Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were given rituximab induction therapy and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) maintenance therapy. RTX was indicated for refractory and relapsing SLE. Several investigations done before and after RTX treatment and in the last follow up (done one year after starting Rituximab). Those included protein in urine, serum creatinine, double stranded DNA, C3, C4, and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). Proteinuria decreased significantly after RTX treatment and in the last measurement (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). Serum creatinine significantly decreased only in the last measurement (P=0.02). Double stranded DNA decreased remarkably after treatment (P=0.01) with a further decrease in the last measurement (P=0.006). C3 and C4 increased after treatment but the increase was significant only for C3 (P=0.002) and this increase continues till the last measurement (P=0.0006). Active urine sediments found in fifteen patients and disappeared after RTX treatment. Rituximab can be promising in treating lupus nephritis when used along with traditional immunosuppressants. It can reduce disease activity and improve renal function in such patients.
Teresa Fitzpatrick presents a connection between oppressed women and the plant of Wisteria in gothic fiction in her article “Wisteria: A Female Eco-Gothic Metaphor in American Fiction Through the Ages.” The connection between women and nature is common in literature as women are usually compared to the beauty or ferocity of flowers, rivers, or natural phenomena in general. The connection extends to the architecture and sort of plants that appear in gothic literature. Gothic novels have routinely been connected to the secrets and life stories of women who cannot have the liberty to live or share them outside their homes. A fearful house with a prisoned person, ghost, or a secret is mostly normally found in gothic writing. Women have exce
... Show MoreBackground: Thrombasthenia is an inherited genetic disorder affecting platelets, which is characterized by spontaneous muco-cutaneous bleeding and abnormally prolonged bleeding in response to injury or trauma. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnosis and treatment of thrombasthenia in Children Welfare Teaching Hospital. Type of the study: A cross-sectional study. Methods: This descriptive study was performed on 66 patients with thrombasthenia from the first of October 2013 till the first of July 2015.The diagnosis of the disease was done by a wide spectrum of characteristics including family history, clinical manifestations, laboratory tests.. Results: The common manifestations of the disease at time of diagnosis wer
... Show Moreيعد التكرار من الظواهر الاسلوبية التي اتخذت دورها في بناء النص الشعري الحديث ويقوم على جملة من الاختيارات الاسلوبية لمادة دون أخرى ولصياغة لغوية دون سواها ، مما يكشف في النهاية عن سرّ ميل هذا النص الشعري أو ذاك لهذا النمط الاسلوبي دون غيره ، وعلى الرغم من ان التكرار يعد مسألة عامة وشائعة في العمل الأدبي ، فأن الاهتمام بهذا الجانب من المنهج الاسلوبي يأتي من جهة كونه مهيمناً له ايحاءاته ودلال
... Show MoreIdentity is an influential and flexible concept in social sciences and political studies. The basic sense of identity is looking for uniqueness. In one sense, it is a sign of identification with those we assume they are similar to us or at least in some significant ways they are so. Globalization, migration, modern technologies, media and political conflicts are argued to have a crucial effect on identity representation in terms of the political perspectives specifically in the United States of America. This paper endeavors to investigate how American politicians represent their identities in speeches delivered in different periods of time namely from 2015 to 2018 in terms of the pragmatic paradigm. Three randomly selected speeches by fa
... Show MoreMarriage is considered one of the strongest ties that links between two human beings , but after the evolutions that happened in our Arab communities and specifically in the Iraqi community , marriage through the internet websites appeared . this kind of marriage is considered one of the new phenomena that appeared in the present time in many societies. That was through internet websites like yahoo , Facebook and other websites that have chat features.
The Islamic sharia looks negatively at marriage through the internet announcing that this way is harmful for both the man and the woman
Although language research has focused on blackmail in general, less attention has been paid to emotional blackmail. To date, researchers could not locate any literature that examines emotional blackmail from a linguistic standpoint. The current study is intended to fill this gap by scrutinizing emotional blackmail from a pragma-stylistic point of view by examining the style of the characters in selected episodes extracted from the American Breaking Bad series. To carry out the study, an eclectic model comprising kinds of emotional blackmailers by Forward and Frazier (1997), Searles’ speech acts (1979), Grice’s maxims (1975), Brown and Levinson’s politeness (1987), Culpeper’s impoliteness (1996), and Simpson’s stylistic le
... Show Morefashion designers who have benefited greatly from the mobilization of ancient aesthetic ideas in the heritage of the people and guaranteed in their productions so that there is no change In the aesthetic value created by the designers of the research in the ancient heritage to find new signs that reflect the connection of man to the present as the aesthetic value of all the man created by the designs of fabrics and fashion through the ages The problem of research was determined in the absence of a precise understanding of the nature of classical thought in fashion and the absence of a clear perception of the sustainability of this thought in contemporary fashion. He
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