Background: Chronic cough is often the key
symptom not only of chronic pulmonary diseases
but for other important extrapulmonary
pathologies, in particular upper airway and
gastrointestinal diseases.
Objective: This study was designed to
determine the etiology of chronic cough and the
usefulness of the available diagnostic tests in
reaching its causes.
Methods: One hundred patients presenting with
chronic cough at Baghdad Teaching Hospital
Outpatient Clinic were enrolled in this study. The
patients underwent a full clinical interview,
physical examination with indicated diagnostic
test(s) (such as chest x ray, bronchoscope, PFT,
GIT study, sinus X ray or CT).
Results: An etiology of chronic cough was
determined in 93% of the patients. Post nasal drip
is the leading cause of chronic cough reported in
31% of the patient, while asthma gastroesophageal
reflux disease, and chronic bronchitis
seen in (26, 20, and 6 % respectively).
The diagnosis of chronic cough can be reached by
comprehensive history, proper physical
examination, and chest X ray findings in 66 %
patients, further more sophisticated and invasive
tests like: PFT, upper GIT study , expectorated
sputum examination (AFB, Gram staining,
cytology), fibrooptic bronchoscope, and full ENT
evaluation including sinuses X ray or sinuses CT
scanning, are need in the rest.
Conclusion: The etiology of chronic cough can
often be diagnosed safely with a simple initial
evaluation (history, physical examination and
chest X-ray). Postnasal drip, asthma and
gastroesophageal reflux disease account for the
etiology in more than three quarter of the patients.
Piroxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used in the treatment of musculo-skeletal and joint disorders. The problem with this drug is its poor solubility in water and hence poor bioavailability after oral administration. In order to improve its solubility and dissolution behavior, hydrophilic additives such as starch, lactose, superdisintegrants including crospovidone (C.P), cross carmellose sodium (CCS), and sodium starch glycolate (SSG) were physically dry mixed with the drug by simple trituration. The improvement in the solubility in 0.1 N HCl was obtained as the amount of starch or lactose increased in the physical mixture, while for superdisintegrants, they further improve the solubility when they are present in s
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his study aimed to evaluate the effects of different doses of melatonin on liver function in adult rats. Eighteen Wistar adult albino rats (Rattus norvegicus), approximately 13–16 weeks old and weighing 230 ± 10 g, were randomly divided into three groups (n=6 per group) and treated orally for 30 days as follows: Group A1 received 10 mg/kg body weight (B.W) of melatonin; Group A2 received 20 mg/kg B.W of melatonin; and the control group (Group A) received distilled water. At the end of the treatment period, blood samples were collected via cardiac puncture, and serum was separated for biochemical analysis. Parameters assessed included oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH)) and liver enzymes (aspa
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Fluoxetine (FX) is an antidepressant drug administered only orally in humans. Despite the wide use of FX, until now, there is only limited literature concerning the pharmacokinetics (PK) of FX and the effect of food on its PK. Thus, the objective of this investigation was to study the PK of FX in Arabic healthy male adult volunteers under fasting and fed conditions. In the fasting study, FX 20 mg capsules (Prozac®, Eli Lilly, Canada) were administered to 41 volunteers after overnight fasting of 12 hours, followed by blood sampling from each volunteer immediately before dosing (zero time) and then at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 96, 120, and eventually at 144 hours after FX dosing. The fed study was conduct
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(5)
(3)
This study focused on the expression and regulation of BRCA1 in breast cancer cell lines compared to normal breast. BRCA1 transcript levels were assessed by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in the cancer cell lines. Our data show overexpression of BRCA1 mRNA level in all the studied breast cancer cell lines: MCF-7, T47D, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 along with Jurkat, leukemia T-lymphocyte, the positive control, relative to normal breast tissue. To investigate whether a positive or negative correlation exists between BRCA1 and the transcription factor E2F6, three different si-RNA specific for E2F6 were used to transfect the normal and cancerous breast cell lines. Interestingly, strong negative relationship was found b
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In this research, I have tried to explain about the prophets' peace be upon them sent by God which is one of the commonalities between Islam and Judaism, but the two religions are different about whether the prophets are infallible or not. This study has tried to independently explain to describe both Islam and Judaism on this subject. Eventually, we concluded that there is a big difference between the two religions regarding their view of the infallibility of the prophets of all sins.
Background: Smoking is the major environmental risk factor that has been associated with the pathogenesis and progression of periodontal diseases. Interleukin-8 (IL-8), has been associated with the immunopathology of periodontitis. Objectives: To determine the influence of smoking on salivary Interleukin-8 level from smokers and non-smokers with periodontitis and periodontally healthy control subjects.
Materials and Methods: Un-stimulated saliva samples were collected of 90 participants: 30 smokers and 30 non-smokers with chronic periodontitis, as well as 30 periodontally healthy control subjects. The clinical parameters such as the pocket depth, clinical attachment loss, plaque index, and gingiv
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(11)
(11)
In fish, a complex set of mechanisms deal with environmental stresses including hypoxia. In order to probe the hypothesis that hypoxia-induced stress could be manifested in varieties of pathways, a model species, mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio), were chronically exposed to hypoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 1.80±0.6mg/l) for 21 days and subsequently allowed to recover under normoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 8.2±0.5mg/l) for 7 days. At the end of these exposure periods, an integrated approach was applied to evaluate several endpoints at different levels of biological organisation. These included determination of (i) oxidative damage to DNA in erythrocytes (using modified comet assay), (ii) lipid peroxidation in liver sample
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