The Growth Differentiation Factor -15 (GDF-15) is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily. İt represents an example of the stress response cytokines. It's mostly found in cardiac myocytes, adipocytes, macrophages, endothelial cells, and vascular endothelial cells, whether they're generated normally or not. GDF-15 levels have increased and are associated with cardiovascular risk. Aim of the study: To investigate the correlation between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) with the level of plasma GDF-15 in a group of hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: A case-control study involved 90 individuals, 60 hypertensive patients (36 on ACE inhibitors and 24 on ARBs) and 30 healthy individuals. Serum GDF-15 was measured and compared statistically between the two groups. Results: serum GDF-15 was significantly higher in both groups of hypertensive patients compared to the control group. İn addition, there was no significant difference in mean serum GDF-15 concentration between patients treated with ACE inhibitors with those treated with angiotensin II receptor blockers. Conclusion: GDF-15 increases in hypertensive patients and might be a reasonable marker of cardiovascular disease. Both ACE inhibitors and ARBs are not powerful enough to decrease GDF-15 concentration to that of the control group.
Background: Among different air pollutants, cigarette smoke contains toxic chemicals, mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds, which can adversely affect male fertility. In this study, semen parameters and reproductive hormonal concentrations of subfertile smokers were compared with subfertile non-smokers.
Objectives: evaluation of the effect of cigarette smoking on male fertility by evaluating several semen parameters as well as some reproductive hormones in a group of smoker and non smokersubfertile Iraqi subjects.
Patients and Methods: At the male infertility clinic of Al-yarmuk teaching hospital, Almustanseria medical college, Baghdad, Iraq from the 1st of October 2010 to the end of June 2011, 88 men (49 non-smokers, and 39 smoker
Chronic inflammation can induce proliferative events and posttranslational DNA modifications in prostate tissues through oxidative stress. The miR-155 expression is abnormally increased in tumors. Therefore, this study aims to explore the clinical significance of serum TNF-α and IL-1α as well as miR-155 expression in prostate cancer (PC) patients.
A total of 50 blood samples from patients diagnosed with prostate cancer were collected from the Oncology Department, Baghdad Teaching Hospital, along with samples from 50 healthy volunteers. Serum TNF-α and IL-1α levels in Iraqi males with prostate cancer were estimated by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA). The total RNA was extracted from all subjects and con
... Show MoreDiabetes mellitus is a global problem nowadays due to increase the disease cases all over the world, in both the developed and developing countries which may affect the quality of life (QOL ) of diabetic patients. This study was conducted to assess the quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and to determine some selected clinical and sociodemographic factors that affect the quality of life of these patients in Al Hila city-Iraq. This was a cross sectional study in which 100 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending diabetic outpatient clinics of Merjan Teaching Hospital-Al Hila. To assess the quality of life of those diabetic patients, the World Health Organizations Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL) was a
... Show MoreProstate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in men. A total of 110 Iraqi Arab individuals were included in this study; 60 individuals of them had prostate cancer with increased levels of TPSA (patients group); their age range 52-90 years. They were referred for diagnosis and treatment to the National Al-Amal Hospital for oncology in Baghdad during the period from July 2017 to October 2017. While the other 50 apparently healthy subjects were the control group, their age range similar to patients group. Sera and blood samples were collected from all patients and controls than used to assess for the level of IL-18 and DNA extraction, respectively. The polymorphisms were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction-single specific
... Show MoreRecent progress in the understanding of psoriasis has shown that the regulation of local and systemic cytokines plays an important role in its pathogenesis. Different studies evaluated the association of serum levels of some proinflammatory cytokines invivo and their correlation with severity of psoriasis. Eighty cases of psoriatic patients had been studied. Patients were divided into mild psoriasis group (30) and severe psoriasis group (50) according to severity, and (30) apparently healthy individuals ware used as acontrol group. Sera samples of all groups were collected from all individuals for the estimation levels of interleukins (IL-6 and IL-8). All mean values sera levels (IL-6 32.004 pg/ml and 17.579 pg/ml for
... Show MoreBackground: Acne vulgaris is one of the top three most commonly encountered dermatological problems worldwide in both primary and secondary care. Human keratinocytes express functional TLR2 heterodimers. An increased expression of TLR2 was detected in the epidermis of inflammatory acne lesions, as observed in normal skin; the expression level increased with the degree of differentiation of the keratinocytes. TLR2 expression is upregulated in inflammatory acne lesions and induced by C. acnes. The current study conducted to assess the oral isotretinion treatment effect on the acne vulgaris patients by evaluated the Toll Like Receptor 2 as a major immune system marker in Acne vulgaris immune re
... Show MorePARP-1 is a protein enzyme with a major role in DNA repair that is overexpressed in many malignancies. It is correlated with susceptibility and metastasis to lymph nodes in gastric cancer (GC). The objective of the present investigation is to estimate PARP1 expression in patients with gastric cancer and detected if it could be used as a predictive marker. Furthermore, we aimed to find the correlation between PARP1 expression and clinicopathological parameters, such as gender, age, invasion depth, histopathological type, involvement of lymph nodes, grade, and stages of GC. This is a retrospective study from the period 2018-2020. Fifty randomly selected subjects (10 normal and 40 GC) were examined for formalin-fixe
... Show MoreDiabetic Nephropathy(DN) is a complex disease manifested by persistence microalbuminuria occurring due to the interaction between hemodynamic and metabolic pathway that activates the local renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system resulting in a decline in renal functions.
This study aimed to quantify the associations between serum aldosterone concentration and fetuin- A as a marker of calcification in type 2 diabetic patients with and without microalbuminuria from one side, and study the possible relationship between aldosterone and fetuin-A with glycemic indices, serum electrolyte, renal function and microalbuminuria and body mass index from the other side.
A case-control study involved eighty-six adult subjects
... Show MoreBackground: The Infraorbital foramen is an anatomical structure with an important location in the maxilla, position of foramen in maxillofacial area is necessary in clinical situation requiring regional nerve blocks that are performed in children undergoing facial surgeries to avoid injury to corresponding nerve. The aim of study was to determine the position of the Infraorbital foramen and to correlate Infraorbital foramen position with age and gender using computed tomography. Subjects, Materials, and Methods: The sample consist of prospective study for 50 Iraqi subjects (21 male and 29 female) with age ranged from (5-17) years. The examination was performed on Multi – Slice Spiral Tomography scanner in Al-Karakh General Hospital. Using
... Show MoreBackground: Thalassemia is a form of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorder characterized by abnormal formation of hemoglobin.
Objective: Determine frequencies & association of HLA class II alleles (DRB1& DQB1) in Iraqi β-thalassemia major patients.
Patients: seventy unrelated randomly selected β-thalassemia major patients, and one hundred unrelated randomly selected healthy individuals, composed the control group.
Methods: low resolution PCR-SSO (Sequence Specific Oligonucleotide) technique was used for HLA typing.
Results: HLA DQB1*5 give significance importance as an etiological risk factor for β-thalassemia major; HLA DQB1*3 give significance importance as a preventive risk factor for β-thalassemia major