COVID-19 is a unique viral infectious illness that causes a variety of symptoms and health hazards, particularly to the respiratory system and has been declared a worldwide pandemic. The disease is characterized by a cytokine release in severe conditions. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a proinflammatory cytokine, mediates an important immunomodulatory process. Also, vitamin D was identified to have a role in the innate immunity of individuals. Our study was designed to find the role of IL-6 and vitamin D in COVID-19 patients, as well as, to see whether there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and cytokine syndrome development. The study included 90 COVID-19 patients and 30 control people from Baghdad, Iraq. The age of the participants was non-s

Background: Masseter muscle is a jaw closing muscle of the mandible involved in Para functional habits; which include lip and cheek chewing, fingernail biting, and teeth clenching or bruxism which can be classified as awake or sleep bruxism. Patients with sleep bruxism are three to four times more likely to experience jaw pain and limitation of movement than people who do not experience sleep bruxism. The aim of this study is to measure the thickness of the masseter muscle in bruxist subjects and compare it with non-bruxist subjects by using sonography. Materials and Method: Forty Iraqi subjects with age ranged (20-40) divided into two groups according to the presence of bruxism. Clinical examination was made and masseter muscle thickness

Many diseases can produce cardiac overload, of these disease hypertension, valve disease congenital anomaly in addition to many other disease. One of the most common diseases causing left ventricle overload is hypertension. A long term hypertension can cause myocardium hypertrophy leading to changes in the cardiac contractility and reduced efficiency. The investigations were carried out using conventional echocardiography techniques in addition to the tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) from which many noninvasive measurements can be readily obtained. The study has involved the effect of hypertension on the myocardium stiffness index through the measurement of early diastolic filling (E) and the early velocity of lateral mitral annulus (E_a

Sumatriptan(ST) is a selective agonist at serotonin 5-HTI receptors, as well as 5-HT1B/1D subtypes. It is effective for acute migraine attacks, but has a short half  life (about 2 hours) and low oral bioavailability (15%). The purpose of this study was to develop and optimize nasal mucoadhesive in-situ gel(IG) of ST to enhance nasal residence time for migraine management. Cold method was used to prepare different formulas of  ST nasal IG, using thermosensitive polymers (poloxamer 407  alone or with poloxamer 188) with a mucoadhesive polymer hyaluronic acid (HA) which were examined for gelation temperature and gelation time, pH, drug content, gel strength, spreadability, muc

Buffering of Local anaesthesia (LA) has been suggested as a mechanism to improve injection comfort and hasten the onset of anaesthesia. Aim This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of buffered LA in the extraction of maxillary premolars and molars. Materials and Methods This randomized controlled study included 100 patients who were indicated for extraction of maxillary posterior teeth, they were randomly divided into two groups; a study group that received infiltration of buffered 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with 1:80,000 epinephrine LA, and a control group that received non-buffered 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with 1:80,000 epinephrine LA. The buffering was performed using the Onset® LA buffering system (Onpharma®). The outcome va

The efforts embedded in this paper have been devoted to designing, preparing, and testing warm mix asphalt (WMA) mixtures and comparing their behavior against traditional hot mix asphalt mixtures. For WMA preparation, the Sasobit wax additive has been added to a 40/50 asphalt binder with a concentration of 3%. An experimental evaluation has been performed by conducting the Marshall together with volumetric properties, indirect tensile strength, and wheel tracking tests to acquire the tensile strength ratio (TSR), retained stability index (RSI), and rut depth. It was found that the gained benefit of reduction in mixing and compaction temperatures was reversely associated with a noticeable decline in Marshall properties and moisture s

This research was conduct to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of exotoxin A (ETA) produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa on mice in comparison with (phosphate buffer saline (PBS) as a negative control. The effect of the toxin was measured by employing the cytogenetic analysis which included (the mitotic index (MI), chromosomal aberrations (CAs), micronucleus (MN) and sperm abnormalities) parameters. In order to specify the cytotoxic effect of the toxin, three doses of ETA (125, 250 and 500 ng/ml) were used. Results showed that ETA was found to cause a significant decrease in mitotic index (MI) percentage, while significant increase in micronucleus (MN), chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and sperm abnormalities parameters in compression with control wa