Background: Chromogranin A is a useful tumor marker for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) diagnosis & follow-up, Octreotide (somatostatin-long acting repeatable (SAS-LAR)) is an established treatment for NETs. Studies regarding the relation between response to SAS-LAR & the change in Chromogranin A (CgA) plasma level are still lacking.
Objectives: To determine the association between the using of Octreotide (SAS-LAR) and CgA level on time sequence & clinical status.
Patients & methods: a prospective observational study included 38 neuroendocrine patients in The Oncology Teaching Hospital/medical city complex/Baghdad, started at September 2013 till May 2016; assessing their circulating chromogranin A (CgA) plasma levels on multiple occasions(0,2 and 4 months) by ELISA technique and its correlation with response to somatostatin analogues (SAS-LAR) in those patients.
Results: the study recruited 38 neuroendocrine patients. 21 (55%) of them were males, 23 (60%) patients were older than 50 years old & 17 (44%) had metastasis to different sites. Somatostatin analogues (octreotide 30mg) was administered to 20 out of 38 (52.6%) studied patients. Serial CgA tests were performed in (17 out of 20) patients used SAS-LAR, with a change in mean value from (225.3 U/L) pre-using the agent to (17.5 U/L) two months after its use & to (8.7 U/L) four months after its use (p=0.009, p=0.002 respectively) while the change in mean of CgA level was from (205.9 U/L) to (200.9 U/L) in 10 patients who did not use Octreotide (p=0.2).Also results showed that no statistically significant difference in mean value of CgA pre & two months after using Octreotide with regard to grade of the tumor.
Conclusions: Plasma CgA is a reliable marker for NETs (regarding diagnosis, prognosis and response to treatment including somatostatin analogues).All patients with NETs should undergo a baseline plasma CgA level at diagnosis. Serial assessment of circulating CgA could be done for NET patients when there is baseline elevation of CgA level in circulation
The current study was conducted for studying the impact of cold plasma on the expression level of three genes that participate in the biosynthesis of the phenylpropanoid pathway in Ocimum basilicum. These studied genes were cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (c4h), 4-coumarate CoA ligase (4cl), and eugenol O-methyl transferase (eomt). Also, the cold plasma impact was studied on the essential oil components and their relation with the gene expression level. The results demonstrated that cold plasma seeds germination of the treated groups 2 (initially for 3 minutes and 3 minutes after 7 days) ,and group 3(initially for 5 minutes and 3 minutes after 7 days) were faster than the control group. Also, the height average of the mature plants of
... Show MoreThis research sheds light on the morphological structure of nouns and verbs in the novel "ASTONISHMENT" by the novelist Aharon Applefield by analysing selected models from the novel in a morphological analysis in order to identify the most important morphological features of this structure according to a statistical analytical approach.
The morphological structure is the main pillar of the linguistic structure of the literary text. Morphology is the science that studies the word, by which its structure and original letters are known, and the change that has occurred to it. The aesthetics of the fictional text is reflected in this structure, through which the writer conveys his ideas and narrations to the reader. The research
... Show MoreStimulative effect of 10 mW He-Ne laser on the phagocytic activity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes( PMNs) has been studied in vitro. Normal polymorphonuclear leucocytes were isolated from the human peripheral blood. A mixture of 0.25 ml of Hanks solution, 0.25 ml of serum, 0.25 ml of Candida albicans suspension and 0.25 ml of PMNs suspension was prepared. The samples of mixture of PMNs and Candida were subdivided in 1 ml ependrof tubes and irradiated to He-Ne laser for 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 min. The diameter of the irradiated area was 0.8 cm. For calculation of Phagocytic index before and after irradiation, the samples were incubated (37°C) at 5, 15, 30, 60 min. The slides of samples were prepared and stained using Giemsa stain. The
... Show MoreDiabetic retinopathy is one of most important complications of diabetes mellitus that can be treated by Nd:YAG laser. Laser is used in ophthalmic practice for photocoagulation and photodisruption. The purpose of this study is to evaluate changes in immunological ,hematological and biochemical values after treatment of diabetic retinopathy by laser. Blood samples from 10 patients suffering from diabetic retinopathy were taken before and after laser treatment to coagulate retina to prevent leakage and hemorraghe to avoid deterioration of vision.In group one (4 patients = 40%), blood tests were done one day after treatment. In group two (6 patients =60%) tests were done 7 days after treatment with laser. The study showed no clear changes in
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the future teachers' attitudes toward cloud computing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from their point of view. The research adopted the descriptive approach, and a questionnaire was applied to a random sample of (370) male and female teachers in governmental and private general education schools in the Al-Jouf region, Saudi Arabia. The results of the research concluded that the reality of future teachers' attitudes towards cloud computing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from their point of view is very high and that most areas of using computing are in the field of assessment, then teaching, and activities. The challenges of future teachers' attitudes toward cloud computing are recorded at a high level, parti
... Show MoreObjective:The current study aime to isolate Escherichia colifrom urinary tract infections(UTIs) in many Baghdad hospitals. The study concentrate on phylogenic groups and this was done based on triplex PCRmethod by primers besieged to three genetic markers, chuA, yjaA and TspE4.C2. Evaluate the relationship of phylogenic groups of E. coli isolates with the antibiotic-non sensitive patterns. Methodology:Four hundredof E.coli bacteria isolated from urine samples from five hospitals in Baghdad city include: Ghazi AL-Hariri, Ibin- Al-Beledi , AL-Iskan , AL-Nooman and AL-Yarmoke hospitals. Phylogenetic categorizatio
Background: The present article is concerned within the scope of Forensic Medicine, specifically Forensic Genetics. The case was taken care of in the Genetic-Molecular Laboratory of the Odessa Regional Bureau of Forensic-Medical Examinations, in Ukraine, during January and February of 2014.
Objectives: The aim of our work was to identify an unknown person, using the techniques: Y-chromosome markers and mitochondrial DNA typing.
Materials and methods: The materials available for our procedure were: pieces of tissue in paraffin blocks, saved from the corpse of the unknown person; blood from a living male subject, who claimed to be the grandfather, and from two females, allegedly the sisters. From all of them we extracted nuclear DNA
Vascular injury is still common in countries such as Iraq where both military and urban violence are endemic.
This is a report of a thirty eight year old civilian patient who had been inflicted with shrapnel injury during the 3rd. Gulf war, which had caused two different types of vascular injury with minimal evidence of vascular injury with evidence of only two small wounds in the neck and upper chest at the time of injury but presented few months later with a pulsatile neck mass and palpable thrill across the right supraclavicular area and upper chest.
Preoperative investigations were done including Doppler study and angiography which confirmed the presence of right common carotid artery aneurysm and
Abstract The study aimed at reviewing translation theories proposed to address problems in translation studies. To the end, translation theories and their applications were reviewed in different studies with a focus on issues such as critical discourse analysis, cultural specific items and collocation translation.
Islamic manuscripts are considered an identity for the civilizational, cognitive and cultural development of nations and the Islamic world as a whole, and to identify this identity, the closing statement usually written at the end of the manuscript helps us with this, meaning that the closing entries serve as the identity document of the manuscript