SUMMARY. The objectives of the present study were to assess the possible predictors of COVID-19 severity and duration of hospitalization and to identify the possible correlation between patient parameters, disease severity and duration of hospitalization. The study included retrospective medical record extraction of previous coron avirus COVID-19 patients in Basra hospitals, Iraq from March 1st and May 31st, 2020. The information of the participants was investigated anonymously. All the patients’ characteristics, treatments, vital signs and laboratory tests (hematological, renal and liver function tests) were collected. The analysis was conducted using the SPSS (version 22, USA). Spearman correlation was used to measure the relationships between different blood lab data predictors, the disease severity and the duration of hospitalization. The Kruskal Wallis Test was used to measure the difference in the severity of the disease according to the serum ferritin level. Overall, 499 patients were includ ed in the current study: 58.4% were female and 41.6% were male. Nearly half of the patients had chronic disease particularly diabetes mellitus (20.8%) and hypertension (23.6%). With regards to hematological tests, there was a significant correlation between lymphocyte level and disease severity, duration of hospitalization, ferritin, platelets and neutrophil level. In addition, serum urea and creatinine have significant (p-value < 0.05) positive correlation with the disease (COVID-19) severity. Similarly, there is a significant difference in the severity of the disease ac cording to the ferritin level. Thus, patients with more severe symptoms had higher level of blood ferritin. Further more, patients with co-existing diseases have experienced more severe COVID-19 symptoms. This indicates that, lymphocyte and ferritin levels are good predictors of COVID-19 severity. This study finding indicated that evalua tion of blood laboratory indices (CBC including lymphocytes and ferritin) and renal/liver function parameters in the beginning of the COVID-19 could predict the severity and duration of hospitalization. In addition, patients with multiple comorbidities are at higher risk of longer days of hospitalization. An early attention to the patient parameter and lab data may help in tailoring treatments and promote possible interventions to triage hospitaliza tion and save more lives particularly Iraqi might experience a second wave of the pandemic.
‎ Since the first outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 31, 2019, COVID-19 pandemic ‎has been spreading to many countries in the world. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused a ‎major global crisis, with 554,767 total confirmed cases, 484,570 total recovered cases, and ‎‎12,306 deaths in Iraq as of February 2, 2020. In the absence of any effective therapeutics or drugs ‎and with an unknown epidemiological life cycle, predictive mathematical models can aid in ‎the understanding of both control and management of coronavirus disease. Among the important ‎factors that helped the rapid spread of the ep
... Show MoreOne of the health issues that a coronavirus can induce is blood clotting. Coronavirus can be prevented in a number of ways. Vaccination is one of the critical methods for preventing illness or lessening its impact. This study seeks to estimate a few blood coagulation variables. 147 samples were collected from the Baghdad Governorate in the autumn of 2021. The samples were split into three groups: COVID-19 patients, healthy individuals before and after receiving the (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine, and healthy individuals only. Prothrombin Time (PT), Partial Thromboplastin Time (PTT), Protein C (PTN-C), Protein S (PTN-S), and International Normalized Ratio (INR) for 49 samples were measured and computed for each group. The results have shown th
... 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 MoreA case-control study was performed to examine age, gender, and ABO blood groups in 1014 Iraqi hospitalized cases with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 901 blood donors (control group). The infection was molecularly diagnosed by detecting coronavirus RNA in nasal swabs of patients.
Mean age was significantly elevated in cases compared to controls (48.2 ± 13.8
Abstract
Background: A significant proportion of patients with ischemic heart disease have been associated with peripheral arterial disease, yet it is still underestimated by our health system as many of patients are asymptomatic and this condition remains under diagnosed and therefore undertreated.
Objective: To study prevalence of peripheral arterial disease of the lower limbs in patient with acute coronary syndrome and its association with certain risk factors.
Method: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in the coronary care unit at Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital from the 1st of January 2016 to the 1st of Novem
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy and reluctant had an important obstacle in achieving protection and population immunity against coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). It is essential to achieve high COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates among medical students and health care workers to provide recommendations and counseling vaccine hesitant population. AIM: This study aims to identify level of COVID-19 hesitancy, attitude, knowledge, and factors that affect vaccination decision. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done among medical students in Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq. Data collection was done through an online Google Forms questionnaire during 2021 from 810 medical students.
... Show MoreIn this paper, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) model is proposed and investigated. In fact, the pandemic spread through a close contact between infected people and other people but sometimes the infected people could show two cases; the first is symptomatic and the other is asymptomatic (carrier) as the source of the risk. The outbreak of Covid-19 virus is described by a mathematical model dividing the population into four classes. The first class represents the susceptible people who are unaware of the disease. The second class refers to the susceptible people who are aware of the epidemic by media coverage. The third class is the carrier individuals (asymptomatic) and the fourth class represents the infected ind
... Show MoreExtensive studies have been conducted on the microbial properties of Streptococcus pneumoniae all over the world ,but there are few studies in Iraq on the most important factors of virulence possessed by S.pneumoniae isolates found in Iraq , 195 of sputum specimens were collected from patients with pneumonia acquired from the community who were clinically diagnosed by specialized doctors depending on symptoms and Radiography of Chest . Eighteen isolates of S.pneumoniae were diagnosed by special traditional methods that used in the phenotypic identification . All isolates 18 (100%) have been given positive results for the optochin test , bile solubility test
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