Objectives: With the advent of ongoing novel modalities toward the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/NEU - positive malignancies, the serious side effects of chemoradiotherapy have been minimized. Hence, this study was conducted to identify the patterns of immunohistochemical expression of the promising therapeutic target (HER2/NEU) among Iraqi patients with medulloblastoma in an attempt to provide basic histological information’s that would help in future clinical researches.Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 42 formalin - fixed paraffin - embedded tissue blocks represent cases of surgically removed medulloblastomas were retrieved from the archived materials in a specialized surgical hospital at Bagdad. The histological diagnosis had been revised, and all cases were stained by the immunohistochemical technique with HER2/NEU antibody and assessed independently by three pathologists.Results: Out of 42 cases, only two which represent 4.76% showed positive results manifested by a strong membranous staining when immunohistochemically evaluated using the same scoring system established for HER2/NEU in breast cancer. 14 cases (33.3%) showed incomplete membranous and five cases (11.9%) showed only cytoplasmic reaction patterns.Conclusion: The rate of expression of HER2/NEU in medulloblastoma among Iraqi patients is very low and found only in aggressive anaplastic histological type when immunohistochemically evaluated using the same scoring system established for HER2/NEU in breast cancer. However, a good number of negative cases showed cytoplasmic and incomplete membranous staining patterns highlighting the importance of establishing medulloblastoma - specific HER2/NEU scoring criteria and testing methods to discover the unique feature of expression of this therapeutic target in medulloblastoma.
Background: Insulin resistance is present in 50% or more of patients with primary hypothyroidism. Metformin can decrease TSH levels in these patients by a complex matter, this can be of great help in clinical practice.
Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of metformin in reducing TSH levels in patients with primary hypothyroidism.
Methods: Hundred patients with primary hypothyroidism, 82 females, 18 males were included in this study, everyone was followed up for two months after adding metformin 850 mg twice daily in addition to thyroxin.
Results: 36 patients (36%) have a normal baseline TSH and no change after 2 months, 64 pa
... Show MoreBackground: Lymphomas are a group of diseases caused by malignant lymphocytes that accumulate in lymph nodes and cause the characteristic clinical features of lymphadenopathy. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) (CD54) is a transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily of adhesion molecules. Cortactin was first identified as one of the major substrates for src kinase. because it localized to Cortical actin structures, The aims of this study was to evaluate and compare the immunohistochemical of ICAM-1 expression as cell adhesion molecule marker and Cortactin expression as invasive marker. Material and Methods: This study was performed on (68) formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks, histopathologically diagn
... Show MoreDuring recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the investigation of the cytokines roles in pathogenesis of cancer, thus the study aimed at evaluating the level of tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-?) in sera of Iraqi multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Beta 2-microglobulion (?2-m) was assessed to determine if there was any association between this cytokine and the level of ?2- m, as the latter is related to the stage of the disease. In addition, the age and gender were also taken into consideration. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between IgG and TNF-? in sera of patients. 49 Iraqi patients (27 males and 22 females).The patients were also divided into two groups: the first group included (17) patients who were
... Show MoreThe present study was designed to shed light on the molecular effects caused by acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It was also aimed to investigate ASXL1 point mutations in newly AML patients as compared to healthy control. The study comprised of 43 AML Iraqi patients and their ages ranged between 16-75 years. It included 23 females and 20 males compared with 20 healthy controls. Results revealed that the extracted DNA from 30 AML patients and amplified by PCR to obtain ASXL1 gene from exon 12 showed larger bands (479). Among forty three patients, two of them displayed point mutations of deletion and substitution, while the others were normal since no mutations were detected. The total of mutations in two mutated patients was 27 mutations, the m
... Show MoreDiabetes mellitus is a common health problem worldwide counting about 1.2 million cases in Iraq in 2015. Taking in account of the patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication had been reported to be one of the most important factors that affects adherence where holding positive beliefs about medications is a prerequisite for intentional adherence. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among type 2 diabetic patients and to determine possible association between this belief and glycemic control as well as some patient-specific factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 380 (mean age 56.58± 10.06 years) already diagnosed T2DM patients who attended the National Diabetes
... Show MoreLow serum total adiponectin is associated with a high incidence of type 2 diabetes or coronary artery disease in the general population. Paradoxically, serum total adiponectin is elevated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), such as overt diabetic nephropathy. The current study aimed to investigate whether or not anemia to be dependently associated with serum level of total adiponectin in non-albuminuric male patients with type 2 diabetes . The study included 42 type 2 diabetic male patients. Anemia was deï¬ned as hemoglobin (Hb) below 14.0g/dL. All the patients were without microalbuminuria, to exclude diabetic nephropathy. The diabetic patients were divided into 2 groups according to the hemoglobin level in ad
... Show MoreExposure to lead results in significant accumulation in most of vital organs, and free radical damage has been proposed as a cause of lead-induced tissue damage, where oxidative stress is a likely molecular mechanism. This study was designed to evaluate therapeutic effects of melatonin in lead-induced organ toxicity in rats. The therapeutic effects of melatonin on lead induced toxicity in rats were evaluated using 36 rats, which were allocated into 3 groups and treated as follows: Group I, includes 12 rats injected subcutaneously with 0.2 ml physiological saline for 30 days, followed by treatment with a daily dose of 20mg/kg melatonin, administrated I.P for the successive 30 da
... Show MoreThe goal of this study was to investigate the protein peroxidation role by measuring serum levels of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) in type 2 diabetic patients with or without retinopathy and comparing them to controls to see if circulating AOPP levels can be used as a detection biomarker for DR. And see which of the two widely used antidiabetic treatment groups had the most impact on this oxidative stress marker. The groups were divided into two subgroups: 1) 70 type 2 diabetic patients (36 male, 34 female), 35 with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and 35 with no evidence of DR, and 2) non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were chosen from Ibn AL-Haitham Hospital for Ophthalmology and a Specialized Center for Endocrinology and Dia
... Show MoreComparative Study Between Glimepiride and Glibenclamide in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Al-Yarmouk Hospital