Background: Polymorphisms in the TNF-α gene affect the development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Objective: To investigate the associations between (-806 T/C) and (-857 T/C) SNPs with rheumatoid arthritis severity and susceptibility in a sample of Iraqi patients. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Baghdad, Iraq. Twenty healthy controls and 63 patients confirmed to be newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis were included. Those are divided into two groups (patients and controls), and the patients were further subdivided into severe and mild-moderate groups. Samples from those participants were analyzed for clinical and inflammatory parameter measurements. Genotyping by the Sanger method was performed to study the SNPs. Results: No associations were demonstrated between rheumatoid arthritis and polymorphisms at positions -806 and -857. Additionally, there were no differences in the distribution of those SNP genotypes and alleles among the severe and mild-moderate groups. Also, the (-806 C/T) SNP was found to be correlated with DAS 28 in all patients and with hs-CRP in the mild-moderate group. Finally, the -857 C/T SNP was found to be correlated with TNF-α within the mild-moderate group. Conclusions: Polymorphisms at positions -806 and -857 were not associated with rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility, and the CT genotype of -806 C/T SNP was associated with disease activity.
Microwave heating is caused by the ability of the materials to absorb microwave energy and convert it to heat. The aim of this study is to know the difference that will occur when heat treating the high strength aluminum alloys AA7075-T73 in a microwave furnace within different mediums (dry and acidic solution) at different times (30 and 60) minutes, on mechanical properties and fatigue life. The experimental results of microwave furnace heat energy showed that there were variations in the mechanical properties (ultimate stress, yielding stress, fatigue strength, fatigue life and hardness) with the variation in mediums and duration times when compared with samples without treatment. The ultimate stress, yielding stress and fatigue streng
... Show MoreMixed-effects conditional logistic regression is evidently more effective in the study of qualitative differences in longitudinal pollution data as well as their implications on heterogeneous subgroups. This study seeks that conditional logistic regression is a robust evaluation method for environmental studies, thru the analysis of environment pollution as a function of oil production and environmental factors. Consequently, it has been established theoretically that the primary objective of model selection in this research is to identify the candidate model that is optimal for the conditional design. The candidate model should achieve generalizability, goodness-of-fit, parsimony and establish equilibrium between bias and variab
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to investigate the acetamiprid effects on biochemical aspects in albino mice. Thirty albino mice at the age of 6-8 weeks and average weight 25±5 g were divided into three groups each having ten (10) healthy mice. The first group was orally administrated with distilled water while the second and third groups were orally administrated with 50 mg/mL and 100 mg/mL respectively of acetamprid (0.1 mL) daily for one week. LD50 of acetamiprid was measured and found to be 200 mg/kg. The parameters of evaluations included liver function using Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP). Lipid profile was anal
... Show MoreECG is an important tool for the primary diagnosis of heart diseases, which shows the electrophysiology of the heart. In our method, a single maternal abdominal ECG signal is taken as an input signal and the maternal P-QRS-T complexes of original signal is averaged and repeated and taken as a reference signal. LMS and RLS adaptive filters algorithms are applied. The results showed that the fetal ECGs have been successfully detected. The accuracy of Daisy database was up to 84% of LMS and 88% of RLS while PhysioNet was up to 98% and 96% for LMS and RLS respectively.
Background: Quality of life in brain tumor patients is an emerging issue and has prompted neurosurgeons to recon¬sider the need for cognitive assessment in the course of treatment. To date there has been a lack of comprehensive neuropsychological assessment performed preoperatively and in the acute postoperative period in our hospitals.Objectives: to establish the effects of tumors and their surgical treatment, from a neuropsychological perspective, on cognitive functioning in patients with cerebral Gliomas. Methods: This is a prospective study conducted in the Neurosurgical Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, during the period from January 1999 to January 2001. Any patient admitted during the period of the study with clinical history, signs, sy
... Show MoreBackground: Green Tea is made from the leaf of the plant “Camellia sinensisâ€. Green tea is reported to contain thousands of bioactive ingredients including catechins which have shown great promise for having antimicrobial effects. Periodontal diseases represent one of the most prevalent diseases around the world and the main etiologic factor behind it, is plaque accumulation, in addition certain kinds of bacteria have been detected frequently in subjects suffering from periodontitis, Several studies suggested that the outcome of periodontal treatment is better if particular pathogens including Aggregatibacteractinomycetemcomitans can no longer be detected after therapy. Materials and Methods: plaque samples were collected from 2
... Show MoreThe current study was carried out to investigate the correlation of gene expressions of ADA1 and ADA2 genes with the development of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) in a sample of Iraqi females. One hundred patients with AITD and 80 controls were included. Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT–PCR) was utilized for investigation of ADA1 and ADA2 gene expression among patients and controls. The correlation of age and body mass index (BMI) with AITD occurrence comparing with controls was studied. Based on the results of this study, there is high expression level of ADA1 and ADA2 genes in patients compared with healthy controls; also, the gene expression fold (2-ΔΔCT) of ADA1 and ADA2 among AITD patients was recorded and a
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