Background: Acute appendicitis is a common surgical
problem that is associated with an acute-phase reaction.
Previous studies have shown that cytokines and acutephase proteins are activated and may serve as indicators for
appendicitis.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate of serum
levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in correlation to the severity
to acute appendicitis.
Methods: This is a prospective study from December 2008
to March 2009 of patients who had appendectomy in
Department of Surgery, Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital -
Baghdad/Iraq. Serum for estimating levels of interleukin-6
(IL-6) was taken pre-operatively. Depending on the
macroscopic evidence during the operation and the
histopathological examination of the specimens, the
patients were separated into 3 groups, group one with
negative appendectomy (normal appendix), group two with
non-complicated acute appendicitis (catarrhal,
suppurative), and group three with complicated acute
appendicitis (perforated, gangrenous). The
histopathological results were correlated with IL-6 values
statistically.
Results: A total number of 50 patients were included in
this study, 28 male (56%) and 22 female (44%). The mean
age was 23 year (ranged from 7 to 50). On histological
examination, there were 7 patients (14%) in group one, 29
patients (58%) in group two, and 14 patients (28%) in
group three. Serum IL-6 values gave true negative results
in 6%, true positive results in 82%, false negative results in
4%, and false positive results in 8%. We determined,
therefore, in the present study the sensitivity, specificity,
and accuracy of serum IL-6 were calculated as 95.34%,
42.85%, and 88% respectively.
Conclusion: Laboratory results should be considered to be
integrated within the clinical assessment. If used critically,
IL-6 can provide surgeons with complementary
information in discerning the necessity for urgent
operation
During the syrvey on natural enemies of whiteflies in Iraq, the following. predators were recorded.
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are events that suddenly, inadvertently and unexpectedly occur under unforeseen circumstances that involve at least one moving vehicle and result in one or more road users being killed or injured. Unfortunately, Iraqi governorates suffer from higher rates of traffic accident casualties compared with the rates of casualties from terrorist attacks; this situation reveals a serious and growing problem. Road traffic accidents are not easy to eradicate. However, their prevalence can be reduced to the barest minimum via periodic assessments of traffic accident characteristics and the most important aspects for road authorities to consider when designing and evaluating the performance of a road to improve traf
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(7)
Background: Melatonin is the main hormone secreted by the pineal gland. This indole compound (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is derived from serotonin after two biochemical steps. Melatonin has been implicated in some pharmacological effects including sedative/hypnotic, anticonvulsant activity and others. The aim of this study was to investigate the antinociceptive effect of different doses of melatonin administered i.p. to mice, and then, to find the dose- response line of melatonin in mice as analgesic agent.
Methods: The dose response effect of melatonin (10, 50, and 100mg/kg) were assessed against control using tail flick test in mice as a model of nociceptive pain. In this model, all doses of melatonin were given intraperitoneally
Back ground : Fever is a common medical problem in
children. parents have been shown unrealistic fears of
harmful effects of fever in their children. Resulting in
inappropriate management of fever in their children.
Objective: the objective of this study was to survey
parents about their knowledge andattitude concerning fever
in their children.
Methods : The study involved random selection of
parents who brought their febrile children to emergency
department or out-patient clinics of five teaching and non
teaching hospitals in Baghdad from first of October to end
of December 2002.
Parents of 400 febrile children were interviewed using a
standard questionnaire to obtain sociodemographic
informatio
This study presents a comprehensive list of the freshwater and marine bivalves distributed in Iraq. A total of 51 species were recorded, and distributed as: 14 freshwater species, and 37 marine species, these species belonging to 25 families, all available remarks on the distribution, taxonomy, and nomenclature of these species were given. This study included the recently collected specimens along with those previously studied and recorded in Iraq.
(1)
(2)
Background: Ameloblastoma is the most common clinically significant odontogenic tumor, known for its locally invasive potential and frequent recurrences unless treated radically. Endocan is a soluble proteoglycan which is reported to have prognostic implications in multiple human diseases and tumors. This study aims to describe the expression of endocan in ameloblastoma. Materials and methods: With immunoperoxidase method; tissue sections of formalin fixed- paraffin embedded blocks for ameloblastomas were stained with monoclonal antibodies to endocan, the localization of the endocan expression was examined and the resulting scores of the tissue sections were analyzed according to age, sex, site and tumor subtype. Results: endocan was found
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This study focuses on the relative frequency of Streptococcus pneumoniae in children with culture-proven bacterial meningitis. The epidemiology has been investigated with clinical and laboratory findings in The Central Public Health Laboratory, Iraq from April to September, 2010. From (138) samples , (55) cases (39.85 %) were diagnosed by physician as bacterial meningitis, (23) cases (16.66 %) as viral menginitis , (18) cases (13.04 %) as different medical cases (e.g febrile convulsion , meningoencephalitis , epilepsy …etc) and (42) cases (30.43 %) as unidentified medical cases. For bacterial meningitis S.pneumoniae was isolated from (10) cases (18.18 %) only. The median age for bacterial meningitis was (130.75) month and the predomina
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