Objective: The study the association of procalcitonin (PCT) and c-reactive protein (CRP) levels in COVID-19 patients and it's role as a guide in progress and management of those patients. Methodology: This cross-sectional study analyzed 200 CIOVID-19 patients in a single privet center in Baghdad, Iraq from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022. Demographic data like age, sex, and clinical symptoms were recorded. High sensitivity CRP and PCT in the serum were measured via dry fluorescence immunoassay (Lansionbio-China). Results: Out of 200 patients, 50 had moderate Covid and 150 had severe disease. Mean serum PCT levels was 0.039±0.05 ng/mL in the moderate group (range 0.011-0.067) and 0.43±0.21 ng/mL in the severe group (range 0.211±0.513). Mean serum PCT and CRP levels were higher in severe patients than in moderate patients. Conclusions: PCT and CRP may be an indicator of disease severity in COVID-19.
The 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 MoreNews headlines are key elements in spreading news. They are unique texts written in a special language which enables readers understand the overall nature and importance of the topic. However, this special language causes difficulty for readers in understanding the headline. To illuminate this difficulty, it is argued that a pragmatic analysis from a speech act theory perspective is a plausible tool for a headline analysis. The main objective of the study is to pragmatically analyze the most frequently employed types of speech acts in the news headlines covering COVID-19 in Aljazeera English website. To this end, Bach and Harnish's (1979) Taxonomy of Speech Acts has been adopted to analyze the data. Thirty headlines have been collected f
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The prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms of COVID-19 is variable with different types of presentations. Some of them many present with manifestations mimicking surgical emergencies. Yet, the pathophysiology of acute abdomen in the context of COVID-19 remains unclear. We present a case of a previously healthy child who presented with acute appendicitis with multisystemic inflammatory syndrome. We also highlight the necessity of considering the gastrointestinal symptoms of COVID-19 infection in pediatric patients in order to avoid misdiagnosis and further complications. |
The spread of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has resulted in chaos around the globe. The infected cases are still increasing, with many countries still showing a trend of growing daily cases. To forecast the trend of active cases, a mathematical model, namely the SIR model was used, to visualize the spread of COVID-19. For this article, the forecast of the spread of the virus in Malaysia has been made, assuming that all Malaysian will eventually be susceptible. With no vaccine and antiviral drug currently developed, the visualization of how the peak of infection (namely flattening the curve) can be reduced to minimize the effect of COVID-19 disease. For Malaysians, let’s ensure to follow the rules and obey the SOP to lower the
Electronic learning was used as a substitute method for learning during the COVID-19 pandemic to conduct scientific materials and perform student assessment; this study aimed to investigate academic staff opinions toward electronic education. A cross-sectional study with a web-based questionnaire distributed to academic staff in different medical colleges in Iraq. After de-identification, data were collected and analyzed with statistical software to determine the significance between variables. A total of 256 participants were enrolled in the study: 83% were not satisfied or neutral to online learning, 80% showed a poor benefit from delivery of the practical electronic knowledge and 25% for theoretical sessions with a significant difference
... Show MoreThe research aims to explain the role of the flexible budget in assessing the feedback resulting from deviations by comparing the actual results with the planned performance in light of the economic crisis that the world witnessed during the spread of Corona disease. As most companies, including the Electronic Industries Company, face the problem of controlling production costs and are trying hard to reduce these costs to the lowest level starting from measuring these costs and allocating them and distributing them to products. This helps in controlling deviations and thus the flexible budget becomes a tool that helps in controlling elements Costs
As COVID-19 pandemic continued to propagate, millions of lives are currently at risk especially elderly, people with chronic conditions and pregnant women. Iraq is one of the countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, in Iraq, there is a need for a self-assessment tool to be available in hand for people with COVID-19 concerns. Such a tool would guide people, after an automated assessment, to the right decision such as seeking medical advice, self-isolate, or testing for COVID-19. This study proposes an online COVID-19 self-assessment tool supported by the internet of medical things (IoMT) technology as a means to fight this pandemic and mitigate the burden on our nation