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.
Background: Since the periodontal disease Index of Ramfjord (Ramfjord index) can potentially shorten the examination time by almost half, many studies evaluated Ramfjord teeth in predicting full-mouth periodontal status of an adult population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefit of Ramfjord teeth in predicting the full-mouth clinical attachment level of an adult population in patients attending the college of dentistry- Baghdad University. Materials and methods: The study participants were 100 patients with age range from 30-60 years old which represent group zero. The patients were divided into three main groups according to the age of the patients. Group I and group II each of them composed of 30 patients while group III co
... Show MoreAcademic achievement is a professional standard for measuring student levels in the first stages. Therefore, any indication of the level of achievement makes us in an attempt to employ students in evening schools. The researcher has developed a closed questionnaire of (36) paragraphs. A total of (164) male and (24) female students were chosen from evening schools. The result of this research revealed that the number of students was a reason for the low level of their achievement, the lack of laboratories, educational methods, and techniques of the most prominent problems confirmed by students in these schools. In addition, to support educational institutions with their necessary needs. The most important conclusion in this research is th
... Show MoreThis study provides valuable information on secondary microbial infections in H1N1 patients compared to Seasonal Influenza in Iraqi Patients. Nasopharynx swabs were collected from (12 ) patients infected with Seasonal influenza (11 from Baghdad and 1 Patient from south of Iraq) ,and ( 22 ) samples from patients with 2009 H1N1 ( 20 from Baghdad and 2 from south of Iraq). The results show that the patients infected with 2009 H1N1 Virus were younger than healthy subjects and those infected with seasonal influenza. And the difference reached to the level of significance (p< 0.01) compared with healthy subjects.Two cases infected with 2009 H1N1 virus (9.1%) were fro
... Show MoreObjectives: In order to highlight the TSH and thyroid hormones levels in preeclamptic and healthy pregnant
women.
Methodology: Ninety patients with preeclampsia were divided into two groups according to the severity of
disease; those with mild disease (37 patients) and those with a severe form (53 patients). A separate group of 30
normal women were included as a normal control group. Venus blood samples were collected from all groups
and the serum was obtained for hormone analysis by ELISA test. Results are expressed using SPSS for window
version 11.0.
Results: Mean serum TSH levels were significantly increased in both of mild and severe preeclampsia compared
with normal pregnancy, and T3 serum level showed a sign
Background: Nutritional status during childhood is very important for individual development and growth. Nutrition has local and systemic effect on the oral health by affecting dental health and salivary composition. This study was aimed to determine effect of iron, sodium and potassium ions in saliva on the nutritional status and to determine the effect of nutritional status on caries severity among preschool children. Material and Methods: The sample consists of 90 children aged 4 and 5 years of both genders, selected from 6 kindergartens in Al-Resafa aspect of Baghdad province. Children classified according to their nutritional status into three groups (normalweight, underweight and overweight). Nutritional status was determined by usi
... Show MoreThe construction industry in Iraq suffers from many problems, perhaps the most important of which is the delay in time and the increase in costs. Therefore, it was necessary to try to adopt a new methodology that would help in overcoming these problems. It was suggested to combine building information modeling with the agile management approach because this technique and methodology is modern and helps in reducing time and cost and improving quality. This paper aims to know the status of using Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Agile Project management (APM) in Iraq and to shed light on the merging of this integration, explaining the benefits, difficulties, and workflow practices, finding the most influencing factors on the tim
... Show MoreInfection with cryptosporidiosis endangers the lives of many people with immunodeficiency, especially HIV patients. Nitazoxanide is one of the main therapeutic drugs used to treat cryptosporidiosis. However, it is poorly soluble in water, which restricts its usefulness and efficacy in immunocompromised patients. Surfactants have an amphiphilic character which indicates their ability to improve the water solubility of the hydrophobic drugs. Our research concerns the synthesis of new cationic Gemini surfactants that have the ability to improve the solubility of the drug Nanazoxide. So, we synthesized cationic Gemini surfactants. N1,N1,N3,N3-tetramethyl-N1,N3-bis(2-octadecanamidoethyl)propane-1,3-diaminium bromide (CGSPS18) and 2,2‘-(etha
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