Muthanna Medical Journal

Functional disability represents the commonest cause of the decline in health status above 60 years old. Among the elderly population, the clinician needs to assess functional capacity to get an improvement in health status and nursing care for a better quality of life. Assesses the prevalence and spectrum of functional disability among the elderly. A total sample of 400 patients from the attended geriatric outpatient clinic at Baghdad Teaching Hospital /Medical City Center of both genders aged ≥ 60 years. Data collected by using a questionnaire consists of socio-demographic factors and chronic diseases, six items of the Katz index for basic activities of daily living (BADL), and eight items of the Lawton index for instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) for functional capacity assessment. The total prevalence of functional disability in the elderly sample for basic activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living was 4.5% and 10.8% respectively. Incontinence represents the highest percentage of dependency among basic activities of daily living followed by bathing, while food preparation, shopping, and responsibility for own medications are among instrumental activities of daily living in an elderly sample. There was a positive significant association between functional disability with age, gender, and marital status variables in association with basic activities of daily living performance, while a positive significant association was found between functional disability with age, gender, educational level, and occupation variables in association with instrumental activities of daily living performance. The level of independence for both basic activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living was relatively high. Dependency was significantly associated with advanced age, female gender, marital status, educational level, and occupation of the participants.

A collection of moldy filamentous belonging to the orders Zygomycetes additionally Mucorales produce the infection known as mucormycosis. A frequent name for mucormycosis is "black fungus disease." This infection primarily affects diabetics and people with impaired immune systems. Inhaling mold containing industrial oxygen increases the risk of mucormycosis while COVID-19 infection lowers patients' immunity. The main goal of this review is to supply a thorough synopsis of COVID-19, recognize the essential fungal agent, and illustrate the Invasiveness and morbid manifestation as complications of COVID-19. During 2023, a thorough literature search was conducted using keywords like "Mucormycosis", "Blackfungus," "Mucorales," and "Zygomycetes," in search engines including PubMed, Google Scholars, Research Gate, and SCOPUS. If not properly detected, the rare invasive fungal infection known as mucormycosis has a greater fatality rate. Mucorales frequently attack the endothelial cells in vascular tissue. Depending on anatomical localization, mucormycosis can be classified into six different categories; disseminated, miscellaneous, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, cutaneous, and rhino-cerebral. In conclusion; In the review of available literature, we present a summary of the key variables that influence the Black-Fungus (Mucormycosis) development in novel COVID-19 patients.

Regenerative medicine offers the exciting potential of developing alternatives to total joint replacement for treating osteoarthritis (OA). In this article, we highlight recent work that addresses the key challenges of stem cell-based therapies for OA and provide examples of innovative ways in which stem cells can aid in the treatment of OA. Significant progress has been made in understanding the challenges to successful stem cell therapy, such as the effects of age or disease on stem cell properties, altered stem cell function due to an inflammatory joint environment, and phenotypic instability in vivo. Novel scaffold designs have been shown to enhance the mechanical properties of tissue-engineered cartilage and have also improved the integration of newly formed tissue within the joint. Emerging strategies such as injecting stem cells directly into the joint, manipulating endogenous stem cells to enhance regenerative capacity, and utilizing stem cells for drug discovery have expanded the potential uses of stem cells in treating OA.

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disease that is typically characterized by alterations in adipocyte metabolism, which contribute significantly to insulin resistance and vascular issues. In light of this, the study\'s objective was to ascertain how apelin levels and a few other biochemical alterations affected Iraqi individuals with diabetes and dyslipidemia. In this study, 45 diabetic patients with dyslipidemia also exhibited higher blood levels of apelin and several other biochemical indicators. Hemoglobin A1c, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein are a few instances. These samples were compared to forty-five samples from the healthy group.. The examination of the data showed that, in comparison to the healthy group, the diseased group had considerably higher levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides (P > 0.001). In comparison to the healthy group, the study discovered a significant difference (P < 0.001) in the blood serum\'s HDL levels. According to the study, apelin levels can be utilized to recognize and classify type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, these adipokines may aid in the development of insulin resistance given the significant variations in blood apelin levels seen in type 2 diabetic patients.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematologic malignancy characterized by neoplastic proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells in the bone marrow (BM). The catastrophic expansion and accumulation of transformed plasma cells in the BM is driven by their acquisition of unique and complex genetic and epigenetic alterations, allowing them to attain unprecedented selective growth advantages, clonotypic persistence, and resistance to treatment. These causes are further augmented by the presence of structural and functional abnormalities in the BM microenvironment. Despite remarkable advances in drug discovery, patient responses to therapy usually remain at best transient, with the vast majority of individuals ultimately succumbing to overt disease progression and cancer-related death. Established risk factors such as t(4;14), 1q21 gain, and chromosome 13 deletion gain are associated with aggressive disease phenotypes and poor outcomes. Allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (allo-SCT) can mount a graft-versus-tumor (GVT) effect capable of eradicating residual malignant plasma cells. However, its use has been limited by an increased risk of transplant-related morbidity and mortality (TRM), often associated with a graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) (acute or chronic) usually resulting in immune dysregulation capable of leading to increased risk of opportunistic infections (OIs) (viral, fungal, and parasitic). Reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens have been developed to counteract these issues. To date, the available data for RIC-allo-SCT in MM is represented by single cohort studies. Therefore, a systematic literature and network meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the outcomes and toxicities of RIC-allo-SCT in patients with MM compared with other stem cell transplant strategies, namely autologous SCT, myeloablative allo-SCT, and no transplant. Sixteen studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria, yielding a total of 3728 policies and 23863 patients. In conclusion, RIC-allo-SCT in MM leads to an increased chance of survival compared with no transplant, is preferable to autologous-SCT in relatively younger patients with more adverse baseline characteristics and offers comparable outcomes to the myeloablative-allo-SCT group with an acceptable risk of grade III-IV acute GVHD, TRM, and grade II-IV chronic GVHD.

Forty adult male rabbits were adopted to evaluate the squelae of the use of Glipizide. The results have revealed that streptozotocin causes significant declination in red blood cells count RBC, hemoglobin HB, packed cells volume PCV, alanine aminotransferase ALT, alkaline phosphatase ALP, glutathione GSH, triacylglycerols TAGs and high density lipoprotein HDL besides a significant elevation in total white blood cells count WBC, erythrocyte sedimentation rate ESR, malondialdehyde MDA, and low density lipoprotein LDL. For the Glipizide alone, it causes significant declination in RBC, Alanine aminotransferase AST, GSH, TAGs and VLDL besides a significant elevation in WBC, ESR, total cholesterol TC and LDL. Considering the use of Glipizide plus streptozotocin, it causes a significant declination in RBC, HB, PCV, GSH and HDL besides a significant elevation in WBC, ESR, LDL, TAGs, and VLDL.