Al-Qadisiyah Medical Journal

This is an in vitro laboratory study. It was done in order to prove the competitive inhibition between interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and erythropoietin (EPO) in chronic renal failure (CRF) by fixing an inhibition elicited by EPO on IFN-gamma expression by mononuclear cells. These cells were already separated from fresh anticoaggulated blood specimens from nine CRF-patients and nine healthy persons.Then, were co incubated separately with mitogen, phytohemaggluttinin with and without EPO under standard incubation conditions. Thereafter, IFN-gamma level was measured by ELISA. Results have shown that EPO significantly inhibits IFN-gamma expression by mononuclear cells in healthy persons, p value < 0.05, while this inhibition is not significant in CRF-patients.

In order to study the prevalence of secondary infection in cutaneous Leishmaniasis and its relationship to the healing process , 76 Leishmaniotic patients were evaluated by three methods . The percentage of positive cases by injection with normal saline, part of skin biopsy and blood drops from lesion was 39 (68.4 %), 48 (84.2%) and 37 (65%) respectively while the percentage of nagative cases was 18 (31.6%), 9 (15.8%) and 20 (36%) respectevely .
Secondary infection only were present in 57 (75%) patients, secondary bacterial infection were found in 52/ 57 (91%) patients , Secondary Fungal infection was found in 5/57 (9%) patients , gram positive bacteria only were present in 48/52 (92%) , gram negetive bacteria were present in 4 /52 (8%) patients.
The secondary infection gram positive bacteria which appear Staphylococcus aureus 45/48 (93.7%) ,Streptococcus pyogenes 2/48 (4.2%) ,Staphylococcus epidermidis 1/48 (2.1%) , While gram negative bacteria appear Escherichia coli 2/4 (50%) ,Pseudomonas aeruginosa 1/4 (25%), klebsiella spp. 1/4 (25%) .

Immunological and Inflammatory reaction play a pivotal role in the initiation and perpetuation of rheumatoid arthritis .The present study is an attempt to measures the level of the rheumatoid factor antibody and to estimate the level of c-reactive protein in blood as a marker for inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Babylon government .
A total of (89) cases presenting rheumatoid arthritis with age range (9-68)years old of both sex and (25)person healthy controls were included in this study . Serum RF was detected using(Humatex RF kit) and c - reactive protein was detected using(Humatex CRP kit) which is a rapid agglutination test .CRP test was found to be positive in 84/89 cases of RA .

Background:Thalassemia is chronic disabling disease which have both physical and psychological consequences. Thalassemic patients are receiving medical care that is the focus of major attention with lesser focus on the psychiatric aspect of the illness. Early diagnosis and appropriate management of psychiatric disorders among thalassemic patients may improve the outcome , prognosis and overall quality of patients life.
Objectives :To determine psychoneurotic profiles in thalassemic patients and to find out rates of anxiety, phobia, obsession, somatization, depression &hysteria.
Method:The sample of the study was consisted of case group and control group. Each of the two groups include 80 thalassemic patients and 80 normal people respectively. The self-rating inventory Crown Crisp Experiential Index( CCEI) has been used to study their psychoneurotic profiles.
Results :The study revealed that the frequency of psychiatric morbidity was significantly high among thalassemic patients.The rate of psychiatric symptoms was 87.5% vs.21.25% among thalassemic free people.The rate of somatization(92.5%), phobia(88.8%), anxiety(85%), obsession(83.8), hysteria(81.3%) and depression(76.3).The most common psychiatric symptom was dizziness and shortness of breath and the least common one was feeling loss of sympathy with others.
Conclusions :The psychiatric morbidity of thalassemic patients is remarkable and suggest that all patients with thalassemia should undergo psychiatric assessment and Psychosocial aspects need to be addressed in the overall treatment of children with thalassemia.

The seed of trigonella Feneum - graecum was extracted with 70% ethanol, the antibacterial activity of different concentration of the extract were tested to inhibition of some Gram positive pathogenicc bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. Diplcoccus pneumonia, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus facials and Gram negative such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp & Pseudomonas aeroginousa.
The high concentration ،2mg/ml showed antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria, while pseudomonas auregenosa was resistant to all concentration of extract.
The results indicated that the extract of fenugreek plant seeds is important in treatment of bacterial infection & drugs industries.

Patients & method: 200 patients attending to the fever consultation unit from January 2008 to March 2009 in Al-dewania teaching hospital diagnosed on the base of clinical and rising widal O titer as typhoid fever patient were randomly equally divided into two groups G1 received ceftriaxone 1gm TID and G2 received ciprofloxacin 500 mg BID, every patient was closely followed by temperature chart for 7 days.
Result: 100% of G1 patients were afebrile (5) days after commencement of treatment while only 50% of G2 patients became afebrile (7) days after treatment.
Conclusion: this probably warning that resistant for ciprofloxacin is an evolving problem in our community and ceftriaxone is the drug of choice in treatment of typhoid fever.

Conclusion: Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage is a common health problem all over the world and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is an emerging subject even in our community ,which requires further attention and support.
Key words: Staphylococcus aureus, nasal carrier, penicillin resistance, methicillin resistance.
Background : nasal carrier of Staphylococcus aureus is a common health problem world wide.
Objective: The present study was conducted to assess the epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriers among hospital staff in AN- Nasiriyah teaching Hospital ,Thi-Qar ,Iraq.
Patients and methods: Nasal swabs were taken from each of 140 personnel. After culturing on blood agar for overnight, probable staphylococcal isolates were identified and subjected to tube Coagulase test. After a two-week interval, second nasal swabs were taken from the subjects whose first cultures were positive for S. aureus.
Results: Nasal carriage was defined in 31 (22.14%) personnel with positive culture for both sampling time. 74.19% are penicillin resistant, most of them are methicillin sensitive but 2 cases (1.43%) are methicillin resistant.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains an important public health problem world wide. It is one of the leading infectious diseases in the world and is responsible for more than 3 million deaths and 8 million new cases annually.The report of World Health Organization (WHO) estimated, for the year 2002 a global incidence of 8.8 million new cases, including 3.9 million smear-positive subjects.
Aim of the study: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of available rapid diagnostic tests to identify TB infection.
The main goal of this study was to use the PCR technique for the rapid detection of tuberculosis using sputum sampling and body fluid specimens other than respiratory secretions.
Methods: During the period from December 2006 to May 2007, A total of 50 samples (sputum) were selected from 250 outpatients.The study regard's the culture of sputum as the gold standard test to other methods.
Results:All of the examined patients with TB, the cause was M. tuberculosis.Clinical and laboratory diagnosis of the suspected patients revealed that 30 patients were suffering from PMIs , 15 of them had mixed infection.Twenty patients appeared to have pulmonary tuberculosis without mycotic infection. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and Accuracy rate of PCR test were (94.2 %, 100%, 100%, 88.2% and 96 %), respectively.
Conclusions: The AFB stain was easy but not sufficient to diagnosis the pulmonary TB alone, whereas the use of Lضwenstein-Jensen medium sensitive enough for diagnosis of pulmonary TB, but need along time to get the results. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test gave a high sensitivity and specificity in comparison with other done test, with its advantages of greater speed and effectiveness than conventional detection methods. It was successfully to identify the M. tuberculosis, particularly when the staining for acid- fast bacilli is negative and there was a lack of growth on culture or when fresh material has not been collected for culture.

In this study ,out of 2215 patients referred for echocardiography unit in Al-sadder general hospital in Al-Ammara from jul.2003-jul.2005. 847 (38.2%) patients were found to have abnormal echocardiograms with more males were been examined than females. Echocardiography findings, were not matching the clinical impression that warranted such test in considerable number of patients. In this study, results regarding the incidence or sex distribution of some cardiac abnormalities were comparable to that recognized in some other studies, while different results were recognized, regarding some other cardiac lesions.