... Show MoreResearch seeks to test the impact of the dimensions of mindfulness on organizational Innovation, proposed in the light of the review literature on two variables of the research, which referred in General to the dynamic relationship between them, as result of weakness of mindfulness as one important factor driving the diversity of innovation and time, ways to sustain and preserve and then support innovations made by creators, weakness in the overall level of organizational Innovation, this represents the problem research, data collection over designing identification, distributed to sample Formed from (30) head Department at a number of colleges of the University of Baghdad, results confirms the validity of resea
... Show MoreObjectives: To determine the effectiveness of the educational program on nursing staff knowledge about infection control measures at the Intensive Care Unit in Al-Diwaniya Teaching Hospital.
Methodology: A pre-experimental design (one group design: pre-test and post-test) was used. This study was conducted in Al-Diwaniya Teaching Hospital for the period from ( 20th February to 5th March, 2020) on a non-probability (purposive) sample consisting of (25 nurses) working in ICU. A questionnaire was built as a data collection tool and consisted of two parts:
First part: The demographic characteristics of the nursing staff (age, gender, level of education, years of experien
... Show MoreThis research a study model of linear regression problem of autocorrelation of random error is spread when a normal distribution as used in linear regression analysis for relationship between variables and through this relationship can predict the value of a variable with the values of other variables, and was comparing methods (method of least squares, method of the average un-weighted, Thiel method and Laplace method) using the mean square error (MSE) boxes and simulation and the study included fore sizes of samples (15, 30, 60, 100). The results showed that the least-squares method is best, applying the fore methods of buckwheat production data and the cultivated area of the provinces of Iraq for years (2010), (2011), (2012),
... Show MoreThis paper set forth the spatial suitability of the informal settlement supposed to be distributed by the Iraqis government to poor people. The Iraqi government identified 9 locations of informal settlement in Baghdad city and acceptance it as a reality as a help for them to getting home. In this paper I discovered the suitability of those locations which one will be suitable more than others for living. The analysis process was applied using the GIS environment – spatial analysis. According to the results, It has been identified as the most important measures to identify which one of these areas suitable for development for housing by using some criteria (Distance from the city center, Proximity from transport routes, Proximity of high v
... Show MoreThe objectives of this study were to review the literature covering the perceptions about influenza vaccines in the Middle East and to determine factors influencing the acceptance of vaccination using Health Belief Model (HBM).
A comprehensive literature search was performed utilizing PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Three keywords were used: Influenza vaccine, perceptions and Middle East. Empirical studies that dealt with people/healthcare worker (HCW) perceptio
Argumentation is not a contemporary, yet a deep rooted intellectual phenomenon dates back to Romans and Greeks times. The argumentative elements ,the author is trying to convey to the reader, are linguistic procedures aim at persuading and being persuaded of what is true. The present study traces, through Camus’ novel The plague, the best method to construct argumentative techniques used to express the author’s deep philosophies.
Résumé
L’argumentation n’est pas un phénomène intellectuel nouveau, ses origines reviennent aux savants grecs et romains. Elle est une act
... Show MoreThe current study included, studying the ability of eight genera of plants belong to Brassicaceae family, Brassica tournifortii, Cakile Arabica, Capsella bursa – pastoris,Carrichtera annua, Diplotaxis acris, Diplotaxis haru , Eruca sativa and Erucaria hispanica to accumulate ten heavy metals Cadmium, Chromium , Copper, Mercury, Manganese ,Nickel ,Lead ,and Zinc . Plant leaves samples were collected from Al-Tib area during spring of 2021.The data demonstrated that, the highest conc. of Cd was 2.7 mg/kg in Diplotaxis acris leaves and lower value was 0.3 mg/kg in Cakile Arabica leaves. For Co, the highest conc.was 1.3 mg/kg in Capsella bursa – pastoris leaves, whereas the lower value was 0.5 mg/kg in Cakile arabica leaves. As for Cr ele
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