Background: Oxidative stress is a deleterious process that can be an important mediator of damage to cell structures and consequently various disease states. Exposure to free radicals from a variety of sources has led organisms to produce a series of defense mechanisms. The antioxidant ceruloplasmin is a copper-containing ferroxidase that can oxidize ferrous iron (Fe2+) to its nontoxic ferric (Fe3+) form. Ferrous iron (Fe2+) is extremely damaging because of its ability to generate toxic free radicals. Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory oral mucosal disease of unknown etiology. Previous studies reported that reactive oxygen species may be involved in the pathogenesis of lichen planus. The aim of this study was to estimate the role of oxidative stress in pathogenesis of OLP through the study of serum and saliva ceruloplasmin as a marker of antioxidant status. Methods: Forty eight patients with histologically confirmed OLP by oral pathologist were included in this study. The sample group was split up in to two groups according to the clinical presentation of the lesions, 21 patients with reticular formation and 27 patients with erosive form together with 32 healthy looking volunteers that were age-matched with the patients. Serum and saliva ceruloplasmin activity was determined by oxidation of P-Phenylenediamine to give a blue - violet color that measured spectrophotometricaly at 525 NM. Results: Statistically, there was a substantial increase in serum and saliva ceruloplasmin levels of OLP patients group as compared to controls (p<0.01) and there was no statistically significant differences in serum and saliva ceruloplasmin when compared between reticular and erosive forms (p>0.05). The study showed that there was no statistically significant correlation between serum and saliva ceruloplasmin levels in OLP patients group (r=-0.029, p>0.05). Conclusion: Oxidative status play a role in the pathogenesis of oral lichen planus represented by increased serum and saliva ceruloplasmin levels.
Psoriasis is a long-lasting autoimmune disease that is characterized by swollen skin patches. Normally, these skin patches are dark, swollen, itchy and scaly. The single application of the innate TLR7/8 ligand Imiquimod (IMQ) in mice easily induces a dermatitis that closely resembles human psoriasis, critically dependent on the axis of IL-23/IL-17. Artemisia dracunculus prepared as an ointment and has been used topically to mice before imiquimod application. The results of the current study showed that A. dracunculus ointment can significantly reduce psoriasis area and severity index in (A. dracunculus ointment + imiquimod group as compared with both control group and (vehicle ointment + imiquimod) group.
(2)
(2)
Background: The appointment system is a common practice in primary health care clinics in developed countries. The patients and health care providers in the primary health care setting perceived the appointment system as an indicator of good quality service.
Objective: The aim of this study was to survey patients’ and health care providers’ attitudes towards the introduction of an appointment system and their satisfaction with the existing ‘walk-in’ system in the primary health care setting.
Subjects and Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted included a convenient sample of 234 patients as well as 76 health care providers from two primary health care center
... Show More
(1)
Long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) mostly associated with renal and hepatic adverse effects, and the adjunct use of compounds with potent protective effects, like silymarin, may be one of the choices to avoid these effects. This project was designed to evaluate the protective effect of silymarin against the suspected renal and hepatic injury induced with long term use of NSAIDs; 220 patients with osteoarthritis were randomized into 5 groups and treated with either silymarin 300mg/day alone, piroxicam 20mg/day alone, meloxicam 15mg/day alone or the combination of each of them with silymarin for 8 weeks. The renal and hepatic functions were evaluated before starting treatment and after 8 weeks including assessm
... Show More
Background: Refractory/relapsed acute leukemia has always been a challenging problem for hematologist. Over the past decade emphasis has been made in the development of regimens containing fludarabine, combined with cytosine arabinoside for the treatment of refractory/relapsed acute leukemias. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of the combination of fludarabine, high dose cytarabine, and granulocyte colony stimulating factor in refractory relapsed cases of acute leukaemia,
Methods: a prospective study is being conducted at the national center of hematology and hematology unit /Baghdad teaching hospital from July 2008 to July 2010.Twenty Patients with refractory/relapsed acute leukemia were treated with flud
Self-assessment is a process of formative assessment during which teachers reflect on and evaluate the quality of their work, decide the degree to which they reflect explicitly stated goals or criteria, identify strengths and weaknesses in their work, and revise accordingly. The present study is an attempt to find out the SA of Iraqi English language teachers. The sample consists of 100 teachers in Baghdad. An inventory of many domains distributed to the teachers, they are, routines, expectations, language, time, opportunities, physical environment, and interactions. The results show that the EFL teachers practice four domains of SA they are: routines, physical environment, time, and language.
(1)
Objective: To assess the fear of laboring women regarding the delivery on themselves and their
newborns.
Methodology : A descriptive study was conducted on (100) pregnant women who where admitted to
labor room in Al- Yarmock Teaching Hospital/Maternity Units, Fatima Al- Zahra and Ibn-Al Baladi
Maternity and Pediatric Hospital. The questionnaire was consisted of pregnant women
socio-demographic data, reproductive data and fear items of labor. Data were collected by using a
questionnaire format, through interview technique and reviewing pregnant records, descriptive and
inferential statistical procedure were used to analyze the data.
Results: The main results of the study revealed a high mean of scores with moderate
Recently new concepts such as free data or Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) emerged on Web 2.0 technologies. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is one of the most representative projects of this trend. Geospatial data from different source often has variable accuracy levels due to different data collection methods; therefore the most concerning problem with (OSM) is its unknown quality. This study aims to develop a specific tool which can analyze and assess the possibility matching of OSM road features with reference dataset using Matlab programming language. This tool applied on two different study areas in Iraq (Baghdad and Karbala), in order to verify if the OSM data has the same quality in both study areas. This program, in general, consists
... Show MoreThe study focuses on assessment of the quality of some image enhancement methods which were implemented on renal X-ray images. The enhancement methods included Imadjust, Histogram Equalization (HE) and Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE). The images qualities were calculated to compare input images with output images from these three enhancement techniques. An eight renal x-ray images are collected to perform these methods. Generally, the x-ray images are lack of contrast and low in radiation dosage. This lack of image quality can be amended by enhancement process. Three quality image factors were done to assess the resulted images involved (Naturalness Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE), Perception based Image Qual
... Show More
Objective(s): The aim of this study was to assess the severity of anemia among children under 5 years and to find
out relationship between severity of anemia in children with socio-demographic variables such as: child gender,
age, supplement diet, hookworm, pica, parent's education level, father's and mother's occupation, and family
monthly income with severity of anemia
Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted at the primary health care centers in Alsadr city
for the period of 1
st July 2011 to the 1st November 2011.Non probability (purposive) sample of (630) children who
aged under 5 years and who attended to primary health care centers of Alsadr city. The data were collected
through using
(8)
(11)
