Abstract The results of isolation, morphological and microscopic diagnosis, Chromic Agar, Vitik technology and Bact Alert showed that the diagnosis of fungi isolated from blood samples of end-stage renal patients who did not undergo dialysis and those who underwent dialysis was 60 samples for each type. The total number of fungal isolates isolated from people who did not undergo dialysis was 26 pathogenic fungal isolates, with a percentage frequency of 43.33%. In this study, 4 genera of pathogenic fungi were identified: Candida spp, Rhodotorula spp, Cryptococcus spp. and Aspergillus spp. The number of Candida isolates reached 13 isolates, with a frequency of 50%. The results also showed that the diagnosed species from the genus Rhodotorula

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL).  The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals  of this study were  to  compare the QoL of  Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseas

Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are the two most important types of anemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Functional iron deficiency in ACD can be attributed to overexpression of the main iron regulatory hormone hepcidin leading to diversion of iron from the circulation into storage sites resulting in iron-restricted erythropoiesis. The aim is to investigate the role of circulating hepcidin and to uncover the frequency of IDA in RA. The study included 51 patients with RA. Complete blood counts, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, ferritin, and hepcidin- 25 were assessed. ACD was found in 37.3% of patients, IDA in 11.8%, and combined (ACD/IDA) in 17.6%. Serum hepcidin was higher in ACD than in con

Recently, there has been an increase in the prevalence of ulcerative colitis (UC), and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) worldwide, especially in certain recently industrialized countries like China and In¬dia. Globally, the prevalence of UC, a chronic illness that affects the large intestine, is rising. Fifty adherent invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) isolates were identified from ulcerative colitis biopsy samples originating from the Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and Hepatology teaching hospitals/medical city in Baghdad City. The test’s results demonstrated that the AIEC isolates had a high level of resistance to the majority of the an-tibiotics under investigation. Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC-PCR) and m

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune illness, which is consider by three main features: Sclerotic changes in the skin and internal organs, Vasculopathy of small blood vessels, Particular autoantibodies (1). The most important autoantibodies appeared significantly in SSc patients are anti-topoisomerase I autoantibody (Scl-70), anti-centromere autoantibody (ACA), and anti-RNA polymerase III autoantibody (RNAP3) (2). Anti-centromere antibodies (ACA) are infrequent in rheumatic conditions and in healthy persons but occur commonly in limited systemic sclerosis (CREST syndrome), and rarely appeared in the diffuse form of systemic sclerosis (3). Anti-Ro/SSA and antiLa/SSB, antibodies directed against Ro/La ribonucleoprot

Background: Periodontal pathogens can induce free radicals over-formation and thus may cause collagen and periodontal destruction. Anti-oxidants are used as supplements to counteract the over production of free radicals in periodontal disease, that can reduce of collagen destruction. Coenzyme Q10 serves as an endogenous antioxidant, regenerates other antioxidants, stimulates cell growth, and inhibits cell death. Because it is an antioxidant, coenzyme Q10 has received much research attention associated with periodontal diseases. Perio Q gel may possibly be effective as a topical agent and as an adjunct to scaling& root planing in treatment of gingivitis and chronic periodontitis. Aim of study:Determine the periodontal health status in a foll

This study aimed to determine the effect of varicocelectomy on sperm parameters, oxidant- antioxidant status and chromatin maturity percent. The current study has been conducted on 154 infertile patients complaining from varicocele and varicocelomized men in addition to 25 fertile men as control. The results revealed significant decrease (P<0.05) in sperm concentration, progressive motile sperm percent, normal sperm morphology percent, GSH, SOD1, CAT levels and chromatin maturity percent and significant increase (P<0.05) in MDA and ROS concentrations in infertile patients with varicocele when compared to fertile men. The results revealed improvement (P<0.05) of sperm parameters quality, GSH, SOD1, CAT, MDA, ROS concentration and chromatin m

Background: Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that mostly involves the spine and sacroiliac joints. It is associated with a decreased quality of life. Biological medicines such as infliximab and its biosimilar are the mainstay treatments for active ankylosing spondylitis.

Objective: The study objective was to conduct a pharmacoeconomic study comparing the cost-effectiveness of the reference infliximab with its biosimilar in ankylosing spondylitis patients visiting public hospitals.

Subjects and Method: This is a two-center pharmacoeconomic study performed at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, which s

4 Blood Res 2018;53:314-319. Received on August 11, 2018 Revised on August 30, 2018 Accepted on August 30, 2018 Background Iron overload is a risk factor affecting all patients with thalassemia intermedia (TI). We aimed to determine whether there is a relationship of serum ferritin (SF) and alanine ami- notransferase (ALT) with liver iron concentration (LIC) determined by R2 magnetic reso- nance imaging (R2-MRI), to estimate the most relevant degree of iron overload and best time to chelate in patients with TI. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 119 patients with TI (mean age years) were randomly se- lected and compared with 120 patients who had a diagnosis of thalassemia major (TM). Correlations of LIC, as determined by R2-MRI, with SF