Background: Pharmacists are essential in treating MS. Pharmacists' involvement and patient consultation may improve patient adherence and satisfaction. Aim: To evaluate the influence of pharmacist-led interventions (PLI) on medication adherence and satisfaction in patients with multiple sclerosis receiving disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). Methods: This study was conducted on patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis who were receiving DMTs and attended a neurological consultant clinic in the medical city of Baghdad. It was a pre-post-intervention study. Each patient underwent two educational sessions: the first session took place at the beginning of the study, after completing the Arabic version of the treatment satisfaction questionnaire for medication (TSQM-14item) and the Arabic version of the Morisky, Green, and Levine (MGL-4item) medication adherence scales. The second session occurred one month later. The duration of each session ranged from 30 to 45 minutes, during which the patients received educational counselling. Each patient was provided with a formal Arabic pamphlet. This pamphlet contained medical information about the disease and treatment. Subsequently, after two months, the patient completed the identical questionnaires once again. Results: The participants' average age was 30.64±8.54. PLI had a substantial positive effect on adherence levels, but it did not have a significant impact on medication satisfaction. Significant variations in the educational level and type of treatment were only observed in the changes in treatment satisfaction scores. The degree of response to PLI was not correlated with sociodemographic factors. Conclusion: The implementation of an educational intervention led by a clinical pharmacist can enhance the adherence of patients with multiple sclerosis; however, the change in treatment satisfaction scores was only a minimal change.
Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are the two most important types of anemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Functional iron deficiency in ACD can be attributed to overexpression of the main iron regulatory hormone hepcidin leading to diversion of iron from the circulation into storage sites resulting in iron-restricted erythropoiesis. The aim is to investigate the role of circulating hepcidin and to uncover the frequency of IDA in RA. The study included 51 patients with RA. Complete blood counts, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, ferritin, and hepcidin- 25 were assessed. ACD was found in 37.3% of patients, IDA in 11.8%, and combined (ACD/IDA) in 17.6%. Serum hepcidin was higher in ACD than in con
... Show MoreBreast cancer (BC) is one of the most frequently observed malignancy in females worldwide. Today, tamoxifen (TAM) is considered as the highly effective therapy for treatment of breast tumors. Oxidative stress has implicated strongly in the pathophysiology of malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the changes in the levels of oxidants and antioxidants in patients with newly diagnosed and TAM-treated BC. Sixty newly diagnosed and 60 TAM-treated women with BC and 50 healthy volunteers were included in this study. Parameters including total oxidant capacity (TOC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and catalase (CAT) activity were determined before and after treatment with TAM. The serum levels of TOC and oxidative stress index (OSI) were
... Show Morebackround: job satisfaction greatly determines the productivity and efficiency of human resorces for health job satisfaction in said to be linked with employees work environment
job resposibilties and time pressure among various health professionals
Complement activation leads to membrane attack complex formation, which can lyse not only pathogens but also host cells. Histones can be released from the lysed or damaged cells and serve as a major type of damage-associated molecular pattern, but their effects on the complement system are not clear. In this study, we pulled down two major proteins from human serum using histone-conjugated beads: one was C-reactive protein and the other was C4, as identified by mass spectrometry. In surface plasmon resonance analysis, histone H3 and H4 showed stronger binding to C4 than other histones, with KD around 1 nM. The interaction did not affect C4 cleavage to C4a and C4b. Because histones bin
Quality of e-service is one of the critical factors that decide the success or failure of organizations. It may increase competitive advantages as well as enhance the relationships with the customers. Achieving high e-service quality and user satisfaction are challenging since they depend fundamentally on user perception and expectation which can be tricky at times. To date, there is no agreement as to what service quality is, and how it should be measured, whether it is a function of statistical measures of quality including physical defects or managerial judgment, or it is a function of customer perception about the services. This paper deep-dived the quality of e-services offered b
Background: To evaluate the ISO depth of cure of bulkfill composites and depth of cure which determined by Vickers microhardness test. Materials and Methods: Bulkfill resin composite specimens (n=150) were prepared of three bulkfill composite materials (TetricEvo Ceram, Quixfil and SDR) and light cured by Flash max p3 for 3, 10, 20 seconds and by wood pecker for 10, 20 seconds respectively, a mold was filled with one of the three bulkfill composites and light cured. The specimens removed from the mold and scraped by plastic spatula and the remaining length (absolute length) was measured which represent the ISO depth of cure. After that the specimens were returned into the mold and a microhardness indentation device applied on the specimen
... Show MoreThe term ischemic heart disease (IHD) defines a disease spectrum of diverse etiology, with the common factor being on imbalance between myocardial oxygen supply and demand . Fifty patients (30 male and 20 female) attending Ibn- Al- betar cardic center, the mean age of male was 65 years and 58 years for female were included in the present study , Thirty healthy subjects ( 15 male and 15 female ) of matched age were used as control groups. Some biochemical parameters including lipid and lipoprotein, total cholesterol (TC) , triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL), in addition to lactic acid and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities , were evaluated in the sera of IHD patient groups
... Show MoreBackground: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a significant role in the activation of adaptive immunity and may have an essential role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Objectives: To assess the gene expression of TLR4 in individuals with RA compared to healthy individuals. Methods: From July to December 2022. A total of 100 individuals were encompassed in the study, consisting of 50 individuals diagnosed with RA, of whom 42 were females and 8 were males, with an average age of 45.22 years. Additionally, there were 50 healthy control participants, 40 of whom were females and 10 were males, with an average age of 45.64 years. To assess the TLR4 transcript levels, blood samples were collected from each participant, and RN
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