Breast cancer is the commonest cause of cancer related death in women worldwide. Amplification or over-expression of the ERBB2 (HER/neu) gene occurs in approximately 15-30% of breast cancer cases and it is strongly associated with an increased disease recurrence and a poor prognosis. Determination of HER2/neu status is crucial in the treatment plan as that positive cases will respond to trastuzumab therapy. It has been used to test for HER2/neu by immunohistochemistry as a first step and then to study only the equivocal positive cases (score 2+) by in situ hybridization technique. The aim of our study is to compare between immunohistochemistry and silver in situ hybridization (SISH) in assessment of human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu) receptors status among breast cancer patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted at The Medical City in Baghdad, from October 2016 to April 2017, where formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tumor tissue from 52 female patients (aged 33 to 71 years) with the diagnosis of breast cancer have been included in this study for the evaluation of human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu) protein overexpression and gene amplification by immunohistochemistry and silver in situ hybridization (SISH) method respectively. Base line data about patients were obtained from their hospital records. The distribution of human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu) protein overexpression by immunohistochemistry showed that the (+2) score/equivocally positive were seen in 24 cases, which comprise the largest number of cases in this study (46.15%). Ten cases (19.23%) for each of scores 0/negative and +1/negative were present, while (+3) score/positive was the smallest group with only 8 cases (15.38% of cases). All results of SISH were negative in the category of (0 score/negative). In the contrary, all the 8 cases in (+3 score/positive) category were showing positive SISH results. Category (+1 score/negative) HER2 showed two cases (20%) with a positive SISH result, while that of (+2 score/equivocal positive) showed 8 positive cases (about 33.33%). For the detection of HER2/neu protein overexpression and gene amplification, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in-situ hybridization (ISH) are the recommended techniques, with high concordance between the two techniques, however; performance of silver in situ hybridization in assessment of HER2/neu gene status in all cases of invasive breast carcinoma is recommended as significant number of negative cases by immunohistochemistry showed positive amplification by in situ hybridization and can be treated with anti-HER2 targeted treatments.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by persistent joint inflammation, which is a defining feature of this chronic inflammatory condition. Considerable advancements have been made in the field of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medicines (DMARDs), which effectively mitigate inflammation and forestall further joint deterioration. Anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) drugs, which are a class of biological DMARDs (bDMARDs), have been efficaciously employed in the treatment of RA in recent times Adalimumab, a TNF inhibitor, has demonstrated significant efficacy in reducing disease symptoms and halting disease progression in patients with RA. However, its use is associated with major side effects and high costs. In addition,
... Show MoreBackground: Hypertension is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated, it's classified as either primary (essential) hypertension or secondary hypertension, and it increases the risk of ischemic heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and other cardiovascular diseases. Several classes of medications collectively referred to as antihypertensive drugs like beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, renin inhibitors and statins (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor. Statin medication may have some beneficial effects when subjects have dental plaque or signs of periodontitis as gingival bleeding. The purpose of this study were to as
... Show MoreA total of (90) blood samples were collected from male patients infected with Toxoplasmosis who recovered from COVID- 19 and attended Kamal Alsamiraai Hospital from 15 January to 15 September 2021. We measured anti-Toxoplasma antibodies (IgG and IgM) detected by ELISA, whereas Anti-COVID-19 antibodies (IgG and IgM) were estimated using Elisa and Afilias. The semen characteristics were also studied among fertile, healthy individuals (control group) and sub-fertile patients. Results showed that the mean sperm count was high among the control group (40.5±1.3x 106/ml) compared with that of the sub-fertile patients (10.3±1.75 and 8.8±1.9 x 106/ml for oligozoospermia, and oligoasthenozoospermia respectively), and it was the highest (44.7±1.4
... Show MoreFor many years it was argued that there may be a gender differences in adverse drug reactions (ADRs). This assumption was based on many possible factors such as hormonal or behavior differences, and it was not clearly identified since the female gender was not preferred to be enrolled in many clinical trials. The primary aim of this study was to assess the extent of possibly relevant gender differences in drug–ADRs regarding causality, severity, preventability, seriousness, expectedness and outcome. While the secondary aim was to assess for which group of drugs and for which ADRs gender differences are identified most often. The study was a retrospective one that depends on processing a specially selected group of data obtained from th
... Show MoreBackground: The incidence of oral cancers is increasing all over the world. Early detection ofthis important public health matter makes them more amenable to treatment and allows the greatest chance of cure.The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness and knowledge on oral cancer among final -year dental students in Iraq. Materials and methods: Questionnaires were delivered to 160 final–year dental students in the College of Dentistry in Baghdad. The questionnaire focused on the awareness/knowledge of oral cancer, earlyand common clinical signs and symptoms andassociated risk factors. Results: It was found that 87% of students were aware of oral cancer. The followings were recognized as signs and symptoms of oral cancer: persis
... Show MoreThis work studies the role of serum apelin-36 and Glutathione S-transferases (GST) activity in association with the hormonal, metabolic profiles and their link to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in healthy and patients' ladies with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A total of fifty-four (PCOS) patients and thirty-one healthy woman as a control have been studied. The PCOS patients were subdivided on the basis of body-mass-index (BMI), into 2-subgroups (the first group was obese-PCOS with BMI ≥ 30 and the second group was non-obese PCOS MBI<30). Fasting-insulin-levels and Lipid-profile, Homeostatic-model assessment-of-insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR), follicle-stimulating-hormone (FSH), luteinizing-hormone (LH), testosterone and
... Show MoreThe oil exports play a vital role in supporting economic development and raise the economic growth. The oil exports can increase the economic growth via three main channels which are supporting the productive, distributive and service sectors; increasing the investment and capital formation; and increasing the employment rate.
However, the oil exports did not have an important role in increasing the economic growth in Iraq. Therefore, it also did not provide the required support to other economic sectors, neither participated in increase the employees’ skills nor increase the investment rate. It may slightly contribute in enhancement the infrastructure that can attract the public and private investments
... Show MoreIn the present work, a density functional theory (DFT) calculation to simulate reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hybrid with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle's sensitivity to NO2 gas is performed. In comparison with the experiment, DFT calculations give acceptable results to available bond lengths, lattice parameters, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy gaps, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, entropy, etc. to ZnO, rGO, and ZnO/rGO hybrid. ZnO and rGO show n-type and p-type semiconductor behavior, respectively. The formed p-n heterojunction between rGO and ZnO is of the staggering gap type. Results show that rGO increases the sensitivity of ZnO to NO2 gas as they form a hybrid. ZnO/rGO hybrid has a higher number of vacancies that can b
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