4 Blood Res 2018;53:314-319. Received on August 11, 2018 Revised on August 30, 2018 Accepted on August 30, 2018 Background Iron overload is a risk factor affecting all patients with thalassemia intermedia (TI). We aimed to determine whether there is a relationship of serum ferritin (SF) and alanine ami- notransferase (ALT) with liver iron concentration (LIC) determined by R2 magnetic reso- nance imaging (R2-MRI), to estimate the most relevant degree of iron overload and best time to chelate in patients with TI. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 119 patients with TI (mean age years) were randomly se- lected and compared with 120 patients who had a diagnosis of thalassemia major (TM). Correlations of LIC, as determined by R2-MRI, with SF and ALT levels, were assessed in all participants. A P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results SF and LIC levels were lower in patients with TI than in those with TM; only ferritin values were significant. We found a statistically significant relationship between SF and LIC, with cut-off estimates of SF in patients with TI who had splenectomy and those who entered puberty spontaneously (916 and 940 ng/mL, respectively) with LIC >5 mg Fe/g dry weight (P<0.0001). A significant relationship was also found for patients with TI who had ele- vated ALT level (63.5 U/L), of 3.15 times the upper normal laboratory limit, using a cut-off for LIC ≥5 mg Fe/g dry weight. Conclusion We determined the cut-off values for ALT and SF indicating the best time to start iron chela- tion therapy in patients with TI, and found significant correlations among iron overload, SF, and ALT.
Hypercholesterolemia is a predominant risk factor for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The World Health Organization (WHO), ) recommended reducing the intake of cholesterol and saturated fats. On the other hand, limited evidence is available on the benefits of vegetables in the diet to reduce these risk factors, so this research was conducted to compare the hypolipidemic effect between the extracts of two different types of Iraqi peppers, the fruit of the genus Capsicum traditionally known as red pepper extract (RPE), and Piper nigrum as black pepper extract (BPE), respectively, in different parameters and histology of the liver of the experimental animals. The red pepper was extracted by ethyl acetate, while the black pepp
... Show MoreIn this study the prevalence of acute, sub-acute and chronic toxoplasmosis were monitored in a group of Iraqi pregnant women according to the anti-T.gondii antibodies (IgG and IgM), as well as the levels of both progesterone and estrogen hormones were measured using mini-VIDAS®technique. This study demonstrated that there was high prevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis (31.70%) when it compared with acute and sub-acute type, results also showed that the acute toxoplasmosis always related with low concentration of both progesterone and estrogen which were (5.35 ± 7.15 ng/ml) and (70.66 ± 51.08 pg/ml) respectively
Integration of laminar bubbling flow with heat transfer equations in a novel internal jacket airlift bioreactor using microbubbles technology was examined in the present study. The investigation was accomplished via Multiphysics modelling to calculate the gas holdup, velocity of liquid recirculation, mixing time and volume dead zone for hydrodynamic aspect. The temperature and internal energy were determined for heat transfer aspect.
The results showed that the concentration of microbubbles in the unsparged area is greater than the chance of large bubbles with no dead zones being observed in the proposed design. In addition the pressure, due to the recirculation velocity of liquid around the draft
... Show MoreSteady natural and mixed convection flow in a square vented enclosure filled with water-saturated aluminum metal foam is numerically investigated. The left vertical wall is kept at constant temperature and the remaining walls are thermally insulated. Forced convection is imposed by providing an inlet at cavity bottom surface, and a vent at the top surface. Natural convection takes place due to the temperature difference inside the enclosure. Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model for fluid flow and the two-equation of the local thermal non-equilibrium model for heat flow was adopted to describe the flow characteristics within the porous cavity. Numerical results are obtained for a wide range of width of the inlet as a fraction
... Show MoreIn this study Microwave and conventional methods have been used to extract and estimate pectin and its degree of esterification from dried grapefruit and orange peels. Acidified solution water with nitric acid in pH (1.5) was used. In conventional method, different temperature degrees for extraction pectin from grape fruit and orange(85 ,90 , 95 and 100?C) for 1 h were used The results showed grapefruit peels contained 12.82, 17.05, 18.47, 15.89% respectively, while the corresponding values were 5.96, 6.74, 7.41 and 8.00 %, respectively in orange peels. In microwave method, times were 90, 100, 110 and 120 seconds. Grapefruit peels contain 13.86, 16.57, 18.69, and 17.87%, respectively, while the corresponding values were of 6.53, 6.68, 7.2
... Show MoreSamples of the ovary and uterus of local breed cats used to investigate the histological, histometrical and hormonal features. The paraffin embedding technique was used for processing of tissue that stained by hematoxyline and eosin stain, and massons trichrom stain. Ovary of at proestrus or oestrus phases composed of outer cortex that covered by cuboidal germinal epithelium and inner medulla. Tunica albuginea composed of a thin layer of characterized by fusiform stromal cells. The cortex content groups of Oogonial cells, numerous primordial follicles, little primary, secondary and tertiary follicles in addition for 1-2 follicular cysts and mature corpus letium. In pregnant cat the thickness of ovarian cortex was significantly incre
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