Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists’ therapy are expensive and has a non-responsive rate between 30% to 40% in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Genetic variation plays a vital role in the responsiveness to this type of therapy.The aim of this study is to investigate if the presence of genetic polymorphism in the TNF-α gene promoter region at locations -376 G/A (rs1800750), -806 C/T (rs4248158), and -1031 T/C (rs1799964) affects rheumatoid arthritis patient's tendency to be a non-responder to etanercept.

Eighty RA patients on etanercept (ETN) for at least six months were recruited from the Rheumatology Unit at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Based on The European League Against Rheumatism response (EULAR) criteria, patient

        This study included a group of (15) chronic renal failure patients (CRF), an addition group of (15) healthy individual  was concluded in this study for control. Trace and essential elements ( Zn, Cu , Ca , K , Na) were measured by atomic absorption and flam analyzer in sera of CRF patients pre and post dialysis and control groups. The results showed a significant ( p < 0.05) increase in Zn and k+ concentration in sera of CRF patients pre and post dialysis compared to the control group. While there is a significant decrease for copper concentration in sera of CRF patients pre and post dialysis compared to the control group.       There was no significant alte

The main purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the concentrations of six essential metals (Na⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Fe²⁺ and Zn²⁺) in saffron and a farm soil using the neutron activation analysis (NAA) as a nuclear spectrometry method. The stratified random sampling method was used here. The NAA results showed the well uptake of Mg²⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Fe²⁺, and Zn²⁺ in saffron, which is lower than the toxicity range. Based on the contamination factor and geoaccumulation index, soil contamination levels were determined uncontaminated by Zn, moderately contaminated by Na⁺ and Fe²⁺, and strongly contamin

This research was conducted to determine content levels of heavy metal pollution. Samples taken from Ishaqi River bank and adjacent agricultural soils area, in ten sites, distributed along 48 km of the Ishaqi River, north Baghdad. The evaluated metals were Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Chromium, Cadmium, Vanadium and Lead. PH and Electric Conductivity (EC) were measured to evaluate the acidity and (EC). Results showed that most site were contaminated with metals evaluated. Among these metals, Zn, Mn, Fe and Ni were consistently higher in all the samples (both river bank and adjacent soil) followed by PB, CU, V, Cd, Co and Cr. The level concentrations of river bank were almost higher than that of adjacent soil. As will be re

Hypertension is identified as one of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). There is growing evidence showing that oxidative stress plays a major role in hypertension. Increased production of reactive oxygen species and decrease bioavailability of antioxidant have been demonstrated in experimental and human hypertension. The present study was directed to determine the beneficial effect of the antioxidant vitamin C in patients with essential hypertension treated with the calcium channel blocker (amlodipine) or with the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (enalapril). Ninety six patients (50 females and 46 males) with essential hyp

This study examined the effect of essential oils extracted from peel of Citrus paradisi and Citrus sinensis on two species of fungi: Penicillium oxalicum and Fusarium oxysporum as well as effect of two fungicides: Carbendazim and Thiophanatemethyl against above fungi. Results showed that the essential oil of Citrus paradisi inhibited the radial growth of Penicillium oxalicum and Fusarium oxysporum at concentration 4%. Nevertheless, the essential oil of Citrus sinensis inhibited the radial growth at concentration 5 and 4%, respectively. Furthermore, the two studied fungicides inhibited radial growth of these fungi too. Therefore, there are a positive relationship between the evaluating of concentration and the percentage of inhibiting of rad

Tests were performed on Marshall samples and were implemented for permanent deformation and resilient modulus (Mr) under indirect tensile repeated loading (ITRL), with constant stress level. Two types of liquid asphalt (cutback and emulsion) were tried as recycling agents, aged materials that were reclaimed from field (100% RAP), samples were prepared from the aged mixture, and two types of liquid asphalt (cutback and emulsion) with a weight content of 0.5% were utilized to prepare a recycled mixture. A group of twelve samples was prepared for each mixture; six samples were tested directly for ITRL test (three samples at 25˚C and three samples at 40˚C), an average value for ITRL for every three samples was calculated (

In this paper we prove the boundedness of the solutions and their derivatives of the second order ordinary differential equation x ?+f(x) x ?+g(x)=u(t), under certain conditions on f,g and u. Our results are generalization of those given in [1].