Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a prevalent clinical condition, that affects millions of individuals worldwide. Objective: To assess the level of soluble HLA-E (sHLA-E) as a biomarker in the diagnosis and immunopathogenesis of GERD patients. Methods: The case-control prospective study included 40 GERD patients who were consulted at the Gastroenterology Unit of AlKindy Teaching Hospital, as along with 40 healthy control subjects. The study period extended from January 2023 to May 2024. Blood was drawn from both groups and serum was separated to assesssHLA-E using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in sHLA-E levels between GERD patients and healthy controls (P=0.021). The median sHLA-E level was significantly higher in GERD patients (0.370 ng/mL) compared to controls (0.148 ng/mL). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated to evaluate the diagnostic performance of soluble HLA-E (sHLA-E) in predicting GERD. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated to assess the discriminatory ability of sHLA-E with a vlue of 0.649 (95% CI: 0.534-0.752, p = 0.021). The optimal cutoff value for sHLA-E was determined to be ≤0.65 ng/mL, with a sensitivity of 85.1%, specificity of 27.3%, positive predictive value of 65.9%, negative predictive value of 69.4%, and accuracy of 35.0%. Conclusion: The study provides evidence of an association between elevated sHLA-E levels and GERD. It also suggests that sHLA-E has a moderate discriminatory ability as a biomarker in predicting GERD. © 2025, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.
To assess the effect of Nigella sativa oil as a topical preparation for treatment of oro- genital ulceration of Behcet's disease. This is a double blinded therapeutic trial in which 40 patients with Behcet's disease manifested as recurrent episodes of oral and genital ulceration were enrolled into 2 groups; Nigella sativa oil was applied as 10% in glycerin topically 3 times / daily to the first 20 patients. The other 20 were given glycerin only. Assessment was done 4 days then 8 days after treatment.Results were recorded as they appeared in clinical examination and those records were arranged in tables for both groups concerning oral and genital ulceration cases.Nigella sativa oil is a new topical agent for promotion of healing of o
... Show MoreThe haplotype association analysis has been proposed to capture the collective behavior of sets of variants by testing the association of each set instead of individual variants with the disease.Such an analysis typically involves a list of unphased multiple-locus genotypes with potentially sparse frequencies in cases and controls.It starts with inferring haplotypes from genotypes followed by a haplotype co-classification and marginal screening for disease-associated haplotypes.Unfortunately,phasing uncertainty may have a strong effects on the haplotype co-classification and therefore on the accuracy of predicting risk haplotypes.Here,to address the issue,we propose an alternative approach:In Stage 1,we select potential risk genotypes inste
... Show MoreBackground: The normal decline in systolic blood pressure during recovery phase of treadmill exercise dose not occur in most patients with coronary artery disease, in others recovery values systolic blood pressure may even exceed the peak exercise value. Objectives: Treadmill exercise test parameters indicating the presence and extent of coronary artery disease have traditionally included such as exercise duration, blood pressure and ST-segment response to exercise. The three –minute systolic blood pressure ratio is another important indicator of presence and significance of coronary artery disease is useful and obtainable measure that can be applied in all patients who are undergoing stress testing for evaluation of suspected is
... Show MoreThe sunflower plants are attacked by serious seed and soil-borne pathogens including charcoal rot disease that caused by
Morphological and molecular identification was done, using universal primers for molecular identification. Finally, a greenhouse experiment was conducted, and
Background :Atherosclerosis is the most
frequent underlying cause of ischemic heart
disease and a major cause of death all over the
world. This study was carried out to analyze and
compare the angiographic findings in patients
with diabetes mellitus versus non diabetics with
coronary heart disease , and to correlate these
findings with some risk factors for coronary
heart disease.
Methods: A total of 100 patients were studied,
50 with diabetes mellitus, and 50 non diabetics.
This study was carried out at Al-Sadr teaching
hospital in Basrah, Southern Iraq during the
period April 2009- September 2009. All patients
were known to have coronary heart disease. Risk
factors for coronary heart disease
Background: Congenital cardiac defects have a wide spectrum of severity in infants. About 30-40% of patients with congenital cardiac defects will be symptomatic in the 1st year of life, while the diagnosis was established in 60% of patients by the 1st month of age.
Objectives: To identify the occurrence of specific types of CHD among hospitalized patients and to evaluate of growth of patients by different congenital heart lesions.
Methods: A retrospective study, done on ninety-six patients (51 male and 45 female) with congenital heart disease (CHD) admitted to central teaching hospital of pediatrics, Baghdad from 1st September 2009 to 30
Objectives Bromelain is a potent proteolytic enzyme that has a unique functionality makes it valuable for various therapeutic purposes. This study aimed to develop three novel formulations based on bromelain to be used as chemomechanical caries removal agents. Methods The novel agents were prepared using different concentrations of bromelain (10–40 wt. %), with and without 0.1–0.3 wt. % chloramine T or 0.5–1.5 wt. % chlorhexidine (CHX). Based on the enzymatic activity test, three formulations were selected; 30 % bromelain (F1), 30 % bromelain-0.1 % chloramine (F2) and 30 % bromelain-1.5 % CHX (F3). The assessments included molecular docking, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), viscosity and pH measurements. The efficiency
... Show MoreBackground: Imaging has a critical role in the diagnosis and evaluation of cardiac diseases, beginning with chest radiography and fluoro-scopy and progressing to coronary angio-graphy, echocardiography, nuclear medicine and recently multidetector computed tomo-graphy (MDCT) as well as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging
Objective: To highlight the role of Multi-detector CT in the evaluation of coronary artery disease and its importance of being noninvasive diagnostic technique.
Methods: A cross sectional study for 20 patients. Patients were asked to fast 6 hours prior to the examination and the patients with heart rates above 65 beats per minute were given cardio-
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