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.
Five species of Lactic acid bacteriawere isolated from raw milk, yoghurt, vegetables and pickles, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus bulgaricus isolates were identified by 16S rRNA gene. Evaluate of antimicrobial activity against all the bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Pseudomonas fluorescens, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis. It showed that bacteriocin of Lactic acid bacteriamore effective than supernatant of lactic acid bacteria, the results showed that isolatemost efficient isolate belonging to Lactobacillus brevis, the diameter of the inhibition of the bacteriocin of Lactobacillus brevis were 27.7, 26.3 and 25.1
... Show MoreBackground: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common disorder that affects women of various ages and impacts all aspects of life. This condition negatively influences quality of life. Fractional CO2 laser (10600nm) is the recent method for treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of fractional CO2 laser (10600nm) in the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence. Materials & Methods: This study was done from July 2020 to February 2021conducted at the laser institute for postgraduate studies university of Baghdad, patients collected from a private clinic and the Department of
... Show MorePermanent magnets of different intensities were used to investigate the effect of a magnetic field in the process of preventing deposits of calcium carbonate. The magnets were fixed on the water line from the tap outside. Then heating a sample of this water in flasks and measuring the amount of sediment in a manner weighted differences. These experiments comprise to the change of the velocity of water flow, which amounted to (0.5, 0.75, 1) m/sec through the magnetic fields that are of magnetic strength (2200, 6000, 9250, 11000) Gauss, and conduct measurements, tests and compare them with those obtained from the use of ordinary water.The results showed the effectiveness of magnetic treatment in reducing the rate of deposition of calcium carb
... Show MoreBrachytherapy treatment is primarily used for the certain handling kinds of cancerous tumors. Using radionuclides for the study of tumors has been studied for a very long time, but the introduction of mathematical models or radiobiological models has made treatment planning easy. Using mathematical models helps to compute the survival probabilities of irradiated tissues and cancer cells. With the expansion of using HDR-High dose rate Brachytherapy and LDR-low dose rate Brachytherapy for the treatment of cancer, it requires fractionated does treatment plan to irradiate the tumor. In this paper, authors have discussed dose calculation algorithms that are used in Brachytherapy treatment planning. Precise and less time-consuming calculations
... Show MoreThe Bartholin gland cyst is a condition that occurs in approximately 2% of women, most of whom are of reproductive age. Although benign pathology, it is associated with significant patient discomfort. This disorder is caused by the obstruction and consequent dilation of the cyst duct. Definitive treatment involves the surgical removal of the entire cyst. Other alternative treatments include Marsupialization, Word catheter, and the use of CO2 laser. CO2 laser can be used either to vaporize or to excise the Bartholin gland cyst. The Objectives: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of (10600nm) CO2 laser in the treatment of Bartholin gland cyst. Patients, Materials & Methods: This study was done in laser medi
... Show MoreThis study investigates the results of electrocoagulation (EC) using aluminum (Al) electrodes as anode and stainless steel (grade 316) as a cathode for removing silica, calcium, and magnesium ions from simulated cooling tower blowdown waters. The simulated water contains (50 mg/l silica, 508 mg/l calcium, and 292 mg/l magnesium). The influence of different experimental parameters, such as current density (0.5, 1, and 2 mA/cm2), initial pH(5,7, and 10), the temperature of the simulated solution(250C and 35 0C), and electrolysis time was studied. The highest removal efficiency of 80.183%, 99.21%, and 98.06% for calcium, silica, and magnesium ions, respectively, were obtained at a current de
... Show MoreOily carwash wastewater is a high organic and chemical wastewater. This paper targeted to investigate a treatment to decrease the water consumption and contaminants in car-washing stations. Electrocoagulation combined with ultrasonic energy (Sono-Electrocoagulation) was suggested so that the carwash wastewater is treated to be reused. The effect of both the voltage and time of treatment on the removal of COD, turbidity, conductivity, and total dissolved solids (TDS) were studied at constant initial pH 7 and electrode distance 2 cm. The results showed the best results of removal COD, turbidity, TDS, and reduce electrical conductivity is when the voltage was 30 V and a treatment time of 90 minutes.
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... Show MoreBasrah is the richest town and the economic capital of Iraq. It suffers from lack of drinking water. This project is a dream to supply drinking water to Basrah citizens within WHO standards. Water should pass sedimentation and filtration stages before interring reverse osmosis unit. The design is carried out using lewaplus2 software. Several parameters should be selected in the design step membrane type, number of stages, number per element in each stage, and the recovery percentage. An optimization is carried out using Minitab ver. 18 for the acceptable limit of TDS and minimum cost and it was found that the optimum conditions were 52% for first stage, the numbers of vessels are 20 for both the first and second stage. In addition,
... Show MoreStress urinary incontinence (SUI) is involuntary urine leakage during activities that increase abdominal pressure such as coughing, sneezing and lifting of heavy weights. This is a very common disorder among women with history of multiple vaginal deliveries with an obstructed labor. SUI is considered one of the most distressing problems, especially for younger women, with severe quality of life implications, it caused by the loss of urethral support, usually as a consequence of the supporting structural muscles in the pelvis.
Objective: To prove and demonstrate the effect of a fractional CO2 micro-ablative laser (10600nm) in intra vaginal therapy for treating SUI and achieve a clinical improvement of t
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