Background: since December 2019, China and in particularly Wuhan, faced an unprecedented an outbreak challenge of coronavirus disease 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Clinical characteristics of Iraqi patients with COVID-19 and risk factors for mortality needed to be shared with the health care providers to improve the overall disease experience. Methods: prospective, single-center study recruited patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted to Al-Shifaa Isolation Center / Baghdad Medical City between the mid of March and the end of April 2020 until had been discharged or had died. Demographic data, information on clinical signs, symptoms, at presentation, treatment, have been collected from patient records and a research questioner. Result: a total of 60 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection have been included (mean age, 47 years [range, 12-80 years]; 72% male. Comorbidities were identified in 32 cases (53 %) including respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. Fever and headache were reported in 27 (45%) and 15 (25%) of the cases respectively. Respiratory manifestations recorded as wheezing observed in 3 (5%), rhinorrhea 12 (20%), crackles 3 (5%) sore throat 22 (36%), bronchial breathing 23 (38.3%) with the most of the patients experienced cough 41 (68.3%) and shortness of breath (SOB) 38 (63.3%). Cyanosis is recognized in 3 (5%), convulsion 4 (6.7%), malaise 41 (68.3%). Gastrointestinal manifestations were diarrhea 8 (13.3%), vomiting 12 (20%). Overall mortality was higher in male gender 8 (18.6%) and the overall average age of the died cases was 60.5 years. Conclusion: the infection with COVID-19 is more likely to infect older men with hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease as significant risk factors for COVID-19 patients. The understanding of these factors can enhance defining those COVID-19 patients at higher risk, and allow a more targeted and approach to prevent those deaths.
Background: 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 MoreSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused enormous issues worldwide and is the most infectious pandemic. This study included 50 subjects (evenly distributed between sexes) and their range of ages starting from 2 to 67 years. According to the study's result, the ages and genders of subjects include susceptibility to COVID-19. Males were found to be more infected than females, and the ages of 36 to 67 were more common than other age ranges. Also, BMI calculations revealed that male patients with COVID-19 have the highest percentage of obesity. The clinical parameter results have been found serum C‐reactive protein (CRP) as an essential indicator that changes significantly in infection with COVID‐19 an
... Show MoreBackground: The global threat of COVID-19 outbreak and on the 11 March 2020, WHO acknowledged that the virus would likely spread to all countries across the globe and declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic which is the fifth pandemic since 20 century and this has brought human lives to a sudden and complete lockdown and the confirmed cases of this disease and deaths continue to rise in spite of people around the world are taking important actions to mitigate and decrease transmission and save lives. Objectives: To assess the effect of exercise and physical activity on the immunity against COVID-19. Methods: Collected electronic databases including (Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, PubMed and Web of Science) were searched with
... Show MoreBackground: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is inflammation of the sacroiliac joints and spine, associated with clinical symptoms such as pain and stiffness in the vertebral column, after which, in a considerable number of individuals, new bone growth occurs. Objective: The current research study attempted to find out whether the presence of SNPs in TNF receptor [TNFRSF1A (rs767455), TNFRSF1B (rs1061622)] encoding genes could influence patients' outcomes to etanercept in a specimen of Iraqi AS patients. Patients and methods: Sixty patients with established AS receiving only etanercept were selected to be enrolled in this research with a mean age of 40.75 ± 8.67 years, 51 patients of them were males and only 9 patients were females. Patients we
... Show MoreThe pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first reported in China, in December 2019 and since then the digestive tract involvement of COVID-19 has been progressively described. In this review, I summed recent studies, which have addressed the pathophysiology of COVID-19-induced gastrointestinal symptoms, their prevalence, and bowel pathological and radiological findings of infected patients. The effects of gut microbiota on SARS-CoV-2 and the challenges of nutritional therapy of the infected patients are depicted. Moreover, I provide a concise summary of the recommendations on the management of inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and performing endoscopy in the COVID era. Finally, the COVID pancreatic re
... Show MoreOrbital varices are vein dilations in the orbit presenting various symptoms. This scoping review synthesizes existing evidence on their epidemiology, clinical features, and treatment efficacy.
Literature was reviewed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed and Scopus were searched until April 31, 2024, for articles on clinically diagnosed ocular varices detailing diagnostic methods, treatments, and outcomes. Exclusions were reviews, animal studies, and incomplete case reports. Data on study characteristics, diagnosis, management, and o