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.
Asthma is chronic inflammatory disease affecting 5% of world population. Characterized by eosinophilic type2 inflammation. FKBP51 immunophilin, important modular protein of glucocorticoid receptor (GR). We aimed to evaluate immunocytochemical localization of GR and FKBP51 in induced sputum cells by using immunocytochemical method and immunofluorescent ant-FKBP51 and anti –GR antibody and estimation of IgE and Type 2 inflammatory cytokine IL-5,IL-13 by ELISA technique.GR in the sputum show non-significant decrease of cytoplasmic distribution of the patient groups and highly significant increase in steroid treated patients and non-significant increase in nuclear distribution in non-steroid, FKBP51 nuclear localization show non-significant i
... Show MoreHuman Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is an enveloped ubiquitous ds-DNA virus that has been implicated in several types of malignancies. The current work was conducted in the period extending from (November 2018 to the end of October 2019) and aimed to assess the frequency of glycoprotein N (gN) genotypes of HCMV. A total number of 91serum and plasma specimens were collected to fulfill this purpose from females (71 breast cancer patients, and a control group of 20 females) attending Al-Amal hospital for cancer management and Baghdad teaching hospital. The molecular part of this data was achieved through both PCR and Multiplex PCR for detection of HCMV gN (UL73) entire gene as well as for genotyping. gN was detected in 36/71 (50.7%) of breast cancer
... Show MoreThe study objective was to conduct Pharmacoeconomics study (cost-effective analysis) between infliximab reference (Remicade) and its biosimilar (Remsima) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Iraqi hospitals.
This is a retrospective multicenter pharmacoeconomic analysis conducted at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq which provided infliximab to patients with RA. Data were collected from patient’s medical records and face-to-face interviews with the patients from December 2021 to April 2022.
The study included 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The patients were categorized into two groups according to the type of infliximab they received over 30 weeks: 27 patients received
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Background: Drawing blood to measure total serum bilirubin is painful & time consuming. Transcutaneous bilirubinometer working by multiwavelength spectral reflectance from the skin surface on forehead or upper sternum is a quick & painless technique. Objectives: to compare the effectiveness of transcutaneous (over the upper sternum and forehead) and serum bilirubin measurement of neonate with jaundice. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross sectional prospective study. It enrolled 175 jaundiced neonates & excluded those exposed to phototherapy. It was conducted at Child Central Teaching Hospi |
Lipase enzyme has attracted a lot of attention in recent years because of its diverse biotechnological applications. The present study was conducted to screen germinated seeds of four crops, namely sunflower (Helianthus annuus), flaxor linseed (Linum usitatissimum ), peanut (Arachis hypogaea ) and castor bean (Ricinus communis), for the activity of their lipases. to the study also included the extraction and purification of lipase from the seeds of the most promising crop using different solvents. The results indicated that the maximum enzymatic activity (0.669 U/ml) was obtained when 0.1 M Tris-HCl buffer extract was used after 3 days of seed germination of all the tested species, as compared to the other test solvents
... Show MoreIn the present study, serum GOT(Glutamic Oxalacetic Transaminase) was purified, the purified enzyme showed the maximum activity at 37ºC and pH 7.5. During purification of serum GOT ion exchange chromatography lead to four separate forms (termed I, II, III and IV). GOT II with the highest specific activity was pure after chromatography on Sephacryl S300. . S.GOT levels were investigated in serum samples from patient with pulmonary tuberculosis .The S.GOT levels were determined at and 37ć .The study revealed that the serum GOT activity was higher in patient of tuberculous pulmonary than in control subjects.The mean serum GOT activity in the patients group was(90±8 IU/L) as compared to control group (27±0.65I
... Show MoreThe present study was performed to evaluate the level of some risk factors (biochemical and immunological) in hypothyroid Iraqi patients considering the different thyroid functional states (hypothyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism).The study includes 82 patients clinically diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Three study groups have been investigated: (47 clinical hypothyroid patients, 12 subclinical hypothyroid patients 23 healthy individuals) of different ages. This study, show that the proportion of females (83.3 %), (87.2%) in subclinical and clinical hypothyroidisim respectively higher than the proportion of males (16.7%),(12.8%) in subclinical and clinical hypothyrodism respectively of the total patients.The majority of subclinical hyp
... Show MoreIn developing countries, conventional physico-chemical methods are commonly used for removing contaminants. These methods are not efficient and very costly. However, new in site strategy with high treatment efficiency and low operation cost named constructed wetland (CW) has been set. In this study, Phragmites australis was used with free surface batch system to estimate its ability to remediate total
petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from Al-Daura refinery wastewater. The system operated in semi-batch, thus, new wastewater was weekly added to the plant for 42 days. The results showed high removal percentages (98%) of TPH and (62.3%) for COD. Additionally, Phragmites australis biomass increased significant
Image quality has been estimated and predicted using the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and SNR measurements in PET imaging using patient studies with liver cancer. Three groups of 59 patients (24 males and 35 females) were divided according to BMI. After intravenous injection of 0.1 mCi of 18F-FDG per kilogram of body weight, PET emission scans were acquired for (1, 1.5, and 3) min/bed position according to the weight of patient. Because liver is an organ of homogenous metabolism, five region of interest (ROI) were made at the same location, five successive slices of the PET/CT scans to determine the mean uptake (signal) values and its standard deviat
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