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.
Abstract The results of isolation, morphological and microscopic diagnosis, Chromic Agar, Vitik technology and Bact Alert showed that the diagnosis of fungi isolated from blood samples of end-stage renal patients who did not undergo dialysis and those who underwent dialysis was 60 samples for each type. The total number of fungal isolates isolated from people who did not undergo dialysis was 26 pathogenic fungal isolates, with a percentage frequency of 43.33%. In this study, 4 genera of pathogenic fungi were identified: Candida spp, Rhodotorula spp, Cryptococcus spp. and Aspergillus spp. The number of Candida isolates reached 13 isolates, with a frequency of 50%. The results also showed that the diagnosed species from the genus Rhodotorula
... Show MoreBackground: The COVID-19 virus outbreak had a massive effect on many parts of people's lives, as they were advised to quarantine and lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading, which had a big impact on people's mental health, anxiety, and stress. Many internal and external factors lead to stress. This negatively influences the body's homeostasis. As a result, stress may affect the body's capacity to use energy to defend against pathogens. Many recent investigations have found substantial links between human mental stress and the production of hormones, prohormones, and/or immunological chemicals. some of these researches have verified the link between stress and salivary cortisol levels. The aim of this study is to measure salivary corti
... Show MoreBack ground: Oral lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the mucous membrane of the mouth. Several researchers suggest that oxidative stress is implicated in the pathogenesis of this disorder. It has been hypothesized that melatonin is powerful anti-oxidants and can easily cross the cell membrane and is considered a free radical scavenger of Hydroxid, Oxygen and Nitrogen dioxide, cortisol as a stress hormone and the immunoglobulin A as first line of defense and protection to the mucous membrane of the mouth are interrelated factors for the emergence of oral lichen planus. Aim of this study was to evaluate the level of melatonin, Cortisol and IgA in saliva of patients with oral lichen planus lesions in comparison with p
... Show MoreWere studied changes in the concentration of copper, iron and zinc in blood serum of one hundred patients with chronic kidney and treated dialysis blood were also measured the level of calcium kidney and phosphate Calciotropic in serum of these patients took samples of blood from these patients before and after treatment dialysis vessels as well as the statement of changes in those standards Alkimaahiatih Results were compared with twenty-five healthy people (control group)
Because the Coronavirus epidemic spread in Iraq, the COVID-19 epidemic of people quarantined due to infection is our application in this work. The numerical simulation methods used in this research are more suitable than other analytical and numerical methods because they solve random systems. Since the Covid-19 epidemic system has random variables coefficients, these methods are used. Suitable numerical simulation methods have been applied to solve the COVID-19 epidemic model in Iraq. The analytical results of the Variation iteration method (VIM) are executed to compare the results. One numerical method which is the Finite difference method (FD) has been used to solve the Coronavirus model and for comparison purposes. The numerical simulat
... Show MoreMany pathophysiological processes can affect the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs in people with diabetes. The present study was deigned to evaluate the influence of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the pharmacokinetic parameters of metronidazole administered as single oral dose. Twelve healthy volunteers and twelve diabetic patients were enrolled in the present study. On day 1, a single oral dose of metronidazole 500 mg was administered orally to all participants at 9:00 am after a 10-hour fasting. Over the following 48 hours, blood samples were taken at frequent intervals and serum metronidazole concentrations were measured by a high-performance liquid chromatography method for assessment of pharmacokinetics of metronid
... Show MoreMany pathophysiological processes can affect the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs in people with diabetes. The present study was deigned to evaluate the influence of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the pharmacokinetic parameters of metronidazole administered as single oral dose. Twelve healthy volunteers and twelve diabetic patients were enrolled in the present study. On day 1, a single oral dose of metronidazole 500 mg was administered orally to all participants at 9:00 am after a 10-hour fasting. Over the following 48 hours, blood samples were taken at frequent intervals and serum metronidazole concentrations were measured by a high-performance liquid chromatography method for assessment of pharmacokinetics of metronidazole. The data
... Show MoreIntroduction: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is considered a parasitic contagion resulting from the flagellated parasite belonging to the genus of Leishmania. Also, cutaneous leishmaniasis is a zoonotic ailment transmitted through the bloodsucking sand-flies bite (belonging to the Phlebotomus genus). The disease's reservoirs included wild or semi-domesticated animals, in general rodents and dogs. Tissue inhibitor metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) is one of the extracellular matrix proteins that have a role in vessel wall degeneration and aneurysm development. In addition, it belongs to the zinc-dependent endopeptidases family that are involved in the degradation of connective tissues proteins which are included in vascular integrity maintenance. The Ge
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a proangiogenic factor that exerts different effects over stem cell survival growth, apoptosis, and adhesion. Its impact on leukemogenesis has been established by many studies. AIM: This study aimed to determine the effect of plasma HGF activity on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients at presentation and after remission. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional prospective study of 30 newly-diagnosed, adult, and AML patients. All patients received the 7+3 treatment protocol. Patients’ clinical data were taken at presentation, and patients were followed up for 6 months to evaluate the clinical status. Plasma HGF levels were estimated by ELISA based methods in the pa
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