Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the new respiratory virus SARS-CoV2. It has a tropism in the lung tissues where excess target receptors exist. Periostin plays a role in subepithelial fibrosis associated with bronchial asthma. Since the Coronavirus's target is the human respiratory system, Periostin has been recently described as a valuable new biomarker in the diagnosis and evaluation of disease in patients with COVID-19 lung involvement. Objectives: To assess the level of Periostin in the serum of COVID-19 patients and to correlate its role in disease severity and prognosis. Subjects and Methods: Periostin serum levels were measured for 63 patients attending three main COVID-19 Control Centers in Baghdad, compared to 25 healthy subjects, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from January 2021 to April 2022. Results: Serum levels of Periostin among studied groups with (mild - moderate, severe - critical, post-COVID, and controls) were (17.3, 664, 597, and 48) ng/dl respectively. The serum concentration of Periostin was highly significant in (severe- critical and post-COVID) than in other groups. Conclusions: The elevated level of serum Periostin in COVID-19 patients correlated with disease severity and post-COVID lung complications. The high Periostin level is consistent with high inflammatory markers, which might be used as an indicator of COVID-19 severity and predict a bad prognosis.
All major organs may be impacted by the connective disease systemic lupus erythematosus, a separate risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Adhesion molecules like intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecules (VCAM) can detect endothelial damage and dysfunction, which appear to play a crucial role. This study investigated whether people with SLE had elevated subclinical and clinical atherosclerosis risk factors. Traditional CAD risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia cannot entirely explain this elevation. It is thought that immunological dysfunction also increases CAD risk in SLE patients. The study aimed to assess early endothelial changes in SLE Iraqi female patients w
... Show MoreThe study objective was to conduct Pharmacoeconomics study (cost-effective analysis) between infliximab reference (Remicade) and its biosimilar (Remsima) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Iraqi hospitals.
This is a retrospective multicenter pharmacoeconomic analysis conducted at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq which provided infliximab to patients with RA. Data were collected from patient’s medical records and face-to-face interviews with the patients from December 2021 to April 2022.
The study included 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The patients were categorized into two groups according to the type of infliximab they received over 30 weeks: 27 patients received
... Show MoreThe study aimed to identify career engagement among school principals, the researcher used descriptive approach and reached the study sample (230) school, principals. The researcher instruments used: career engagement, has been checked and face validity, and construction and consistency of the instruments using internal consistency Cronbach's alpha The study came to the following findings: - The degree of career engagement among school principals was (29.0200) this refers to a higher level, compared with the theoretical average of (27) and the study showed that the results showed no significant statistical differences between school principals in the level of career engagement due to the variable sex.
Medicinal plants are a source for a wide variety of natural active compounds and are used for the treatment of diseases throughout the world. Conocarpus erectus L. widely planted all over Iraq and has different secondary metabolites, which has been used in treatment of anemia, cancer, fever and diarrhea. The present study aims to estimate the antibacterial activity of Conocarpus erectus leaves extracts on some microorganisms collected from patients with burn infection. The study began with the collection of Conocarpus erectus leaves in June 2018 from the trees in university of Baghdad. Maceration method was used to prepare aqueous extract, while Soxhelt apparatus was used to prepare methanolic extract. The results of phytochemical test show
... Show MoreVitamin D is one of several nutrients essential for calcium metabolism. Body weight status and magnesium may influence vitamin D activity. To determine whether salivary vitamin D, magnesium, and calcium levels are associated with body weight status and dental caries severity in children, this cross‐sectional research was conducted.
The sample consisted of 180 boys aged 6–8 years. According to their body mass index (BMI), children were assigned to three groups of 60 boys (normal weight, overweight, and obese). Moreover,
This study designed to examine association between-174G/C polymorphism of interleukin-6 gene and phosphate, calcium, vitamin D3, and parathyroid hormone levels in Iraqi patient with chronic kidney disease on maintenance hemodialysis. Seventy chronic renal failure patients (patients group) and 20 healthy subjects (control group) were genotyped for interleukin-6 polymorphism and genotyping was performed by conventional polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. No significant differences in phosphate levels were observed in patients and control with different interleukin-6 genotypes. Control had non-significant differences in calcium levels, while patients with GG and CG genotypes displayed significant e
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Salmonella is approved as a common foodborne pathogen, causing major health problems throughout the world particularly in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Low-level fluoroquinolone resistance is conferred by both chromosomal and plasmid-encoded resistance, this research was carried out look into the occurrence rate of qnrA,qnrB and qnrS genes in Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi Cipr ofloxacin-resistant insulate from blood samples of patients with typhoid fever. Fifteen Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi isolated previously from patients with typhoid fever were included in this study. All bacterial isolates were confirmed to have ciprofloxacin
... Show MoreBackground: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic disease of childhood. Increased prevalence of periodontal disease and dental caries in juvenile idiopathic arthritis is due to difficulties in executing good oral hygiene. This study was conducted to assess oral health status in patients with Juvenile idiopathic arthritis according to age and duration of illness. Materials and methods: A research was conducted among Juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients attending Baghdad Teaching Hospital with different age and both gender, underwent a clinical evaluation of their dental and oral condition. Diagnosis of dental caries was done according to the criteria of WHO (1997). Dental plaque, gingival condition, calculus were assessed by PI/
... Show MoreThe logistic regression model is one of the oldest and most common of the regression models, and it is known as one of the statistical methods used to describe and estimate the relationship between a dependent random variable and explanatory random variables. Several methods are used to estimate this model, including the bootstrap method, which is one of the estimation methods that depend on the principle of sampling with return, and is represented by a sample reshaping that includes (n) of the elements drawn by randomly returning from (N) from the original data, It is a computational method used to determine the measure of accuracy to estimate the statistics, and for this reason, this method was used to find more accurate estimates. The ma
... Show MoreMethotrexate (MTX) is one of the most effective medications to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Aserum of 60 Iraqi male patients suffering from RA as (G1) was newly diagnosis and the same patient in G1 after taking MTX as G2 and 40 Iraqi male healthy control as G3. Nesfatin-1 (Nf-1) is belong to the adipokine family withpleiotropic effect. Nf-1 has been found in different tissues, including stomach, pancreas, bone cells, cartilage and heart. Retinol binding protein (RBP4) was known as transpoter of retinol from its storage sites in the liver to the extrahepatic tissues. Moreover, RBP4 acts as adipokine and contributes in the pathophsyology of prototypic inflammatory disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The results showed a significant increas
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