Background: 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

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di

Background :Atherosclerosis is the most
frequent underlying cause of ischemic heart
disease and a major cause of death all over the
world. This study was carried out to analyze and
compare the angiographic findings in patients
with diabetes mellitus versus non diabetics with
coronary heart disease , and to correlate these
findings with some risk factors for coronary
heart disease.
Methods: A total of 100 patients were studied,
50 with diabetes mellitus, and 50 non diabetics.
This study was carried out at Al-Sadr teaching
hospital in Basrah, Southern Iraq during the
period April 2009- September 2009. All patients
were known to have coronary heart disease. Risk
factors for coronary heart disease

Objectives: To determine the (QoL) for patients with permanent pacemaker and to find-out the relationship between
these patients’ (QoL) and their sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, level of education, and
occupation.
Methodology: ٨ purposive non-probability” sample of (62) patient with permanent pacemaker was involved in this
study. The developed questionnaire consists of (4) parts which include !.demographic data form, 2.disease-related
information form, 3.socioeconomic data form, and 4.Permanent pacemaker patient’s quality of life questionnaire data
form. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were determined through the application of a pilot study. ٨
descriptive statistical a

Objective Thalassemic patients present with multiple immune abnormalities that may predispose them to oral Candida, however this has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to assess oral candidal colonization in a group of patients with β-thalassemia major both qualitatively and quantitatively. Study design The oral mycologic flora of 50 β-thalassemia major patients and 50 age- and sex-matched control subjects was assessed using the concentrated oral rinse technique. Candida species were identified using the germ tube test and the Vitek yeast identification system. Results Oral Candida was isolated from 37 patients (74%) and 28 healthy subjects (56%; P = .04). The mean candidal count was significantly higher in thalassemic patie

This work aims to detect the associations of C-peptide and the homeostasis model assessment of beta-cells function (HOMA2-B%) with inflammatory biomarkers in pregnant-women in comparison with non-pregnant women. Sera of 28 normal pregnant women at late pregnancy versus 27 matched age non-pregnant women (control), were used to estimate C-peptide, triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxin (T4) by Enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay (ELISA), fasting blood sugar (FBS) by automatic analyzer Biolis 24i, hematology-tests by hematology analyzer and the calculation of HOMA2-B% and homeostasis model assessment of insulin sensitivity (HOMA2-S%) by using C-peptide values instead of insulin. The comparisons, correlations, regression analysis tests were perfo

This experiment was carried out at the Field of Poultry, Department of Animal Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad, during the period from 1/5/2011 until 5/7/2011 to study the effect of adding arginine to laying hens diet on certain blood traits. A total of 100 Brown Lohmann laying hen chickens, 38 weeks of age, were randomly distributed into four treatment groups, with 25 hens for each treatment. Treatment groups were: T1: bird-fed diet with no additional arginine (control group); T2, T3, and T4: bird-fed diet supplemented with 0.4, 0.7, and 0.9%, respectively. Therefore, the total amounts of arginine in the four treatments (T1, T2, T3, and T4) become 1.1, 1.5, 1.8, and 2.0%, respectively. Results of this experiment rev

Breast cancer is the commonest cause of cancer related death in women worldwide. Amplification or over-expression of the ERBB2 (HER/neu) gene occurs in approximately 15-30% of breast cancer cases and it is strongly associated with an increased disease recurrence and a poor prognosis. Determination of HER2/neu status is crucial in the treatment plan as that positive cases will respond to trastuzumab therapy. It has been used to test for HER2/neu by immunohistochemistry as a first step and then to study only the equivocal positive cases (score 2+) by in situ hybridization technique. The aim of our study is to compare between immunohistochemistry and silver in situ hybridization (SISH) in assessment of human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu)