Back ground: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a common chronic musculo-skeletal disorder resulting in chronic widespread pain impacting on quality life.
Objectives: To assess the relationship between FMS and knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and to evaluate the predictors of this relationship if present.
Patients and Methods: One hundred Iraqi KOA patients and 100 healthy controls were included in this cross-sectional study. Full history was taken and complete clinical examination was done for all patients. Baseline characteristics [age, sex, duration, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, family history (Hx) of KOA, smoking history, and drug history.] were also documented. Laboratory analysis included complete blood count, erythrocyte

Background: Fibromyalgia syndrome and psoriasis share various soft problems. In addition, patients with psoriasis can experience subjective joint swelling and pain (Fibromyalgia syndrome) and objective swelling (Psoriatic arthritis) with the latter requiring systemic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs while the former requires anti-fibromyalgia measures.
Objective: To assess the rate of fibromyalgia syndrome in a sample of Iraqi patients with psoriasis.
Patients and Method: A sample of one hundred and twenty Iraqi patients with psoriasis and another one hundred and twenty healthy individuals matched for age and sex, serving as control group were studied. Full history was taken and complete clinical examination was done and vario

Background: Multiple Sclerosis disease is a demyelination process which interferes with the neuronal signal transmission, thus leading to different cognitive and physical dysfunctions like optic neuritis, motor, sensory and coordination problems. Recently many researches have been directed toward studying the relation between some genes and multiple sclerosis. Among the important genes to be studied in multiple sclerosis is the forkhead box P3 gene expression.
Objectives: The aims of the present work were to study the expression of forkhead box P3 gene by real time polymerase chain reaction, and to perform chromosomal analysis on the multiple sclerosis patients peripheral blood lymphocytes.
Patients and methods: A case-control stud

Background: Fibromyalgia (FMS) is characterized by chronic widespread pain and allodynia (pain from stimuli which are not normally painful with pain that may occur other than in the area stimulated) of more than 3 months duration. The current hypothesis of the etiology of FMS includes inflammatory and neuroendocrine disorders. Many features of fibromyalgia and hypothyroidism are virtually the same, and thyroid hormone treatment trials have reduced or eliminated fibromyalgia symptoms. These findings led the authors to test the hypothesis that fibromyalgia patients are hypometabolic compared to matched control .

Patients and Methods: The samples  were taken from the patients attending the out-

The expression of the Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin Type 9 gene (PCSK9) is inextricably related to lipid levels and a risk of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (ASCAD). The present study aims to measure the quantity of PCSK9 gene expression and the effect of methylation on its expression level taking part in the pathogenesis of acute coronary artery disorder.

A current study included 150 subjects from the Iraqi population, 100 ASCAD patients and 50 healthy controls. The concentration of PCSK9 in each serum sample was determined by the ELISA technique, the expression levels of the PCSK9 gene in whole blood were estimated by RT-qPCR – Quantitative Reverse Transcription PCR method, and DNA

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a common chronic and destructive autoimmune arthropathy .Treatment with infliximab gives great improvement to a large numbers of patients with RA ,however, in some patients after prolonged treatment infliximab can induce anti-infliximab antibodies formation and result to loss of infliximab efficacy and active persistent disease.
Objective: to investigate the frequency of anti-infliximab antibodies in Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Patients and methods: fifty Iraqi RA patients(36 females and 14 males) compared with 50 control( 25 healthy control and 25 case control (patients with RA on other treatment) ) were included in this study from begging of March 201

Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1) is an essential marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but its relationship with pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and inflammatory markers has been scantily covered in extant literature. To evaluate the level of CTHRC1 protein in the sera of 100 RA patients and 25 control and compare levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 10 (IL-10), RA disease activity (DAS28), and inflammatory factors. Higher significant serum levels of CTHRC1 (29.367 ng/ml), TNF-α (63.488 pg/ml), and IL-10 (67.1 pg/ml) were found in patient sera as compared to that in control sera (CTHRC1 = 15.732 ng/ml, TNF-α = 33.788 pg/ml, and IL-10 = 25.122 pg/ml). There was no significant correlation be

The present study aims at assessing the effects of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on thyroid hormone and leptin by evaluating the level of: leptin hormone along with thyroid hormone in CKD patients. The study has been conducted on  70 subjects, 50 patients with an age range between 20-50 years (25  males and 25 females) who were diagnosed to have CKD stage-5, and 20 normal controls whose ages ranged between 20-48 years (10  males and 10 females), who attended  the Nephrology and Transplant Center in Medical City of Baghdad- Iraq from April  2018  to July  2018. The study showed a highly significant (P<0.01) increase in TSH level in CKD patients in comparison with controls. While T3 and T4 levels observed highly significant decrea

Background: Breast cancer is a complex, multifaceted disease encompassing a great variety of entities that show considerable variation in clinical, morphological and molecular attributes.
Objective: The aim of this study to evaluate patients’ molecular profile (Estrogen receptor, Progesterone receptor, HER2/neu and Ki-67).
Patients & Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study was done in Baghdad oncology teaching hospital from December 2015 to April 2016, carried on 100 breast cancer female patients with their age range from 27 to 73 years old and with their histopathology reports and (IHC) results.
Results: The highest incidence of breast cancer among patients in 5th (40-49 years) and 6th (50-59 years) decades o

Background: Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease which is initiated by an infection of the oral microorganisms and it involves the humoral and cellular characteristics of the host response. The periodontal disease is found to develop due to a series of interactions among the periodontotrophic herpes viruses, the periodontopathic bacteria and the host immune reactions.Recent studies have demonstrated that various human viruses, especially human cytomegalovirus seems to play a part in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Periodontitis is an infectious disease involving specific bacteria and viruses.
Objectives: The present study was initiated to evaluate the percentage of human cytomegalovirus in periodontitis patients and dete