The study aimed to evaluate the level of MMP‑2 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients in comparison with that in remission status, and healthy subjects, and to find its correlation with hematologic parameters. This study included sixty newly diagnosed AML patients. Remission status was assessed after induction chemotherapy. The overall survival (OS) was determined after 6 months. The plasma MMP‑2 level was measured at diagnosis by enzyme immunoassay. Twenty‑eight healthy individuals were recruited as a control group. Plasma MMP‑2 was higher in AML patients than in healthy individuals (P = 0.005). The level of MMP‑2 was much higher in the M5 subtype than in the other subtypes (P = 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference in the level of MMP‑2 between patients who achieved complete remission and those who did not (P = 0.113). After 6 months, no significant difference in the initial MMP‑2 levels was found between deceased and alive patients (P = 0.174). A positive correlation of MMP‑2 level was found with white blood cell (WBC) count and hemoglobin (P = 0.0001 and 0.033, respectively) while insignificant with age, platelet count, and blast counts. CONCLUSIONS: The high MMP‑2 level in AML patients suggests a possible role in the pathogenesis. However, it does not show any association with remission status or OS. The elevation was significantly associated with marrow monocytosis (M5) and correlated with a higher WBC count.
Background: osteoporosis is characterized by a reduction in bone mineral density, skeletal microstructure breakdown, increased bone fragility, and fracture susceptibility. Osteopenia is the preceding step to osteoporosis because it causes a decrease in bone mass, osteoporosis reduces a person's quality of life. Periostin (encoded by Postn), its name is derived from the fact that it was first detected in periosteal osteocytes and osteoblasts. Periostin deficiency has been linked to osteoporosis and weak bones. Study objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine periostin levels in serum of Iraqi patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia, and it is also possible to consider periostin as a diagnostic factor to follow the progression o
... Show MoreTopic management is the awareness of how speakers deal with initiating, developing, changing, and ending a topic and how they fix the relationship when a misunderstanding occurs. It is such an important unit of conversation as it includes the transition from one strategy to the other to be accomplished in a systematic and orderly manner. These strategies are impaired in dementia patients thus lead to communication breakdown. This study aims at detecting the dementia patients' topic management strategies in selected speeches and answering the questions of which of these strategies are fully or partially detected in these speeches. The researchers use a qualitative method to examine the speeches of those patients and they adopt an eclectic
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to investigate the association between thyroid disorder and Helicobacter pylori infection in 122 patients (100 females and 22 males )and for comparison, 60 healthy individuals (31females and 29 males),who had no thyroid disorder, were also included in the study. Blood samples were collected from both patients and the healthier individuals. Enzyme Linked Fluorescent Assay (ELFA) technique through using Vitek Immuno Diagnostic Assay System (VIDAS) was applied to measure levels of the thyroid hormones (tri-iodothyronine T3, tetra-iodothyroxine T4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). From the results obtained, patients were classified into three groups: 40 were
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to determine serum IL-33 levels and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) .Forty patients with moderate activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and forty healthy individuals as control group were enrolled in this study, age (25-45) years. Disease activity was assessed in patients by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),C-reactive protein (CRP) and rheumatoid factor(RF) .Also lipid profile(cholesterol TC, triglyceride TG, low density lipoprotein LDL-C, very low density lipoprotein VLDL and high density lipoprotein HDL-C), AIP, and IL-33 were determined in all subjects. The results revealed a significant increase in ESR,CRP and RF , TG, VLDL,AIP and IL-33,while is a significant decrease in HDL concentration in patients gr
... Show MoreBackground: Prolactin is a hormone, as well as a cytokine which is synthesized and secreted from the anterior pituitary gland and various extra pituitary sites including immune cells under control of a superdistal promoter that contains a single nucleotide polymorphism -1149 G/T. Rheumatoid Arthritis has been associated with increased serum prolactin levels.Objectives: To investigate the association of the extra pituitary -1149 G/T promoter polymorphism among Iraqi rheumatoid arthritis patients and prolactin levels.Methods: We tested 73 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 40 healthy individuals. The DNA samples were genotyped using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction fragment Length Polymorphism method and the levels of prolacti
... Show MoreAn experiment was conducted using pots (capacity of 4 kg soil/pot) in the glasshouse of Biology Dept. College of Education (Ibn Al-Haitham) University of Baghdad during 2008-2009 growing season, in order to determine the effect of different levels of urea fertilizer (Zero, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 gm/4 kg soil in pot) these equal to (Zero, 100,200,400 kg/ha) and different levels of superphosphate fertilizer (Zero, 0.1, 0.2 gm/4kg soil in pot), these equal to (Zero, 100,200 kg/ha) on some morphological and physiological characteristics of fenugreek plant. This experiment was conducted using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications and the experiment included (36) pots. Results indicated clear increase in all studied characteristics wi
... Show MoreNew ligand of N-(pyrimidin-2-yl carbamothioyl)acetamide was synthesized and its complexes with (VO(II), Mn (II), Cu (II), Zn (II), Cd (II) and Hg (II) are formed with confirmation of their structures on the bases of spectroscopic analyses. Antimicrobial activity of new complexes are studied against Gram positive S. aureus and Gram negative E. coli, Proteus, Pseudomonas. The octahedral geometrical structures are proved depending on the outcomes from the preceding procedures
The geometric morphometric technique was used to study the variables in the shape and size wings of different populations of mosquitoes Culex quinquefasciatus from different Iraqi provinces Babylon, Baghdad and Wasit. The results showed that the average of centroid size were 366, 387.5 and 407.4 Micron in Babylon, Baghdad and Kut, respectively. The statistical analysis showed that there were no significant differences in the average of centroid size of all specimens and they belong to the same species.