Background: Prolactin is a hormone, as well as a cytokine which is synthesized and secreted from the anterior pituitary gland and various extra pituitary sites including immune cells under control of a superdistal promoter that contains a single nucleotide polymorphism -1149 G/T. Rheumatoid Arthritis has been associated with increased serum prolactin levels.Objectives: To investigate the association of the extra pituitary -1149 G/T promoter polymorphism among Iraqi rheumatoid arthritis patients and prolactin levels.Methods: We tested 73 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 40 healthy individuals. The DNA samples were genotyped using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction fragment Length Polymorphism method and the levels of prolacti

The aim of this study is to determine serum IL-33 levels and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) .Forty patients with moderate activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and forty healthy individuals as control group were enrolled in this study, age (25-45) years. Disease activity was assessed in patients by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),C-reactive protein (CRP) and rheumatoid factor(RF) .Also lipid profile(cholesterol TC, triglyceride TG, low density lipoprotein LDL-C, very low density lipoprotein VLDL and high density lipoprotein HDL-C), AIP, and IL-33 were determined in all subjects. The results revealed a significant increase in ESR,CRP and RF , TG, VLDL,AIP and IL-33,while is a significant decrease in HDL concentration in patients gr

Background: Various studies conducted in many parts of the world suggest that there is lack of public awareness and knowledge of various aspects related to diabetes. With proper education, awareness, earlier detection and better care, many complications and co-morbidities can be reduced in diabetic population.Objectives: to evaluate the level of awareness of diabetes mellitus type 2 patients regarding their disease and its' complications.Methods: Cross – sectional survey was conducted during November and December 2011, in the Medical centers of Al Baladiat, Mustansyria and Zuafranya, including 145 type 2 diabetic patients (58.6 % males, 41.4% females) who were subjected to self–structured questionnaires regarding different aspects of

Background: The appointment system is a common practice in primary health care clinics in developed countries. The patients and health care providers in the primary health care setting perceived the appointment system as an indicator of good quality service.

Objective: The aim of this study was to survey patients’ and health care providers’ attitudes towards the introduction of an appointment system and their satisfaction with the existing ‘walk-in’ system in the primary health care setting.

Subjects and Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted included a convenient sample of 234 patients as well as 76 health care providers from two primary health care center

Long-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

Background: Refractory/relapsed acute leukemia has always been a challenging problem for hematologist. Over the past decade emphasis has been made in the development of regimens containing fludarabine, combined with cytosine arabinoside for the treatment of refractory/relapsed acute leukemias. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of the combination of fludarabine, high dose cytarabine, and granulocyte colony stimulating factor in refractory relapsed cases of acute leukaemia,
Methods: a prospective study is being conducted at the national center of hematology and hematology unit /Baghdad teaching hospital from July 2008 to July 2010.Twenty Patients with refractory/relapsed acute leukemia were treated with flud

The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between IBD and oral symptom and mucosal lesions in patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that has been done in (Kurdistan center for Gastroenterology and hepatology) of Teaching Hospital in Sulaymaniyah-Iraq, which included 101 patients previously diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease who were interviewed regarding manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease especially oral manifestations. Required data were collected through a specially designed questionnaire,

Results: The patients’ mean age was 45.74±12.58 years. Patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease w

Adenosine deaminase (ADA; Ec: 3.5.4.4), 5´- Nucleotidase (5´– NT; Ec: 3.1.3.5), and AMP – amino hydrolase (AMP – deaminase AMPDA; Ec: 3.5.4.6) activities were measured in sera of ovarian cancer patients before surgery, and after chemotherapy. The results indicated that ADA specific activity increased significantly (P<0.05), while 5´-NT and AMPDA specific activity decreased significantly (P<0.05) in ovarian cancer patients before surgery in comparison with those of their corresponding control women and benign tumors groups. When the activities of these enzymes were measured after chemotherapy, a significant decrease (P<0.05) in ADA activity, and a significant increase (P<0.05) in 5´- NT and AMPDA activities w

Background: Because of its clinical and surgical importance and lack of precise information about this rare and important anatomical landmark, this study was designed to detect the presence, configurations and length of Mandibular Retromolar Canal (MRMC) with aid of CBCT visualization. Materials and methods: In this retrospective study the data was obtained from Specialist Health Center in AL-Sadder city in Baghdad for (100) patients with 200 inferior dental canal, all of them referred to CBCT scan (Kodak 9500, French origin). The scanning was done with tube voltage 90 kVp, tube current with 10mA and exposure time was 10 s., the field of view was measured with 5cm x 3.7cmwith 0.03mm voxel size Results: In the present study the prevalence of