Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by joint inflammation, involvement of exocrine salivary and lacrimal glands may occur as extra-articular mani¬festations in this disease. This study aimed to provide evidence of altered in function and composition of salivary gland in patients with rheumatoid arthritis by determine salivary flow rate and some biochemical parameters(total protein, amylase, peroxidase) and to investigate the relationship between disease activity and changes in function and composition of salivary gland. Materials and Methods: Fifty five patients with RA (7 males and 48 females) were enrolled in this study with age range (20-69) years. The patients were separated into two groups in proportion to their salivation: normal salivation group (37) and hypo salivation group (18). Thirty five (9 male and 26 female) apparently healthy volunteers were also participated in the study. Three ml of unstimulated saliva was collected from all patients and control to determine salivary flow rate on one hand and salivary total protein, α-amylase and peroxidase by colorimetric method on other hand. Results:Resultsshowed that there is highly significant decrease (P< 0.01; p< 0.001) in the median salivary levels of (flow rate, total protein, α-amylase and peroxidase) among RA patients when compared to control. There was highly significant reduction (P< 0.01) in median salivary levels of flow rate, total protein, α-amylase and peroxidase in two study groups (normal salivation and hypo salivation) as compared to that in control group. Also the levels of all these parameters (sialometry and sialochemistry) were significantly decrease (P =0.00) in RA patients with hypo salivation as compared to that in patients with normal salivation. There was strong positive correlation between total protein and salivary flow rate (r= 0.651, P=0.000), in one hand, and on the other hand, there was strong positive correlation between α-amylase and both salivary flow rate (r=623, P= 0.000) and total protein r=658, P=0.000). Conclusion: These findings indicate that the changes in salivary composition may represent involvement of salivary glands in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Effect of antioxidants (vitamins C and E) (500mg/kg) was studied on function of testes in albino mice treated with hexavalent chromium (1000ppm). The results showed that exposure to hexavalent chromium caused a significant decrease in body weights, without changes in weight of testes, seminal vesicles and prostate. A significant decrease was observed in the percentage of dead sperms, sperms abnormalities, diameter of seminiferous tubules and the number of leydig cells. Degenerative changes and necrosis were observed in the lumen of seminiferous tubules. Treatment of hexavalent chromium-exposed mice with vitamin C caused improvement in weights and characters of sperms and improvement of the tissue of seminiferous tubules. Tre
... Show MoreBackground :The cotton factories have difference steps, spinning and weaving are van important parts of the factories. Cotton industry workers are exposed to various hazards in the different departments of textile factories. The major health problems associated with cotton dust are respiratory problems. Cotton workers display an excess of lung function abnormalities when compared to a community control population.
Aim of Study: This study assessed the effect of exposure to cotton dust in spinning and weaving workers on the lung function in Iraq, by measuring Forced Vital Capacity (FVC),Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second(FEV1), FEV1 ∕ FVC Ratio, and Forced Expiratory Flow 50%(FEF50%),with varying degree of reduction in lung
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists’ therapy are expensive and has a non-responsive rate between 30% to 40% in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Genetic variation plays a vital role in the responsiveness to this type of therapy.The aim of this study is to investigate if the presence of genetic polymorphism in the TNF-α gene promoter region at locations -376 G/A (rs1800750), -806 C/T (rs4248158), and -1031 T/C (rs1799964) affects rheumatoid arthritis patient's tendency to be a non-responder to etanercept.
Eighty RA patients on etanercept (ETN) for at least six months were recruited from the Rheumatology Unit at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Based on The European League Against Rheumatism response (EULAR) criteria, patient
... Show MoreThis work aims to see the positive association rules and negative association rules in the Apriori algorithm by using cosine correlation analysis. The default and the modified Association Rule Mining algorithm are implemented against the mushroom database to find out the difference of the results. The experimental results showed that the modified Association Rule Mining algorithm could generate negative association rules. The addition of cosine correlation analysis returns a smaller amount of association rules than the amounts of the default Association Rule Mining algorithm. From the top ten association rules, it can be seen that there are different rules between the default and the modified Apriori algorithm. The difference of the obta
... Show MoreObjective The aim of this study was to assess whether serum cytokine levels correlate with clinical periodontal parameters in health or disease.
Materials and Methods Male subjects (40–60 years) with CP (n = 30), CP + CHD (n = 30), and healthy controls (n = 20) had plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing, probing pocket depth (PPD), and clinical attachment level (CAL) evaluated. Serum IL-1β and IL-6 levels were quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results PLI, GI, PPD, and CAL were significantly higher in patients with CP + CHD compared to those with CP. Serum levels of IL-1β and IL-6 were also si
The present research design examines the relationship between SCARB1 gene expression and the progression of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in Iraqi patients. The variations in gene expression between patients with CML and healthy controls were investigated. The gender and age correlations with CML patients were included, as was the association of gene expression folding of the SCARB1 gene with clinical data (WBC, RBC, hemoglobin, platelets, and BCR-ABL gene). The results displayed a significant difference in the mean gene expression level (∆Ct) of the CML group when compared to the matching ∆Ct values in the healthy control group. The gene expression folding of the SCARB1 gene indicates considerable changes in expression, wh
... Show MoreThe linear segment with parabolic blend (LSPB) trajectory deviates from the specified waypoints. It is restricted to that the acceleration must be sufficiently high. In this work, it is proposed to engage modified LSPB trajectory with particle swarm optimization (PSO) so as to create through points on the trajectory. The assumption of normal LSPB method that parabolic part is centered in time around waypoints is replaced by proposed coefficients for calculating the time duration of the linear part. These coefficients are functions of velocities between through points. The velocities are obtained by PSO so as to force the LSPB trajectory passing exactly through the specified path points. Also, relations for velocity correction and exact v
... Show MoreResearch on the role of organizational change in easing the organizational conflict focuses for being one of the important topics and relatively modern and which have a significant impact on the future of organizations, so this study was to identify the relationship and the impact of organizational change and of deportation (technological, organizational structure, human resources, the change in the task) at the organizational conflict in the Earth company link Iraq, in order to reach the goals of the research, it has been the development of a questionnaire distributed to a random sample of (100) composed employees from managers and heads of departments and the people and staff at the Earth company link Iraq, the study found: the
... Show MoreAbstract:
Background: Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4), an adipokine that participate in a lipid metabolism or insulin resistance through a complex regulatory network. Recently, RBP4 was reported to be associated with many cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) risk factors in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study aims to study the correlation of serum RBP4 with some markers of glycemic control, dyslipidemia, hypertension and obesity in T2DM Iraqi patients.
Subjects and Methods: one hundred fifty participants were enrolled in this coss-sectional study, 120 of participants were T2DM patients and 30 were apparently healthy individuals to serve as control gro
... Show MoreThe aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between GRIN2A rs387906637 polymorphism and susceptibility to epilepsy. Blood samples were collected from 85 volunteers, dividing into 60 epilepsy patients (34 males and 26 females) and 25 healthy subjects (19 males and 6 females).The DNA was extracted and GRIN2A rs387906637 polymorphism was analyzed by Real-time PCR using two probes and primers. The results showed no significant differences between patients and control samples; therefore, there are no allelic and genotypic correlations of this SNP with epilepsy. This study indicated that GRIN2A rs387906637 polymorphism is not a risk factor for epilepsy in the studied set of patients.