Background: While warfarin and direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are used to manage thromboembolic events, they possess several features that impact adherence. Objective: To assess medication adherence and self-efficacy in patients receiving warfarin or DOAC treatment. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed at Ibn Al-Bitar Hospital in Baghdad from December 2022 to May 2023 on patients receiving either warfarin or DOACs. The Arabic version of the Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale (ARMS) questionnaire and the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease 6-Item Scale (SES6C) questionnaire were used to assess adherence and self-efficacy. Results: 181 patients were enrolled in the study, of whom 56.9% received warfarin and 43.1% received DOACs. The mean ARMS score was 13.71, and 81.77% of the patients were adherent to anticoagulant therapy. There was a significant difference in adherence between the warfarin and DOAC groups. The mean SES6C score for the participants was 50.01. Patients in the DOAC group had significantly higher self-efficacy compared to those in the warfarin group. The adherence score correlated significantly with patients’ gender, education level, hospitalization and duration of anticoagulant use, while the SES6C score did not correlate with any of the independent variables. There was a significant negative correlation between self-efficacy scores and medication adherence scores. Conclusions: Patients receiving DOACs showed a higher self-efficacy to manage chronic diseases and lower medication adherence as compared to warfarin. Higher self-efficacy was associated with higher adherence to treatment.
Phytomedicine refers to the use of naturally derived products to cure and mitigate human conditions. Natural products have the advantages of causing minimum side effects, being biocompatible, available, and economical, with a wide array of biological activities. Reports have described the use of natural products with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties to treat oral conditions and promote wound healing. Moringa oleifera, known as the “drumstick” or “horseradish” tree, is believed to have medicinal properties regarding a range of medical conditions, though there is limited information on its use in oral medicine. This narrative review focuses on the use of Moringa extracts in the management of oral conditions, incl
... Show MorePsoriasis, a chronic inflammatory dermatological condition, exhibits heterogeneous responses to anti-TNF therapies such as etanercept (ETN), underscoring the need for predictive biomarkers. This study investigated the association of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) gene promoter polymorphisms (rs1143623 C/G, rs752338864 C/G, and rs1143627 C/T) with ETN efficacy in 80 Iraqi patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Patients were categorized according to treatment response: responders achieved ≥ 75% reduction in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), whereas non-responders demonstrated ≤ 50% reduction. Post-treatment serum IL-1β levels were significantly higher in non-responders (50.35 ± 15.81 pg/mL) compared to respo
... Show MoreFumonisin B1 is toxic secondary metabolites compound produced by Fusarium spp. on maize and maize products causes health problems to human and animal. Therefore, this research is planned to study the effect of FB1 on the expression of TLR-2 & 4 in liver and kidney cells of mice. Four group of male mice were orally administrated with single dose of FB1 toxin as the following: 0 ppb, 800 ppb, 1200 ppb and 1600 ppb. After two weeks all animals were sacrificed, liver and kidney autopsies were taken and the level of TLR-2 & 4 detected in each four group by immunohistochemistry technique (IHC). According to the IHC examination of groups (1, 2, 3 and 4) strong expression of TLR2 in liver and kidney were (0%, 33.3%, 100%, 100%), respectively. This
... Show MoreDengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral infection that produces characteristic abnormalities in routine blood tests, yet these hematologic changes are typically analysed separately for each parameter rather than as a combined multivariate profile. This study investigated whether the joint hematologic profile of adult dengue patients in Bangladesh is systematically displaced from healthy adult reference values. We analysed a cohort of laboratory-confirmed adult dengue cases from a Bangladeshi hospital and focused on four core hematologic indices: haemoglobin, white blood cell count, platelet count, and platelet distribution width (PDW). External adult reference means were used to define a healthy location vector, and robust multivariate infer
... Show MoreBackground: Temporomandibular joint disorders refer to a group of heterogeneous pain and dysfunction conditions involving the masticatory system, reducing life quality of the sufferers. Arthrocentesis is simple and less invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of internal derangement than arthroscopy and better than other conservative procedures such as drugs, occlusal appliances and physiotherapy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of arthrocentesis with injection of hyaluronic acid in the treatment of internal derangement of temporomandibular joint for the restoration of its function, reducing pain and preventing further deterioration of the temporomandibular joint dysfunction. Materials and methods: This study was perfo
... Show MoreEcological risk assessment of mercury contaminant has a means to analyze the ecological risk aspect of ecosystem using the potential impact of mercury pollution in soil, water and organism. The ecological risk assessment in a coastal area can be shown by mangrove zonation, clustering and interpolation of mercury accumulation. This research aims to analyze ecological risk assessment of potential mercury (including bioaccumulation and translocation) using indicators of species distribution, clustering, zonation and interpolation of mercury accumulation. The results showed that the Segara Anakan had a high risk of mercury pollution, using indicators like as the potential of mercury contaminant in water body was 0137±0.0137 ppm, substrate a
... Show MoreThe current study aimed to isolate and diagnose the fungi associated with the inflammatory bowel disease patients with 150 samples distributed between 50 samples from Crohn's patients and 50 samples from ulcerative colitis patients, 50 control from Al-Kindy Al Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Baghdad. Five types of yeast were isolated and identified, namely C. albicans, C.glabarta, Tropicales, C. parapsilosis, C. and C., krusi C. parapsilosis and.and Aspergillus, Penicillium, Muocer, Rhizopous, Saccharomycosis, and Cryptococcus, The results indicated the dominance of Candida spp. In crohn’s disease, the frequency of isolated Candida albicans was 24 (58.54%), Candida glabrata 11 (26.86%), Candida tropicalis 5 (12.2%) and Candida krusi was 1 (
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