All major organs may be impacted by the connective disease systemic lupus erythematosus, a separate risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Adhesion molecules like intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecules (VCAM) can detect endothelial damage and dysfunction, which appear to play a crucial role. This study investigated whether people with SLE had elevated subclinical and clinical atherosclerosis risk factors. Traditional CAD risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia cannot entirely explain this elevation. It is thought that immunological dysfunction also increases CAD risk in SLE patients. The study aimed to assess early endothelial changes in SLE Iraqi female patients without previous coronary artery lesions by exploring a potential relationship between circulating VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 as risk factors for atherosclerosis and the relationship of CAD with SLE disease and its severity; further, the study explained the effect of the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on the lipid profile levels of the patients. 92 female SLE patients were divided into mild, moderate, and severe, according to the SLE disease activity index 2000 (SLEDAI-2k), compared with 30 apparently healthy control individuals. All of them need a history of CAD. Serum VCAM-1, ICAM-1 level, VCAM-1/ICAM1 ratio, TC, HDL, LDL levels TC/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios were measured. sVCAM-1, sICAM-1 levels and VCAM-1/ICAM-1 ratio were significantly and gradually increased in patient groups compared with control. Serum TC, HDL and LDL levels were significantly reduced in the SLE patients compared to the control. At the same time, the TC/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios were significantly elevated with the severity of the SLE disease. sVCAM-1, sICAM-1 level and VCAM1/ICAM-1 ratio together with serum TC/HDL and LDL/HDL may improve coronary artery disease risk categorization in SLE patients without acute coronary syndromes. Furthermore, they were more sensitive in severe SLE instances than in moderate and mild ones, suggesting that they may be related to the extent of coronary lesions in SLE patients. VCAM-1 had a higher sensitivity than ICAM-1 in detecting and severity screening for CAD in SLE patients. Keywords: VCAM-1, ICAM-1, SLE, Atherosclerosis
The distress of moisture induced damage in flexible pavement received tremendous attention over the past decades. The harmful effects of this distress expand the deterioration of other known distresses such as rutting and fatigue cracking. This paper focused on the efficiency of using the waste material of demolished concrete to prepare asphalt mixtures that can withstand the effect of moisture in the pavement. For this purpose, different percentages of waste demolished concrete (0, 10, 20, 30, 50, 70 and 100) were embedded as a replacement for coarse aggregate to construct the base course. The optimum asphalt contents were determined depending on the Marshall method. Then after, two parameters were founded to evaluate the moisture
... Show MoreBackground/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to classify Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients from Normal Control (NC) patients using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Methods/Statistical analysis: The performance evolution is carried out for 346 MR images from Alzheimer's Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) dataset. The classifier Deep Belief Network (DBN) is used for the function of classification. The network is trained using a sample training set, and the weights produced are then used to check the system's recognition capability. Findings: As a result, this paper presented a novel method of automated classification system for AD determination. The suggested method offers good performance of the experiments carried out show that the
... Show MoreEchocardiography is a widely used imaging technique to examine various cardiac functions, especially to detect the left ventricular wall motion abnormality. Unfortunately the quality of echocardiograph images and complexities of underlying motion captured, makes it difficult for an in-experienced physicians/ radiologist to describe the motion abnormalities in a crisp way, leading to possible errors in diagnosis. In this study, we present a method to analyze left ventricular wall motion, by using optical flow to estimate velocities of the left ventricular wall segments and find relation between these segments motion. The proposed method will be able to present real clinical help to verify the left ventricular wall motion diagnosis.
Gamma - irradiation effect on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) samples has been studied using Positron Annihilation Lifetime (PAL) method. The orthopositronium (o-Ps) lifetime τ3, hence the o-ps parameters, the volume hole size (Vh) and the free volume fraction (Ꞙh) in the irradiated samples were measured as a function of gamma-irradiation dose up to 28.05 kGy. It has been shown that τ 3, Vh, and Ꞙh, are increasing in general with increasing gamma-dose, to reach a maximum percentage increment of 22.42% in τ3, 60% in Vh and 29.5% in Ꞙh, at. 2.55 kGy, whereas τ2 reaches maximum increment of 119. 7% at 7.65 kGy. The results s
... Show MoreBox-Wilson experimental design method was employed to optimized lead ions removal efficiency by bulk liquid membrane (BLM) method. The optimization procedure was primarily based on four impartial relevant parameters: pH of feed phase (4-6), pH of stripping phase (9-11), carrier concentration TBP (5-10) %, and initial metal concentration (60-120 ppm). maximum recovery efficiency of lead ions is 83.852% was virtually done following thirty one-of-a-kind experimental runs, as exact through 24-Central Composite Design (CCD). The best values for the aforementioned four parameters, corresponding to the most restoration efficiency were: 5, 10, 7.5% (v/v), and 90 mg/l, respectively. The obtained experimental data had been
... Show MoreThis work aims to investigate the inhibition of vitality of Streptococcus mutans, which is the causative agent of caries. A 632.8 nm He-Ne laser with the output power of 4.5mW was used in combination with toluidine blue O (TBO) at the concentration of 50μg/ml as a photosensitizer. Streptococcus mutans was isolated from 35 patients if carious teeth. Three isolates were chosen and exposed to different energy densities of He – Ne laser light 3.8, 11.7, 34.5 and 104.1 J/cm². After irradiation, substantial reduction was observed in the number of colony forming units (CFU)/ ml. The reduction in the number of CFU was increasing as the dose increased.
This research aims to identify the means and forms of interactive communication concerning Iraqi topics on the websites of global radio stations, namely Sawa and Monte Carlo. It also seeks to uncover the editorial and artistic interactions related to Iraqi topics on the selected websites chosen as the research sample, comparing them with the editorial interaction within the Iraqi context between the Radio Monte Carlo and Sawa websites.
The research yields several conclusions, including the following:
Iraqis focus their interaction with topics related to Iraq on Facebook for both Radio Monte Carlo and Sawa; Arabs show higher levels of interaction on Twitter with Radio Monte Carlo; Participants on the webs
In the present study, an attempt has been to develop a new water quality index (WQI) method that depends on the Iraqi specifications for drinking water (IQS 417, 2009) to assess the validity of the Euphrates River for drinking by classifying the quality of the river water at different stations along its entire reach inside the Iraqi lands. The proposed classifications by this method are: Excellent, Good, Acceptable, Poor, and Very poor. Eight water quality parameters have been selected to represent the quality of the river water these are: Ion Hydrogen Concentration (pH), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Chloride (Cl), Sulphate (SO_4), Nitrate (NO_3), and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The variation of the water quality p
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