The mean age of AS patients was (35.0 ± 9.8) years.When the patients and control subjects were divided into different age groups (>40, 30-40, <30 years), the differences were not significantin terms of disease prevalence. The results also showed that the percentage of male patients is higher than that of females. There was no significant difference (P?0.05) between patients and controls in the distribution of males and females.Most of the patients had the disease for a period of 5 years or higher, with a disease severity of ? 2.1 and functional disability degree of I, II. The resultsshoweddifferent patterns of distribution for the three tested cytokines. A significant increase in the level of TNF-?, anon-significantincrease i

The current investigation aimed to test the alterations of the levels of obestatin hormone, lipid profile and cardiac function markers in relation to hyperglycemia in patients with non-insulin diabetes mellitus. The study included 118 diabetic subjects (56 males, 62 females) and 60 healthy non-diabetic subjects (30 males, 30 females). Diabetic and healthy subjects were age-matched. Serum levels of obestatin, lipid profile markers including total cholesterol (STC), triglycerides (STG), low and high density lipoproteins (LDL-C and HDL-C), as well as cardiac function markers including, creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase enzymes were determined in all subjects. The findings revealed a remarkable decrease in the level of serum obestati

Background: Studies discussing the correlation between biochemical markers of bone turnover and the diagnosis of osteoporosis in postmenopausal Iraqi women are rare. This study is devoted to find out the significance of serum osteocalcin (OC) and osteopontin (OPN) levels with the incidence of osteoporosis and its major complication (fracture).Objectives: to investigate the significance of bone turnover biochemical markers; serum osteocalcin and serum osteopontin in evaluating osteoporosis for postmenopausal Iraqi women with and without history of vertebral fracture, as well as to explore the relationship of these markers with bone mineral density (BMD).Methods: Fifty seven postmenopausal women whose ages are fifty years old and over, cat

This study is an attempt to find whether arginine metabolism dysregulation by arginase activity is related to hyperglycemia, followed by changes in nitric oxide (NO) generation in type 2 diabetic patients. This study includes 42 control subjects (Group I), and 92 Iraqi patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The patient group was subdivided into two groups: Group II (54) with T2DM only and Group III (38) with T2DM and dyslipidemia (who were treating with atorvastatin along with diabetes treatment). The samples were obtained to measure arginase activity and NO levels. Serum arginase activity increased significantly in patients(groupII and groupIII) compared to control group. While serum NO level was significantly lower in diabetic pa

Excess alcohol consumption is associated with numerous metabolic changes and homeostasis disturbances of many macro- and micro-elements in the body. It has been associated with multiple pathologies at all levels. In the digestive apparatus, alcohol has generally been related to its toxic effects upon the liver. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (α-1 AT or AAT) plays an important role in controlling inflammation, coagulation and repair mechanisms in the body and most α-1 AT in the body is produced by the liver; from the other hand, Intrinsic factor (IF), which is a glycoprotein produced by the parietal cells of the stomach is necessary for the absorption of vitamin B12 in the small intestine. This study was designed to assess serum levels of α-1 AT and

ABSTRACT Background: Color changes that are detectable to human eye can affect the esthetic appearance of ceramic veneers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of artificial accelerated aging on the color of ceramic veneers cemented with different resin cements. Materials and Methods: Sixty discs were prepared with 0.5 mm thickness, 30 discs made from IPS e.max press (Ivoclar Vivadent) and 30 discs were made from VITA Enamic (VITA Zahnfabrik). The discs were cemented with three resin cements: Variolink Veneer MV 0 shade (Ivoclar Vivadent), Rely X veneer Translucent shade (3M ESPE) and NX3 Nexus Clear shade (Kerr Corporation) with 0.1 mm thickness. The spectrophotometer Easyshade Advance was used to measure the co

 The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of rotation on heat transfer using
inclination magnetohydrodynamics for a couple-stress fluid in a non-uniform canal. When the
Reynolds number is low and the wavelength is long, math formulas are used to describe the stream
function, as well as the gradient of pressure, temperature, pressure rise and axial velocity per
wavelength, which have been calculated analytically. The many parameters in the current model
are assigned a definite set of values. It has been noticed that both the pressure rise and the pressure
gradient decrease with the rise of the rotation and couple stress, while they increase with an
increase in viscosity and Hartmann nu

   The potential use of bone marrow stromal cells as a cellular therapy for chronic diseases relies on the ability of the cell to replicate extensively in vitro.For this reason the present study investigated the replication lifespan and examined the growth properties of albino rats mesenchymal stem cells(MSCS)in vitro. To establish an in vitro system for isolating and culturing the  MSCs of albino rats and to provide research data for its further application,the bone marrow (BM)was collected from young male rats and separated by gradient centrifugation.Then, the mononuclear cells(MNCs) were retrieved from the buffy layer and cultured in Modified Eagle,s Medium (MEM) supplemented with 10%Fetal Calf Serum (FCS)and incubation

The Rate theory of crack growth in PVC pipe has been studied for creep and fatigue crack propagation. Rate theory function parameters, (RTFP), were estimated theoretically from exponential function parameters, (EFP), to experimental data of crack velocity versus stress intensity factor ,(V-K) diagram, to creep crack propagation . Also (RTFP) were estimated theoretically from (EFP) to experimental data of (V-?K) diagram to fatigue crack propagation. Temperature effect with (RTFP) was discussed. Crack velocity function denoted with stress intensity factor and temperature degrees has been determined to fatigue and creep crack propagation theoretically and comparative results this function with experimental data of (V-K or ?K) diagram .