Introduction: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a common protozoan disease in Iraq characterized by localized ulcers, primarily on exposed skin. This study aimed to investigate the hematological parameters of infected patients using a complete blood count (CBC) in the endemic area of Diyala Governorate, northeast of Baghdad. This has been studied in newly diagnosed, untreated individuals and patients receiving sodium antimony gluconate. Methodology: Hematological screening was performed on blood samples from 161 patients with microscopically diagnosed cutaneous leishmaniasis before and after treatment. Anti-Leishmania IgG was also assessed by ELISA in seropositive and seronegative subjects. Results: The newly diagnosed, untreated patients showed no significant differences in blood cell counts, whereas treated patients had significant changes in white blood cell composition, including absolute neutrophil count (ANC), absolute monocytes (MID), eosinophils Granulocytes and Neutrophil-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), platelets count (PLT) and Mean Platelets Volume (MPV), following the administration of five consecutive sodium stibogluconate injection. In addition, the anti-Leishmania IgG seroprevalence was highest (85%) in the newly diagnosed, untreated group and gradually decreased with continued treatment. However, there was no significant difference in red blood cell components including red blood cells (RBC), hematocrit test (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), and red cell distribution width (RDW) before and after treatment. Conclusions: The current data gave an insight into certain hematological factors regarding WBC subtypes, along with cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment. In addition, the anti-Leishmania IgG may be considered a marker for therapeutic monitoring.
The research included an epidemiological study of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Baghdad for two years (2019 and 2020). Data were collected from the Iraqi Ministry of Health in Baghdad public health departments for Al-Karkh and Al-Rusafa districts. The results of the positive examinations for cutaneous leishmaniasis for the two years mentioned came with 54 infections in Al-Rusafa district and 80 infections in Al-Karkh district for the year 2019, while in 2020, the infections in Al-Rusafa district were 201 infections and 152 infections in Al-Karkh district. The data were divided in terms of gender into males and females, so the percentage for the year (2019) was 15% for males and 12% for females, and in (2020) 44% for males and 29% for female
... Show More This is a contribution to study the complex effect of rainfall on the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in an endemic area (AL-Mohalabiya) in Ninava province in the north region of Iraq.
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a parasitic infection caused by an intracellular growth of Leishmania spp. in macrophage cells. The autoimmune disorder is a condition takes place when the immune system produces antibodies which incorrectly attacked its own body tissues. VL has been involved as an effect or on the autoimmune aspect. This study was conducted to identify the auto antibodies profile in patients infected with VL. The presences of auto antibodies in 21 Iraqi children infected with VL were tested for laboratory autoimmune aspect. The highest percentage of seropositive in Leishmania patients was observed for anti-ds DNA, anti-Mi-2, anti-Ku and anti-PCNA antibodies (90.5%, 90.5%, 90.5% and 61.9%) respectively, while the lowest percen
... Show MorePhlebotomus papatasi sand fly is the main vector of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Iraq. The aim of this study was to assess and predict the effects of climate change on the distribution of the cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) cases and the main vector presently and in the future. Data of the CL cases were collected for the period (2000-2018) in addition to sand fly (SF) abundance. Geographic information system, R studio and MaxEnt (Maximum entropy niche model) software were used for analysis and predict effect of (elevation, population, Bio1-19, and Bio28-35) on CL cases distribution and SF occurrence. HadGEM2-ES model with two climate change scenarios, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 were used for future projections 2050. The results showed th
... Show MoreLeishmaniasis is a transmissible infection brought about by an obligatory intracellular protozoan from the genus Leishmania. It occurs worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions and can be burdensome in resource-constrained countries. The infection ranges in severity from mild cutaneous lesions to more severe and sometimes life-threatening visceral and distorting mucocutaneous sicknesses. Importantly, cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is prevalent in the Middle East with a pooled prevalence of 12%. It imposes a significant health and socioeconomic burden
This study is concerned with the recent changes that occurred in the last three years (2017-2019) in the marshes region in southern Iraq as a result of the changes in the global climate, the study included all the water bodies in the five governorates that are located in the southern regions of Iraq (Wasit, Maysan, Dhi-Qar, Qadisiyah and Basrah), which represent the marshes lands in Iraq. Scenes of the Landsat 8 satellite are used to create a mosaic to cover the five governorates within a time window with the slightest difference between the date of the scene capture, not to exceed 8 days. The results of calculating the changes in water areas were obtained using the classifier support vector machine, where high accuracy ratios were recorded
... Show MoreBackground: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods: Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanicidal activity of th
... Show MoreBackground: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods: Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanic
... Show MoreBackground: Acne vulgaris is one of the top three most commonly encountered dermatological problems worldwide in both primary and secondary care. Human keratinocytes express functional TLR2 heterodimers. An increased expression of TLR2 was detected in the epidermis of inflammatory acne lesions, as observed in normal skin; the expression level increased with the degree of differentiation of the keratinocytes. TLR2 expression is upregulated in inflammatory acne lesions and induced by C. acnes. The current study conducted to assess the oral isotretinion treatment effect on the acne vulgaris patients by evaluated the Toll Like Receptor 2 as a major immune system marker in Acne vulgaris immune re
... Show MoreLeishmaniasis is a group of parasitic diseases caused by Leishmania spp., an endemic infectious agent in developing countries, including Iraq. Diagnosis of cutaneous lesion by stained smears, serology or histopathology are inaccurate and unable to detect the species of Leishmania. Here, two molecular typing methods were examined to identify the promastigotes of suspected cutaneous leishmaniasis samples, on a species level. The first was species-specific B6-PCR and the second was ITS1-PCR followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) using restriction enzyme HaeIII. DNA was extracted from in vitro promastigote culture followed by amplification of kDNA by B6 or amplification and digestion of LITSR/L
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