Background: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res

Background: Studies discussing the correlation between biochemical markers of bone turnover and the diagnosis of osteoporosis in postmenopausal Iraqi women are rare. This study is devoted to find out the significance of serum osteocalcin (OC) and osteopontin (OPN) levels with the incidence of osteoporosis and its major complication (fracture).Objectives: to investigate the significance of bone turnover biochemical markers; serum osteocalcin and serum osteopontin in evaluating osteoporosis for postmenopausal Iraqi women with and without history of vertebral fracture, as well as to explore the relationship of these markers with bone mineral density (BMD).Methods: Fifty seven postmenopausal women whose ages are fifty years old and over, cat

Simulation of free convection heat transfer in a square enclosure induced by heated thin plate is represented numerically. All  the enclosure walls have constant temperature lower than the plate’s temperature. The flow is assumed to be two-dimensional. The discretized equations were solved stream function, vorticity, and energy equations by finite difference method using explicit technique and Successive Over- Relaxation method. The study was performed for different values of Rayleigh number ranging from 10³ to 10⁵ for different angle position of heated thin plate(0°, 45°, 90°). Air was chosen as a working fluid (Pr = 0.71). Aspect ratio of center of plate to the parallel left wall A₂

Galvanic corrosion of stainless steel 316 (SS316) and carbon steel (CS) coupled in 5% wt/v sulfuric acid solution at agitation velocity was investigated. The galvanic behavior of coupled metals was also studied using zero resistance ammeter (ZRA) method. The effects of agitation velocity, temperature, and time on galvanic corrosion current and loss in weight of both metals in both free corrosion and galvanic corrosion were investigated. The trends of open circuit potential (OCP) of each metal and galvanic potential (E_g) of the couple were, also, determined. Results showed that SS316 was cathodic relative to CS in galvanic couple and its OCP was much more positive than that of CS for all investigated ranges of

The present study combines UV-Vis spectrophotometry and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) for the preconcentration and determination of trace level clidinium bromide (Clid) in pharmaceutical preparation and real samples. The method is based on ion-pair formation between Clid and bromocresol green in aqueous solution using citrate buffer (pH = 3). The colored product was first extracted using a mixture of 800 µL acetonitrile and 300 µL chloroform solvents. Then, a spectrophotometric measurement of sediment phase was performed at λ = 420 nm. The important parameters affecting the efficiency of DLLME were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graphs of standard -1 (Std.), drug, urine and serum were ranged

Background: Hand, foot, and mouth disease is viral disease caused commonly by coxsackie virus A₁₆ virus. It is a mild disease and children usually recover with no specific treatment within 7 to 10 days. Rarely, this illness may be associated with aseptic meningitis were patient may need hospitalization.

Objective: To determine significance of clinical features of hand, foot and mouth disease.

Methods: A cross sectional study of cases with clinical features of hand, foot and mouth disease visiting the dermatological consultation unit of Al Kindy teaching hospital. Sampling was for Zyona and Edressi Quarter patients over the period of 1^st December 2017

The present study aimed to investigate the morphological description and histological structure of Gallbladder in the adult local chicken bird. The morphological description and histological structure of the Gallbladder in the local chicken Gallus gallus domesticus found in the form of a cystic, spindle or pear-shaped, dark green color, located within the visceral abdominal side of the right lobe of the liver, histologically it was found that its wall consisted of three tunicae. The first tunica is mucosa which consists of an epithelial lining layer and lamina propria layer, while the muscularis mucosa was missing. The second tunica is musclaris, which is composed of smooth circularly arranged muscle fibers, and the third tunica is serosa o

Background: Ultrasound guided core needle biopsy is becoming a gold standard in the work up of suspicious breast lesion. In Iraq, radiologists are not taking the lead in core needle biopsy performance.

Objectives: To evaluate the radiologist performance of core needle biopsy highlighting the precession and accuracy of the procedure, the concordance of ultrasound and histopathology, and identifying challenges facing the radiologist during the procedure.

Subjects and Methods: A prospective study involving a total of 50 patients with ultrasound (US) BIRADS IV or V.  Ultrasound guided core needle biopsy was performed for each patient. Surgical pathol