BACKGROUND: Febrile neutropenia occurs in more than 80% of patients with hematological malignances specially after chemotherapy cycles and an infectious source is identified in approximately 20–30%. Various bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogen contribute to the development of neutropenic fever and without prompt antibiotic therapy mortality rate can be as high as 70%. AIM: The objective of the study was to document the current sites of infection in patients with febrile neutropenia in hematological ward in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, the microorganisms and antibiotic susceptibly in culture positive cases and mortality rate in 1 week and 4 weeks after episode of fever. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred cases of febrile neutrop

Medulloblastomas and ependymomas are the most common malignant brain tumors in children. However genetic abnormalities associated with their development and prognosis remain unclear. Recently two gene fusions, KIAA1549–BRAF and SRGAP3–RAF1 have been detected in a number of brain tumours. We report here our development and validation of RT-RQPCR assays to detect various isoforms of these two fusion genes in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues of medulloblastoma and ependymoma. We examined these fusion genes in 44 paediatric brain tumours, 33 medulloblastomas and 11 ependymomas. We detected both fusion transcripts in 8/33, 5/33 SRGAP3 ex10/RAF1 ex10, and 3/33 KIAA1549 ex16/BRAF ex9, meduloblastomas but none in the 11 ep

Background: Antimicrobial agents have been considered as having potential for the prevention of dental caries. This study aimed to test the effect of different concentrations of cardamom and black tea extracts on the sensitivity and growth of salivary mutans streptococci in comparison to chlorhexidine gluconate (0.2%) in vitro. Materials and methods: In this study. Mutans streptococci were isolated from saliva of 34 healthy people (aged between 22-40yrs). The bacteria was isolated, purifiedand diagnosed according to morphologicalcharacteristic and biochemical tests. Aqueous extracts of cardamom and black tea were prepared. Different concentrations of extracts were prepared and estimated in gm/ 100ml deionized water. The agar diffusion techn

Background: Calcium hydroxide and calcium-silicate materials used as direct pulp capping materials. The aims of this in vitro study is to compare among these materials in, the calcium ion release and pH change in soaking water after immersion of materials’ specimens in deionized water. Also Solubility and water sorption of materials’ specimens measured after soaking time. Calcium-silicate materials used were Biodentine, TheraCal and MTA Plus. Materials and methods: Four materials used in this study; Urbical lining (as control group), Biodentine, TheraCal and MTA Plus. Ten discs fabricated from each tested material, by using plastic moulds of 9 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. Each specimen was immersed in 10 ml of d

Background: Although methotrexate (MTX) is a frequently used chemotherapy drug, its effectiveness is sometimes hampered by the drug's toxic consequences. Omega 7 is a monounsaturated fatty acid, with different anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic anti-obesity applications, and its possible protective effects against MTX-induced blood toxicity were investigated in this study. Objective: Evaluation of possible protective effects of omega7 against MTX-induced blood toxicity. Methods: 30 mice were divided into five groups, the First group take liquid paraffin orallyfor 7 days for served as negative control and the second group take methotrexate (20mg/kg) intraperitoneallyto serve as a positive control,the third group takes omega 7 (100mg/kg

ABSTRACT Background: stress is the reactions of the body to forces of a deleterious nature, infections and various abnormal states that tend to disturb its normal physiological equilibrium; It is described as adverse emotions or reactions to unpleasant experiences; Thus, any real or perceived physical, social, or psychological event or stimulus that causes bodies to react or respond have deleterious effects on the general and oral health. The aims of this study were to assess the severity of dental caries among the students with different categories of stressful life events in relation to physicochemical characteristics of whole stimulated saliva. Materials and Methods: the total sample is composed of 300 students (males only) aged 17-18 ye

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease its etiology is unknown. The classical autoimmune diseases, have adaptive immune genetic associations with autoantibodies and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), diabetes mellitus type two (DM II). Serum of99 males suffering from RA without DMII as group (G1), 45 males suffering from RA with DM II as group (G2) and 40 healthy males as group (G3) were enrolled in this study to estimation of alkaline phosphates (ALP), C-reactive protein (CRP) and Pentraxin-3(PTX). Results showed a highly significant increase in PTX3 levels in G1 and G2 compared to G3 and a significant decrease in G1comparing to G2. Results also revealed a significa

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant neoplasm of the oral mucosa. Human papillomavirus (HPV) virus cause a broad scope of diseases from benign to invasive tumors, types 16 and 18 classified as carcinogenic to humans. This study aimed to provide the first molecular characterization of HPV types in Iraq. Thirty-five unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected from histopathologically confirmed patients with oral cancer were enrolled in this study. Genomic DNA was extracted from exfoliating cells to amplify HPV-DNA using HPV-L1 gene sequence primers by polymerase chain reaction method (PCR), the viral genotyping was performed using direct sequencing method. HPV genotypes identified were deposited in Gen

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