Background:
Percutaneous Balloon Pulmonary Valvuloplasty (BPV) is now the treatment of choice for pulmonary valve stenosis (PS) Patients and Methods. It is a retrospective
study involving 40 consecutive patients with moderate to severe PS underwent BPV in Ibn Albitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery from Sept. 2003 to Sept. 2004 ,
were medical records , Electrocardiograms ( ECG ) , Echo Doppler studies , and Catheterization data were reviewed carefully.
Results:
Mean pressure gradient across pulmonary valve (PV) was reduced from 112 +/- 46 mmHg before intervention to 49 It/- 34.7 after intervention.
Procedure failure occurred in one patient (2.5 %), four patients (10%) developed mild to moderate pul

The study objective was to conduct Pharmacoeconomics study (cost-effective analysis) between infliximab reference (Remicade) and its biosimilar (Remsima) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Iraqi hospitals.

This is a retrospective multicenter pharmacoeconomic analysis conducted at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq which provided infliximab to patients with RA. Data were collected from patient’s medical records and face-to-face interviews with the patients from December 2021 to April 2022.

The study included 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).  The patients were categorized into two groups according to the type of infliximab they received over 30 weeks: 27 patients received

It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 fem

     Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflamed chronic autoimmune disease in which genetics and environment are the most common causative factors. Peptidyl arginine deiminase type IV (PADI4) is an enzyme responsible for the posttranslational conversion of arginine residues into citrulline. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a specific technique was used to determine gene polymorphism. One hundred twenty three patients molecularly confirmed with RA and sixty healthy control subjects were recruited. By applying the logistic regression analysis, some alleles and genotypes were associated with susceptibility to RA. Under the allelic model, C allele frequency was significantly increased in RA patients compared

Serum samples were obtained from patients suffering from chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) disease. They were divided into three groups; 20 patients with RA taking biological treatment Etanercept (Enbrel), 20 patients with RA not taking biological treatment (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug) and 10 people as healthy control group. The ages of these patients and control group were between 46-50 years old; one male and 19 female in each group. The samples were used for measuring the levels of Interleukin (IL)-1 Beta and Interleukin-10 using the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay technique. Both interleukins were at their highest levels in the group of RA patients treated with biological treatment followed by the RA patients group that

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) represents one of the major causes of chronic morbidity where, airflow limitation is caused by a mixture of small airways disease and parenchyma destruction.
Objective: to correlate the clinical characteristics of patients with COPD with imaging classification into phenotypes.
Patients and Methods: Thirty patients with stable COPD were examined by chest CT. Bronchial wall thickness is evaluated by measuring the wall area percentage by identifying the trunk of the apical bronchus of the right upper lobe, while the extent of emphysema was assessed using the percentage of lung voxels with X-ray attenuation values less than -950 HU {automatically calculated by special software}.<

Back ground: Hirschsprung`s disease is a common problem among pediatric population, many procedures had been implemented in the treatment with different results. In the last decades one stage transanal endorectal pullthrough (TEPT) had come into the stage as a minimal invasive choice for such condition with good results.
Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of TEPT procedure among pediatrics in a tertiary pediatric surgery center in Iraq.
Patients and Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 11 patients with Hirschsprung’s disease, attending Central Teaching Hospital of Pediatrics for the period from March 2007 till August 2014. Their ages were ranging from 1 month - 12 years. All cases had diverting colostomy

     Methotrexate (MTX) is still one of the gold standard treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It shows diverse outcomes in blood level and clinical response, this was demonstrated by its relation to the genetic polymorphism in the pharmacogenetic study. This study aimed to investigate the role of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene polymorphisms in relation to MTX efficacy and toxicity in Iraqi Kurdish RA patients. Sixty-four RA patients were involved in this study with an average age of 47.78 ±14.08 and female to male ratio of (8.1). Diagnosis and disease activity were confirmed. Blood analyses, including those of laboratory markers of disease activity, were done. The 28 joint disease activity score (DAS28-CRP) w