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.
Recent progress in the understanding of psoriasis has shown that the regulation of local and systemic cytokines plays an important role in its pathogenesis. Different studies evaluated the association of serum levels of some proinflammatory cytokines invivo and their correlation with severity of psoriasis. Eighty cases of psoriatic patients had been studied. Patients were divided into mild psoriasis group (30) and severe psoriasis group (50) according to severity, and (30) apparently healthy individuals ware used as acontrol group. Sera samples of all groups were collected from all individuals for the estimation levels of interleukins (IL-6 and IL-8). All mean values sera levels (IL-6 32.004 pg/ml and 17.579 pg/ml for
... Show MoreABSTRACT The present study was conducted to determine the mode of presentation of hypothyroidism in pediatric patients and the effects of timing of diagnosis and therapy on the patient’s outcome. The study involved review and evaluation of the medical records of 41 registered patients in the Endocrine clinic of Children Welfare Teaching Hospital in Baghdad during the period from January 1991 to July 2007. Forty one patients included in this study. Twenty four (58.5%) were males and17 (41.4%) were females with a male to female ratio of 1.4:1, their age range is 40 days to12.3 years. The majority of the studied patients were infants 19(47%). The most commonly observed presenting features were growth retardation and short stature. The best t
... Show MoreThe ascorbic acid content of juices of some fruits and pharmaceutical tablets of Vitamin C was determined by a homemade apparatus of DIE technique using a thermocouple as heat sensor. The method is simple, speed, low cost and the different types of turbid, colored samples can be analyzed without any problem. The results were of a valuable accuracy and precision, and the recovery of results was with acceptable values
This study was performed at Nuclear Radiation Hospital in Baghdad for the period from
January 2011 to May 2011. 44 Blood samples were collected from patients suffered lung and
bladder cancer and 24 samples as healthy control individuals.
Routine liver functions tests were studied by measuring S.GPT, S.GOT and Kidney
function was evaluated by estimation of blood urea and creatinine in serum samples of
individuals studied.
It was observed that the incidence of lung and bladder cancer was higher in males than
females patients ( male 81.82 %, 72.73%, female18 .18%, 27.27% respectively).
Insignificant difference was noted among age of lung and bladder cancer patients
compared with control group. The results
Objective(s): The present study aims at studying the relationship between immunoglobulin IgG, IgA,
IgM , as well as to C-3 and C-4 in brain tumours patients immunity (meningioms and gliomas).
Methodology: Forty sera of brain tumour patients were included 20 glioma and 20 meningioma was
tested to determine the levels of IgM, IgG IgA, C-3 and C-4 by using single radial immune-diffusion
technique and compared with 20 apparently healthy blood donors.
Results: The study revealed a significant decreasing in IgG levels in glioma as compare to meningioma
and control. The concentration of two other serum immunoglobulins and complement in both
meningioma and glioma show no significant differences with those in control group.
Background: osteoporosis is characterized by a reduction in bone mineral density, skeletal microstructure breakdown, increased bone fragility, and fracture susceptibility. Osteopenia is the preceding step to osteoporosis because it causes a decrease in bone mass, osteoporosis reduces a person's quality of life. Periostin (encoded by Postn), its name is derived from the fact that it was first detected in periosteal osteocytes and osteoblasts. Periostin deficiency has been linked to osteoporosis and weak bones. Study objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine periostin levels in serum of Iraqi patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia, and it is also possible to consider periostin as a diagnostic factor to follow the progression o
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a new approach, of Clustering Ultrasound images using the Hybrid Filter (CUHF) to determine the gender of the fetus in the early stages. The possible advantage of CUHF, a better result can be achieved when fuzzy c-mean FCM returns incorrect clusters. The proposed approach is conducted in two steps. Firstly, a preprocessing step to decrease the noise presented in ultrasound images by applying the filters: Local Binary Pattern (LBP), median, median and discrete wavelet (DWT),(median, DWT & LBP) and (median & Laplacian) ML. Secondly, implementing Fuzzy C-Mean (FCM) for clustering the resulted images from the first step. Amongst those filters, Median & Laplace has recorded a better accuracy. Our experimental evaluation on re
... Show MoreX-ray emission contains some of the gaseous properties is produced when the particles of the solar wind strike the atmosphere of comet ISON and PanSTARRS Comets. The data collected with NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory of the two comets, C/2012 S1 (also known as Comet ISON) and C/2011 S4 (Comet PanSTARRS) are used in this study.
The real abundance of the observed X-ray spectrum elements has been extracted by a new simple mathematic model. The study found some physical properties of these elements in the comet’s gas such as a relationship between the abundance with emitted energy. The elements that have emission energy (2500-6800) eV, have abundance (0.1-0.15) %, while the elements
... Show MoreSynthesis of new nucleoside analogues of the type : 3¢ , 3¢ - gem – di – C – nitromethly , expected to have useful application in the chemotherapeutic treatment of AIDS , cancer and microbial infections. The synthesis involved the condensation of the appropriate sugar derivative ( i.e . 3¢ , 3¢ – gem – di – C – nitromethly – 1– ribofuranose ) with nitrogen bases , such as , uracil and theophllin following a multi step scheme starting from diacetone golucose (1) (scheme 1) .The prepared compound were identified by spectroscopic methods ; ir , mass , 1H and 13C nmr.
Abstract: Recently, there is increasing interest in using mode-division multipelexing (MDM) technique to enhace data rate transmission over multimode fibers. In this technique, each fiber mode is treated as a separate optical carrier to transfer its own data. This paper presents a broadband, compact, and low loss three-mode (de)multiplexer designed for C+L band using subwavelength grating (SWG) technology and built-in silicon-on-insulator SOI platform. SWG offers refractive index engineering for wider operating bandwidth and compact devices compared to conventional ones. The designed (de)multiplex deals with three modes (TE0, TE1, and TE2) and has a loss > -1 dB and crosstalk < −15 dB, and its operation c
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