The central nervous system (CNS) disease known as multiple sclerosis (MS) is essentially an inflammatory demyelinating condition with a variety of clinical manifestations and variable histological findings. A number of immunological and biochemical markers may alter MS, which is also characterized as an autoimmune illness. MS patients (n = 100) were divided into two groups: newly diagnosed (n = 42) and patients with ongoing treatments (n = 58). These groups were compared to healthy subjects (n = 55); the mean age ±SD was (30±8.46 years), (37±8.06 years), and (31±8.73 years) for MS newly diagnosed patients, patients with ongoing treatments, and healthy subjects, respectively. Studies for serum levels of eotaxin-1, myelin basic protein (MBP), IL-23, 27, 9, and 37 were measured by the ELISA technique. Eotaxin-1, MBP, IL-23, 27, and alkaline phosphate were significantly higher in all MS patient groups, but for IL-37, there was no significant difference between newly diagnosed patients when compared with patients with ongoing treatment. Weak positive correlations were found between IL-9 and myelin (r = 0.282, p≤0.05) and a weak positive correlation between IL-23 and ALP (r = 0.209, p≤0.05) in MS patients. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was applied for the parameters eotaxin-1, MBP, IL-23, 27, and alkaline phosphate, which showed a high sensitivity according to the area under the curve. The present results conclude that eotaxin-1, MBP, IL-23, 27, and alkaline phosphate can be used as diagnostic markers for multiple sclerosis.
ervical cancer is one of the most frequently diag nosed malignancies representing the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in females’ worldwide, with approximately 500,000 new cases diagnosed and 280,000 deaths occurring each year. Mxi1, an antagonist of c-Myc, maps to human chromosome 10q24-q25, a region altered in a substantial fraction of prostate tumors, in prostate cancer, where a high frequency of loss and mutation of the MXI1 gene has been reported. The aim of present study was to find out the possible association of exon deletion of MXI1 gene with incidence of cervical abnormalities and cancers in some Iraqi married women. The present study include collection of 120 scraping cervical cells samples from women clinically di
... Show MoreBackground: Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction that results in fluctuating muscle weakness as well as significant fatigue. Disease exacerbation is a critical condition, and the predisposing factors for it need to be identified to improve preventive measures.
Objectives: Our study aims to determine the predisposing factors for myasthenia gravis exacerbations in a group of Iraqi patients.
Subjects and Methods: A total number of 30 myasthenia gravis patients were admitted to the hospital with an exacerbation of their symptoms, determined as the development of functional disability, dysphagia, or respiratory fai
... Show MoreCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a systemic disease with a substantial impact on the hematopoietic system and hemostasis. Neutrophilia is an early indicator of SARS-CoV-2 infection, while lymphopenia acts as a biomarker of the severity of infection, and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is the main indicator of cytokine storms. Thus, this study aimed to provide local data about hematological parameters among COVID-19 patients and estimate their correlation with viral load and other factors in severe cases. A total of 99 nasopharyngeal swabs and whole blood specimens were collected from individuals suspected with COVID-19 between October and December 2020. Samples were tested by real time reverse transcript
... Show MoreBackground: Ovarian malignancy is considered to score the highest fatality among women due to lack of significant symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment lead to good prognosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a major role in the diagnosis by detecting the lesions and assessing their appearance and consistency.
Objective: To determine the accuracy of MRI in the diagnosis of ovarian malignancy and comparing this to histopathology as a gold standard test.
Patients and methods: A follow up study was conducted in the MRI unit of the Radiology Department in Baghdad Teaching Hospital / Baghdad Medical City Complex during the period from 1st of February to 31
Background: Cytokines are the messengers of the immune system.They are mostly secreted by macrophages and lymphocytes and their production is induced in response to injury or infections.
Objective: Biopsy speciemens from the middle body of the stomach were obtained from 18 patients with gastric carcinoma, 32 patients with atrophic gastritis, 50 patients with chronic gastritis and 20 healthy subjects and IL-8 and IL-1B levels were detrmined.
Methods: Sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit was used to determine the IL-8 and IL-1B levels.
Results: IL-8 and IL-1B levels were significantly higher in gastric carcinoma patients than patients with atrophic gastritis and both significantly higher than healthy subjects.
C
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a worldwide distribution and extremely common infections. The presence of HCMV genome and antigens has been detected in many kinds of human cancers especially breast cancer. In Iraq, the incidence of breast cancer generally exceeds any other type of malignancies among Iraqi population. The study was performed in the period between October 2016 and June 2017 in Central public health laboratory/Baghdad. It involve samples from 90 women including 60 breast cancer patients, 20 benign tumor patients, and 10 normal breast tissues. A blood sample was obtained from each woman included in this study. Anti-HCMV IgG antibody was presented in 9/10 (90%) of normal women, benign breast tumor patients 19/20 (95%) and malig
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory autoimmune disease of unidentified etiology, associated with articular, extra-articular and systemic manifestation that require long-standing treatment. Taking patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication in consideration had been shown to be an essential factor that affects adherence of the patient in whom having positive beliefs is an essential for better adherence. The purpose of the current study was to measure beliefs about medicines among a sample of Iraqi patients with Rheumatoid arthritis and to determine possible association between this belief and some patient-certain factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 250 already diagnosed rheumatoid
... Show MoreBackground: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology characterized by joint inflammation and the presence of autoantibodies, mostly Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACCP) which are released when the body loses its ability to distinguish between self and foreign molecules. Serum amyloid A2 (SAA2) is an acute phase protein produced in response to inflammatory conditions including RA.
Objectives: To investigate the prognostic ability of SAA2 in comparison with ACCP and the prediction of disease activity and response to treatment by Methotrexate and Etanercept in Iraqi RA patients.
Patients and methods: A case control study, on a to
... Show MoreTo overcome the problems which associated with the standard multiple daily doses (MDD)
of aminoglycosides (AGs) like high incidence of toxicity(nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity)(5-25%) and high cost, an alternative approach was developed which was single daily dose (SDD).This new regimen was designed to maximize bacterial killing by optimizing the peak concentration/minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)ratio and to reduce the potential for toxicity. The study includes 75 patients selected randomly, 50 of them received SDD regimen of age range of 17-79 years and the remaining received MDD regimen of age range of 13-71 years. The study was designed to evaluate the safety of SDD regim
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