Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are said to be inherited in a multifactorial fashion, i.e. genetic-environmental interaction. Maternal nutritional deficiencies had long been reported to cause NTDs, especially folate deficiency during early pregnancy. More attention had been paid to the exact mechanism by which this deficiency state causes these defects in the developing embryo. The most significant of all researches was that connecting reduced folate and increased homocysteine level in maternal serum on one hand and the risk of developing a NTD baby on the other hand. Objectives : to determine the significance of homocysteine level in Iraqi mothers who gave birth to babies with NTDs as compared to normal controls. Patients, Materials and Methods: Fifty Iraqi women having babies born with NTDS, referred to the genetic clinic in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, were included in this study (the study group) as well as 37 healthy women having normal children (the control group). This study was conducted from November, 2002 till October, 2003. Analysis of total serum homocysteine level for all women was done using a computerized HPLC system. Results : the age of women in both groups was comparable (mean+SD in the study group was 26.2+5.14 years vs. 26.3+4.57 years in the controls). Among the study group, 4 (8%) had normal tHcy level; 44 (88%) had mildly elevated level, and only 2 (4%) had moderately elevated tHcy level, while all (100%) women in the control group had their tHcy level within normal level. This difference was statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusions : Women become at an increased risk of delivering a baby with NTD when having an elevated tHcy level in their sera, and that tHcy level is an important marker in maternal serum that is associated significantly with pregnancy outcome.
Abstract:Leukemia is a cancer of early blood forming cells. Most of them are cancers of white blood cells , however some leukemias start in other blood cell types.Electrolytes have modulatory effects on several biological mechanisms in the body namely as stabilizers,element of structures, essential element for hormonal function and also co-factors for a number of enzymes.In this study serum electrolytes levels were measured in patients with acute leukemia (AL) disorders before and after chemotherapy(anthracycline, doxorubicin, cytarabine ,prednisone, vincristine and doxorubicin) during one month and compared with that of control group. Blood samples were obtained from (43) patients (28 males and 15 females) aged (15-55)years;juset before an
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Abstract
A sensitive, precise and reliable indirect spectrophotometric method for the determination of chlordiazepoxide (CDE) in pure and pharmaceutical dosage forms is described. The method is based on oxidative coupling reaction between amino group resulting from acidic decomposition of CDE with phenothiazine in the presence of sodium periodate to produce an intense green soluble dye that is stable and shows a maximum absorption at 602 nm. The calibration plot indicates that Beer’s law is obeyed over the concentration range of 0.1?50 µg/mL, with a molar absorptivity of 1×104 L/mol cm and correlation coefficient of 0.9994.All the conditions that affecting on the stability and sensitivity of the fo
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The Leishmania donovani parasite causes visceral leishmaniasis (VL), an acute and fatal form of leishmaniasis. Because traditional therapy alternatives, such as glucantime and other pentavalent medicines, are toxic and have side effects, new treatments with fewer negative effects are needed. Only a handful of drugs are clinically beneficial to treatments of the disease, but considerable limitations threaten their very usage. Novel, safe, and efficient drugs, including those against antimalaria and leishmaniasis co-infections, are so essential. Artemether (ATM) is an Artemisinin derivative that has been demonstrated to be useful in the treatment of malaria and, more recently, leishmaniasis. The current research was carried out to evaluate th
... Show MoreObjective: The present study aims to assess the stressful life events for patients with substance abuse in Baghdad city.
Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at (Baghdad teaching hospital and Ibn-Rushed Psychiatric hospital).
Starting from 1
st of December 2012 to 3
rd of July 2013, A non-probability (purposive) sample of 64 patients that
diagnosed with substance abuse, the data were collected through the use of semi-structured interview by
questionnaire, which consists of three parts sociodemographic data, medical information, and Life events scale
consists of 49-items distributed to six domains including, family and social domain, health domain, security, legal and
criminal domain, work and school do
Objective To highlight the main demographic characteristics and clinical profiles of female patients registered with breast cancer in Iraq; focusing on the impact of age.Methods This retrospective study enrolled 1172 female patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer at the Main Center for Early Detection of Breast Cancer/Medical City Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. Data were extracted from an established information system, developed by the principal author under supervision of WHO, that was based on valid clinical records of Iraqi patients affected by breast cancer. The recorded information regarding clinical examination comprised positive palpable lumps, bloody nipple discharge, skin changes, bilateral breast involvement, tumor
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Background: Normal Left Ventricular systolic function is present in nearly 50% of patients with congestive heart failure, the majority of such patients have systemic hypertension. Recent studies have demonstrated Left Ventricular dyssynchrony among patients with heart failure and normal systolic function. The co-existence between Left Ventricular dyssynchrony and hypertension with normal systolic function (with no clinical evidence of heart failure) is less well understood.
Objective:
To assess the Left Ventricular dyssynchrony among hypertensive patients with normal systolic function by using Tissue doppler imaging.To find out the associations between the LV dyssynchrony and other global
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Endometriosis is a painful disease that affects around 5% of women of reproductive age. In endometriosis, ectopic endometrial cells or seeded endometrial debris grow in abnormal locations including the peritoneal cavity. Common manifestations of endometriosis include dyspareunia, dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain and often infertility and symptomatic relief or surgical removal are mainstays of treatment. Endometriosis both promotes and responds to estrogen imbalance, leading to intestinal bacterial estrobolome dysregulation and a subsequent induction of inflammation.
In the current study, we investigated the linkage be
One of the most important challenges facing the designers of the sewerage system is the corrosion of sewers due to the influence of sewerage contaminates which lead to failure of the main lines of sewers. In this study, a reference mix of 1: 1.5: 3 was used and the 4% Flocrete PC200 by weight of cement was added to the same mixing ratio in the second mixture. Twenty-four samples were tested for each mixture, 12 of which were used to compression strength test in ages (7, 14 and 28) day and six samples were submerged after 28 days of wet treatment at (5 and 10) % concentrations of sulfuric acid. The other six samples were painted after 28 days of wet treatment with coating Polyurethane and after 24 hours were flooded with a concentrat
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Background: psychiatric and behavioral side effects
are common in patients with epilepsy and it may
represent an intrinsic feature of the disease itself or a
side effect of the antiepileptic use. Our aim in the
present study is to assess the psychiatric side effects of
Sodium Valproate and Carbamazipine .as these drugs
are the most commonly used antiepileptic drugs in Iraq.
Methods: 80 patients with primary generalized
epilepsy on Carbamazipine and 50 patients on Sodium
Valproate were enrolled in the present study; all the
patients were assessed for any psychological
disturbances using semi-structural interview based on
the tenth edition of the international classification of
the diseases(ICD 10) ad