Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a collection of chronic, recurrent inflammatory illnesses of the gastrointestinal system, including Crohn's disease (CD). Infliximab is one of the biological medications used to treat CD. Therapeutic drug monitoring has evolved as a treatment in IBD, aiming to optimize benefit while meeting more demanding, objective end criteria. Objective: To determine the achievement of target trough level (TL), develop anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) to infliximab, assess response to therapy, and study TL relations with different variables. Methods: The present study was cross-sectional and conducted from May 2022 to November 2022. It included 40 CD patients allotted into 2 groups: group 1 patients achieved the TL target, and group 2 patients did not achieve the TL target. Results: Twenty-two patients achieved target TL, while 18 patients did not. Dose escalation is recommended for 11 patients, switching therapy for 15 patients, and continuing the same dosage regimen for 14 patients. In addition, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, serum calprotectin and ADAs were significantly lower in patients who achieved target infliximab TL. Only serum calprotectin can be used to predict the achievement of the target TL of infliximab. Conclusions: Therapeutic drug monitoring of infliximab to determine the TL and ADAs can help to explain why some patients do not respond to this drug. Serum calprotectin may be used as a novel marker to predict the TL and response to infliximab.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a proinflammatory cytokine implicated in the immunopathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB). TB is recognized worldwide as an important public health issue. To study the relationship between the age of patients with pulmonary TB and serum IL-6 levels, from the other hand, the severity of this disease with IL-6 levels. This study included 30 patients (16 female and 14 male) with pulmonary TB and 10 healthy persons (5 female and 5 male) as control group for comparison. An ELISA assay was used to quantify IL-6 in the sera. The results showed a significant increase of IL-6 levels with increase of age of patients, in (23-38) year old patients the IL-6 levels (median= 17.9 pg/ml, range 12.3-29.1), while in (50-70) year old patien
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic periodontitis (CP) is greatly prevalent condition of inflammatory behavior. Salivary biomarker total antioxidants capacity (T-AOC) status, may be related to both periodontal condition and oral hygiene. Aims of the study: To assess the level of salivary T-AOC of patients with chronic periodontitis in comparison to healthy control and to correlate between the level of this marker with the clinical periodontal parameters (plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP), probing pocket depth (PPD), and clinical attachment level (CAL)). Materials and Methods: Ninety subjects of males and females with an age ranged between (35-55) years were participated in this study. Participants were divided into two grou
... Show MoreInfection of the gastric mucosa with Helicobacter pylori is strongly associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. Helicobacter pylori virulence factors include a variety of proteins that are involved in its pathogenesis, such as VacA and CagA. Another group of virulence factors is clearly important for colonization of H.pylori in the gastric mucosa. These include urease, motility factors (flagellin), and Superoxide dismutase (SOD). Because of this organism's microaerophilic nature and the increased levels of reactive oxygen in the infected host, we expect that other factors involved in the response to oxidative stress are likely to be required for virulence. Superoxide dismutase is a near
... Show MoreTrigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is one of the most commonly painful cranial neuralgia characterized by paroxysmal attacks as short lasting facial pain along the trigeminal nerve branches. The aim of the present study is to innovate a biochemical relationship between (melatonin, GALNT12 and Zn) and TN and also to examine the biochemical action of tegretol (carbamazepine) as a treatment on the above biochemical parameters. Blood samples were collected from fifty four (54) trigeminal neuralgia patients diagnosed by magnetic radiation image (MRI). Patients were classified into four groups: G3 (40- 70) years composed of (12) diagnosed male (without treatment), G4 (48- 75) years composed of (12) diagnosed female (without treatment), G5 (34- 76)
... Show MoreIntroduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death among type 2 diabetic patients. Higher levels of plasminogen activator urokinase receptor have been found to predict morbidity and mortality across acute and chronic diseases in the common populace. This study aims to explore the role of serum plasminogen activator urokinase receptor levels as a cardiometabolic risk factor among type 2 diabetic Iraqi patients. Methods: Seventy type 2 diabetic patients (40 male and 30 female) (mean age: 46.20±7.56 years) participated in this study; 35 patients were with cardiovascular disease and 35 were without cardiovascular disease; their ages range was 40-55 years. In addition, 30 individuals who apparently healthy were selected a
... Show MoreThe relationship between blood group antigens and peptic ulcer disease has been widely evaluated in the past, but only one study relating H pylori seroprevalence to ABO blood groups among Iraqi patients with peptic ulcer disease is available. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of peptic ulcer disease among different ABO blood groups in Iraqi patients, and we thought it was worthwhile to try to determine whether these components take some part in disease etiology. One hundred and six patients with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) (43 male and 63 female; mean age: 48 ± 18 years) who attended Baghdad teaching hospital and Al- Yarmouk teaching hospital endoscopy centers were enrolled , and 238 control Subjects. Fing
... Show MoreLong-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) mostly associated with renal and hepatic adverse effects, and the adjunct use of compounds with potent protective effects, like silymarin, may be one of the choices to avoid these effects. This project was designed to evaluate the protective effect of silymarin against the suspected renal and hepatic injury induced with long term use of NSAIDs; 220 patients with osteoarthritis were randomized into 5 groups and treated with either silymarin 300mg/day alone, piroxicam 20mg/day alone, meloxicam 15mg/day alone or the combination of each of them with silymarin for 8 weeks. The renal and hepatic functions were evaluated before starting treatment and after 8 weeks including assessm
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