Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuro-inflammatory disorder in which the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is proposed to have a pathogenic role. Therefore, a case-control study was performed (93 patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 113 healthy controls (HC) to analyze the prevalence and viral load of EBV infection using real time-polymerase chain reaction. Prevalence of EBV infection was lower in patients compared to HC but the difference was not significant (12.9 vs. 21.2%; probability [p] = 0.187). EBV-positive MS cases were more common in females than in males (83.3 vs. 16.7%), while an opposite distribution was observed in HC (37.5 vs. 62.5%), and the difference was significant (p = 0.041). Blood group O frequency was higher in EBV-positive patients compared to the corresponding HC but the difference was not significant (33.3 vs. 20.8%; p = 0.443). EBV-positive MS cases showed similar frequency in the two groups of the expanded disability status scale (EDSS: < 3.0 and ≥ 3.0; 50% each). EBV load was significantly elevated in EBV-positive MS cases compared to EBV-positive HC (94.6 ± 84.2 vs. 17.0 ± 16.3 DNA copy/100 cells; p = 0.009). When EBV-positive MS cases were classified by gender, EDSS groups or ABO blood groups, there were no significant differences between EBV loads in each stratum. However, a significant correlation between EBV load and EDSS was found (correlation coefficient = 0.620; p = 0.031). In conclusion, the prevalence of EBV infection showed no significant differences between MS patients and HC, while EBV load was significantly higher in patients.
The recurrent somatic variations in
The aim of the study was to detect the frequency of R132 mutations in the
Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unknown etiology. Different techniques and magnetic resonance image sequences are widely used and compared to each other to improve the detection of multiple sclerosis lesions in the spinal cord. Objective: To evaluate the ability of MRI short tau inversion recovery sequences in improvementof multiple sclerosis spinal cord lesion detection when compared to T2 weighted image sequences. Type of the study: A retrospective study. Methods: this study conducted from 15thAugust 2013 to 30thJune 2014 at Baghdad teaching hospital. 22 clinically definite MS patients with clinical features suggestive of spinal cord involvement,
... Show MoreTo determine the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and skin disorders, sixty six patients who suffering from skin diseases include chronic urticarial (CU) and atopic dermatitis (AD) who attended at Dermatological Clinic/ Al-Numan Teaching Hospital from the beginning of October 2015 to the end of January 2016 with age (6-62) have been investigated and compared to twenty two samples of apparently healthy individuals were studied as control group. All the studied groups were subjected to measurement of antiHelicobacter pylori IgG antibodies by enzyme linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA) and detection of 16S rRNA and CagA genes by using singleplex and multiplex PCR methods. The results of current study revealed that there was a
... Show MoreBackground:-M. pneumoniae is an important human pathogen that produces community-acquired respiratory tract infection. Diagnosis of M. pneumoniae infection is challenging and crucial for the timely initiation of the effective antibiotic therapy.
Objective: This study has been undertaken to detect M. pneumoniae in respiratory samples (throat swabs, throat wash and sputum) in patients with respiratory tract infection qualitatively by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Also, more advanced one, real time PCR was used to determine mycoplasmal target gene qualitatively and quantitatively.
Patients and methods: The study was performed on Seventy-five patients and thirty healthy subject as control. Genomic DNA was extracted and
In this paper, we conduct some qualitative analysis that involves the global asymptotic stability (GAS) of the Neutral Differential Equation (NDE) with variable delay, by using Banach contraction mapping theorem, to give some necessary conditions to achieve the GAS of the zero solution.
Pre-eclampsia complicates 2-8% of all pregnancies and it is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and pre-term delivery in the world. Unfortunately, there is scarcity of documents discussing the circulating level of several essential trace elements in Pre-eclampsia patients in Baghdad especially in the last trimester of the pregnancy. The present study was designed to quantitative evaluation the whole blood concentration of two trace elements, copper (Cu), and iron(Fe), in pre-eclamptic women in the third trimester of pregnancy. The study was conducted on 18 Pre-eclamptic pregnant women as patients group with clinical detected high blood pressure ≥140/90 mmHg and 13 normotensive pregnant women as control group from Al-Alwiya
... Show MoreBackground: Despite the importance of vaccines in preventing COVID-19, the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines is lower among RA patients than in the general population. Objective: To determine the extent of COVID-19 knowledge among RA patients and their attitudes and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenology approach was performed through face-to-face, individual-based, semi-structured interviews in the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, rheumatology unit. A convenient sample of RA patients using disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs was included until the point of saturation. A thematic content analysis approach was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: Twenty-five RA pa
... Show MoreOne hundred and seventy-six cases of suspected meningitis (SMN) were included in a cross-sectional study. Their ages ranged from less than 1 year to 80 years, of whom 44.3% were male. The aim was to assess bacterial meningitis (BMN) in terms of incidence and types of causative bacteria. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens were collected and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis was conducted with universal primers designed to amplify a DNA fragment (996 bp) of the 16S rRNA gene of eubacteria. Resolving PCR products in agarose-gel electrophoresis revealed that 37.5% of CSF specimens were PCR positive, while 62.5% of CSF specimens showed no band and were considered PCR-negative. Eighty percent of the latter specimens were not
... Show MoreWe studied in this research how to find a method of estimating the quantity (Kinetically) of three kinds of Insecticide and their mixture, which are used in agriculture. The extracted insecticide from the polluted samples with these insect from air, soil, and the leaves of trees, have be used into the reaction with H2O2 and benzedine. The kinetic study of this reaction was formed in basic medium,( pH= 8.6), using UV. Spectra at (?= 420nm). The study showed that the reaction is the first order, and the speed of the reaction was used to estimate the concentration of insecticide in solution and mixture. The experiments of this study indicated that this method has the speed and efficiency for quantitatively estimating these
... Show MoreIn this paper, some conditions to guarantee the existence of bounded solution to the second order multi delayed arguments differential equation are given. The Krasnoselskii theorem used to the Lebesgue’s dominated convergence and fixed point to obtain some new sufficient conditions for existence of solutions. Some important lemmas are established that are useful to prove the main results for oscillatory property. We also submitted some sufficient conditions to ensure the oscillation criteria of bounded solutions to the same equation.