ABSTRACTBackground: dyslipidemia plays a crucial rule in the development of cardiovascular disease, which has become the leading cause of death in most developed countries as well as in developing countries (1). The effects of reducing low density lipoprotein – C (LDL-C) concentrations on the prevention of cardiovascular events and stroke have been well reported in many clinical trials.Objectives: Evidence supports the use of statins for lipid modifications in the primary prevention of coronary artery disease, morbidity and mortality. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of atorvastatin in treating dyslipidemia in Iraqi obese patients.Methods: 200 overweight and obese patients with hypercholesterolemia, according to NCEP ATP III criteria, were included. They were randomized into 3 groups according to atorvastatin dose, 10, 20, 40 mg/ day, and treated for 8 weeks. Blood lipid profile, liver enzymes ALT and AST, urea, creatinine, uric acid, calcium and glucose were measured before and after therapy.Results: There was a significant reduction of total cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), but a non-significant reduction of high density lipoprotein (HDL) with all atorvastatin doses. The high doses of the drug caused a significant elevation of serum levels of ALT and AST and a significant decrease of blood calcium; but there was nosignificant change in blood levels ofurea, creatinine, uric acid or glucose with any dose.Conclusion: Short-term atorvastatin therapy in dyslipidemic obese patients caused a reduction of TC, TG, LDL, and VLDL, but had no significant effect on HDL, non-significant changes in blood urea, serum creatinine, serum uric acid or blood glucose, while there was a dose dependent elevation of ALT and AST
Exogenous levothyroxine dose modulation and euthyroidism achievement is a persistent challenge in clinical settings. This study strives to assess the adequacy of treatment and identify the patients’ factors that can be used to estimate the euthyroid levothyroxine dose. A secondary objective was to assess vitamin D supplementation impact on thyroid status.
A review of a prospectively collected information from 142 female patients from Baghdad Center of Nuclear Medicine from June 2019 until March 2020 who were receiving levothyroxine for different causes was done. After a follow-up period, the patients’ thyroid tests were assessed and the euthyroid doses for each cause category were statistically analyzed. Thyroid function was
... Show MoreBackground: Sex variations in coronary artery disease (CAD) are well documented. However, sex differences in coronary artery calcium (CAC) and its role in the detection of coronary artery stenosis remain controversial. Objective: To assess the impact of sex variation on coronary artery calcification and its efficacy in predicting coronary artery stenosis. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study including 230 consecutive patients with suspected CAD (120 men and 110 women) referred for coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). The study analyzed sex-based differences in the sensitivity and specificity of coronary artery calcification (CAC) for detecting moderate to severe stenosis across various coronary arteries
... Show MoreBackground: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukins play important roles in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Genetic research has been employed to find many of the missing connections between genetic risk variations and causal genetic components. Objective: The goal of this study is to look at the genetic variations of TNF-α and interleukins in Iraqi RA patients and see how they relate to disease severity or response to biological therapy. Method: Using specific keywords, the authors conducted a systematic and comprehensive search to identify relevant Iraqi studies examining the genetic variations of TNF-α and interleukins in Iraqi RA patients and how they relate to disease severity or response to biolo
... Show MoreComparative Study Between Glimepiride and Glibenclamide in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Al-Yarmouk Hospital
Parkinson’s disease (PD) consider as a progressive ageing neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson’s consider as a heterogenous disease, with mainly initiate through correlation between genetic and epigenetic by inducing of different factors on some related genes, these factors like (environmental, toxicants, nutrition, heavy metals, pesticides, some drugs) and also(trauma on head ,strokes) in addition to unknown reasons which cause an idiopathic PD .Current study aims to focusing on specific related PD gene called SNCA by single nucleotides polymorphism (rs2619363) as a risk factor for PD initiation disease in PD patients in addition to study the effect of polymorphisms on random Iraqi patients with different gastrointestinal
... Show MoreBackground: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting the Iraqi population and the leading cause of cancer related mortality among Iraqi women. It has been well documented that prognosis of patients depends largely upon the hormone receptor contents and HER-2 over expression of their neoplasm. Recent studies suggest that Triple Positive (TP) tumors, bearing the three markers, tend to exhibit a relatively favorable clinical behavior in which overtreatment is not recommended. Aim: To document the different frequencies of ER/PR/HER2 breast cancer molecular subtypes focusing on the Triple Positive pattern; correlating those with the corresponding clinico-pathological characteristics among a sample of Iraqi patients diagnosed with th
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Diffuse astrocytomas constitute the largest group of primary malignant human intracranial tumours. They are classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) into three histological malignancy grades: diffuse astrocytomas (grade II), anaplastic astrocytomas (grade III) and glioblastoma (grade IV) based on histopathological features such as cellular atypia, mitotic activity, necrosis and microvascular proliferation. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a 170-kDa transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor expressed in a variety of normal and malignant cells regulating critical cellular processes. When activated, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) triggers several signalling cascades leading to increased proliferatio
... Show MoreThe present study was designed to shed light on the molecular effects caused by acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It was also aimed to investigate ASXL1 point mutations in newly AML patients as compared to healthy control. The study comprised of 43 AML Iraqi patients and their ages ranged between 16-75 years. It included 23 females and 20 males compared with 20 healthy controls. Results revealed that the extracted DNA from 30 AML patients and amplified by PCR to obtain ASXL1 gene from exon 12 showed larger bands (479). Among forty three patients, two of them displayed point mutations of deletion and substitution, while the others were normal since no mutations were detected. The total of mutations in two mutated patients was 27 mutations, the m
... Show MoreBackground: Bowel cancer is the most prevalent digestive system cancer and is the 4th largest cause of cancer-related death worldwide. In Iraq, colon and rectal cancer (CRC) is the 6th most common malignancy in males and the 5th in females. This cancer is sluggish in growth, which gives a window of opportunity to screen for both precursor lesions and early cancer. The Cluster of Differentiation 47 (CD47) protein is a type of transmembrane glycoproteins found on nearly all human cells, including non-hematopoietic and hematopoietic cells. CD47 promotes CRC growth by triggering angiogenesis and apoptosis of tumor cell. Objectives: To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of (CD47) in various colorectal samples from Iraqi patients
... Show MoreAbstract Background: The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2) proto-oncogene is overexpressed or amplified in approximately 15%-25% of invasive breast cancers. Approximately 35% of HER2-amplified breast cancers have coamplification of the topoisomerase II-alpha (TOP2A) gene encoding an enzyme that is a major target of anthracyclines. Hence, the determination of genetic alteration (amplification or deletion) of both genes is considered as an important predictive factor that determines the response of breast cancer patients to treatment. The aims of this study are to determinate TOP2A status gene amplification in a set of Iraqi patients with breast cancer that have had an equivocal (2+) and positive HER2/neu by immunohistochemistry
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