Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. The treatment guidelines recommend theuse of a second controller drug in addition to medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) rather than the use of high doses ICS alone in the treatment of moderate-severe persistent asthma. This study was conducted to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of three treatment regimens in Iraqi patients with moderate-severe persistent asthma.The study included three groups; each group included 15 patients. Patients were administered beclomethasone inhaler alone 1500-2000 μg/day, beclomethasone inhaler 750-1000 μg/day plus oral controlled release aminophylline tablets 450 mg/day or beclomethasone inhaler 750-1000 μg/dayplus oral montelukast tablets 10 mg/day for 4-5 weeks. Patients were followed 2 weeks and 4-5 weeks after the baseline visit. In all of the three groups,significant improvements were noticed in pulmonary function test parameters (FEV1, FVC, FEF50%) and the asthma symptom records (day-time symptoms,night-time symptoms, number of salbutamol puffs per 24 hours), while there were no significant differences among the groups. Regarding side effects, onlythe group of inhaled steroid plus aminophylline tablets showed discontinuation of drug therapy in some patients which could be attributed to the development of serious side effects.It was concluded that the administration of a second controller agent was important to use lower doses of inhaled beclomethasone. It was concluded alsothat montelukast was associated with a lower incidence of serious side effects than aminophylline which could make aminophylline an alternative to montelukast as combination therapy with medium doses ICS in the treatment of moderate-severe persistent asthma
Background: since December 2019, China and in particularly Wuhan, faced an unprecedented an outbreak challenge of coronavirus disease 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Clinical characteristics of Iraqi patients with COVID-19 and risk factors for mortality needed to be shared with the health care providers to improve the overall disease experience. Methods: prospective, single-center study recruited patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted to Al-Shifaa Isolation Center / Baghdad Medical City between the mid of March and the end of April 2020 until had been discharged or had died. Demographic data, information on clinical signs, symptoms, at presentation, treatment, have been collected
... Show MoreIn this research, the covariance estimates were used to estimate the population mean in the stratified random sampling and combined regression estimates. were compared by employing the robust variance-covariance matrices estimates with combined regression estimates by employing the traditional variance-covariance matrices estimates when estimating the regression parameter, through the two efficiency criteria (RE) and mean squared error (MSE). We found that robust estimates significantly improved the quality of combined regression estimates by reducing the effect of outliers using robust covariance and covariance matrices estimates (MCD, MVE) when estimating the regression parameter. In addition, the results of the simulation study proved
... Show MoreBackground: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most common diagnoses in hospitalized patients. Increased plasma hemostatic markers were noted in acute myocardial infarction, indicating that the blood coagulation system is highly activated in those patients. Aims of the study: To study the level of intrinsic coagulation factors including (FVIII:C, FIX:C ,FXI:C ,FXII:C ) in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Type of the study: Cross –sectional study. Methods: Thirty patients (their age range is 48-68 years) were included in this study (9 female, 21 male) who were just admitted to the coronary care unit in AL-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital and diagnosed as having acute myocardial infarction patients, blood samples were tak
... Show MoreOral carcinoma is the 6th most common cancer in the world. MicroRNAs are small non-coding single stranded RNAs. They have been shown to be capable of altering mRNA expression; thus some are oncogenic or tumor suppressive in nature. The salivary microRNA-31 has been proposed as a sensitive marker for oral malignancy since it was abundant in saliva more than in plasma. A total of 55 whole saliva samples were collected from 35 cases diagnosed with OC their ages and gender matched with 20 healthy subjects. TaqManq RT-PCR was performed for RNA samples. Mean age was 52.23+13.73 years in cases (range:17-70 years) with male predominance represented 69%. Risk of smoking and alcoholism was highly significant. The median fold change of miR-31 was sign
... Show MoreProstate cancer is an important and potentially fatal disease in humans. Both genetic and environmental risk factors are associated with increased risk of prostate cancer among Asian pop
This study aimed to compare lysyl oxidase-1 level in diabetic patients with and without renal dysfunction, that LOX-1 may be an indicator for the early stage of diabetic nephropathy (DN). In addition to finding it is a relationship with kidney functions in Iraqi diabetic patients with and without renal dysfunction. Blood was obtained from 25 healthy individuals as a control group (G1), 25 diabetic patients with renal dysfunction, and 25 diabetic patients without renal dysfunction. Age range 40-60 years for all subjects. BMI (25-27) Kg/m2 . The serum was used for the analysis of LOX-1, FBG, urea, creatinine and uric acid. Whole blood is used for the determination of HbA1C. Results of FBG and HbA1C revealed a significant increase in G2 and G
... Show MoreBenign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most common disease and major cause of morbidity in elderly men which may lead to bladder outflow obstruction and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Although sex steroid hormones play fundamental roles in prostate growth, their clinical significance is not completely clear. In the present study we assessed whether serum hormones levels as markers of prostate disease. This study includes (40) patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy and (40) control group with age rang (41-79) and (42-71) years respectively. The following biochemical investigations have been studied: Testosterone, Estradiol (E2), and Prostatic Specific Antigen (PSA) levels using ELISA method which correlated with t
... Show Moreالخلفية: التهاب المفاصل الرَثَيَانِي أو الداء الرثياني أو الالتهاب المفصلي الروماتويدي هو مرض مزمن، من الأمراض الانضدادية التي تؤدي بالجهاز المناعي لمهاجمة المفاصل، مسببة التهابات وتدميرًا لها. ومن الممكن أيضًا أن يدمر جهاز المناعة أعضاء أخرى في الجسم مثل الرئتين والجلد. وفي بعض الحالات، يسبب المرض الإعاقة، مؤدية إلى فقدان القدرة على الحركة والإنتاجية. ويتم تشخيص المرض بواسطة تحاليل دم مخبرية مثل تحلي
... Show MoreBackground: Recent research indicates that persistent inflammatory responses may contribute to the rise of diabetic nephropathy (DN) and diabetic cardiovascular disease (DCVD) in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (DM2). Numerous molecules associated with inflammation and angiogenesis have been implicated in the development and progression of DN and DCVD, respectively. Methods: The subjects were separated into five groups: healthy controls (n= 25), type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (n= 30), type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with nephropathy DN (n= 30), and type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with cardiovascular disease DCVD (n= 30). The blood levels of irisin, IL-8, HbA1C, urea, and creatinine were determined. Results: In current study there w
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