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BackgroundTuberculosis is an important health concern in Iraq, but limited research has examined the quality of tuberculosis care and the survival of the patients. This study aimed to assess the 12-month survival of tuberculosis patients and evaluate the effect of the associated risk factors on patients’ survival.MethodsWe reviewed the records of 728 patients with tuberculosis who were registered and treated at the Chest and Respiratory Disease Center in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan Region, from January 2012 to December 2017. Demographic data, the site of the disease, and treatment outcomes were retrieved from patients’ records. Data analysis included the use of the Kaplan–Meier method and the log-rank test to calculate the estimates of the survival and assess the differences in the survival among the patients. The Cox regression model was used for univariate and multivariate analysis.ResultsThe mean period of the follow-up of the patients was 7.6 months. Of 728 patients with tuberculosis, 50 (6.9%) had died. The 12-month survival rate of our study was 93.1%. A statistically significant difference was detected in the survival curves of different age groups (P < 0.001) and the site of the disease (P = 0.012). In multivariate analysis, lower survival rates were only observed among patients aged ≥65 years (hazard ratio = 9.36, 95% CI 2.14–40.95) and patients with extrapulmonary disease (hazard ratio = 2.61, 95% CI 1.30–5.27).ConclusionThe 12-month survival rate of tuberculosis patients managed at the Chest and Respiratory Disease Center in Erbil was similar to the international rates. The high rates of extrapulmonary tuberculosis and the low survival rate necessitate further studies and action with a possible revision to the tuberculosis management strategy.

Background: H. pylori has been established as the major causative agent of chronic gastritis, and represents the main etiological cause of other gastroduodenal diseases such as peptic ulceration, gastric lymphoma, and gastric cancer. Therefore, screening and treatment of the bacterium is an important strategy for preventing gastric cancer. Objective: To compare some invasive classical histological tests to non-invasive serological antibody and stool antigen tests for the diagnosis of H. pylori infections. Patients and Methods:The study population comprised of 171 patients with symptoms of dyspepsia and other gastritis related symptoms. Three biopsy specimens were taken and collected from the stomach and sent for histopathologic study. H and E staining and modified Giemsa staining were performed on tissue sections of each case. Serology antibody and Stool antigen tests were also used as nan-invasive tests in this study. Results: Four tests had been done to detect the presence of H. pylori Bacteria. The mean age (+ SD) of the studied sample was 43.8 + 14.7 years, ranging from 20 to 74 years. The median was 44 years. The total agreement between the serum Ab test and the stool Ag test was 88.3%. Significant differences were detected between the two tests (p < 0.001). It is evident that the serum Ab test is highly sensitive (sensitivity = 98.4%), but the Predictive value positive (76.3%) was not so high. The Giemsa test was highly specific (specificity = 98.2%), and highly sensitive (sensitivity = 93.5%). Conclusion: The main advantage of histopathology tests is not only restricted to detection purpose, it also can detect any abnormalities of gastric mucosa by bacteria such as peptic ulcer bleeding, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer. The modified Giemsa staining method could be used as a method of choice for the detection of H. pylori due to its sensitivity, simplicity and consistency.

Glioblastoma is a fatal brain tumor, and the standard treatment for this cancer is the surgical removal of the tumor followed by chemotherapy with temozolomide and radiotherapy. Because chemotherapy has many side effects, the use of compounds extracted from natural herbs, due to fewer side effects, can be a good alternative or supplement to chemical drugs in cancer treatment. In this study, curcumin (diferuloylmethane), known as the main active ingredient of turmeric, was used to evaluate its cytotoxicity on four human glioblastoma cell lines (U373, U251, D54, and T98G). Among these cell lines, U373 was temozolomide resistance, and T98G was photodynamic treatment resistance. These cell lines were treated with increasing concentrations of diferuloylmethane. Survival percentage was assessed by MTT assay and the trypan blue staining method was used to evaluate the rate of cell death and confirm the results of the MTT assay. The results showed that diferuloylmethane has a cytotoxic effect on U251, D54, and T98G cell lines. This effect was higher in high concentrations of diferuloylmethane on U251 and D54 than on U373. Therefore, according to the results of the current study and further studies, curcumin (diferuloylmethane) can be considered an effective complementary treatment in the treatment of glioblastoma. Article info