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

Background: Lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) is a common musculoskeletal disorder that frequently causes low back pain (LBP). In addition to the discomfort of lower back pain, it can accompany pain in one or both legs. The lumbar spine and sacrum, consisting of five vertebrae and one bone, determine the spine's balance. Microelements are essential in bone metabolism and are associated with the prevention of osteoporosis and the alleviation of musculoskeletal pain. Objectives: To examine the correlation between lumbar spinal surgery and the concentrations of microelements, namely zinc and copper. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, during the period from October 2023 to January 2024

    A total of 215 sheep and 87 goats were carefully searched for ixodid ticks from January to December 2015 at different regions of the middle and south of Iraq. The detached ticks count 1533 ticks from sheep with intensity of 8.4 and count 332 ticks from goats with intensity of 6.8. Tick species recovered from sheep and their incidence rates were: Rhipicephalus turanicus (39%), Hyalomma anatolicum (28%), R. (Boophilus) annulatus (11%), Hyalomma sp. (9%), H. turanicum (6%), H. excavatum (6%) and R. leporis (1%) while the tick species recovered from goats and their incidence rates were: R. turanicus (64%), H. anatolicum (24%)

The Ratawi Oil Field (ROF) is one of Iraq's most important oil fields because of its significant economic oil reserves. The major oil reserves of ROF are in the Mishrif Formation. The main objective of this paper is to assess the petrophysical properties, lithology identification, and hydrocarbon potential of the Mishrif Formation using interpreting data from five open-hole logs of wells RT-2, RT-4, RT-5, RT-6, and RT-42. Understanding reservoir properties allows for a more accurate assessment of recoverable oil reserves. The rock type (limestone) and permeability variations help tailor oil extraction methods, extraction methods and improving recovery techniques. The petrophysical properties were calculated using Interactive Petroph

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or kala-azar is one of the worlds most neglected tropical diseases in mortality and fourth in morbidity, rK39 dipstick was used to diagnose the suspected infected patients as cheapest simple technique which can differentiate recent from chronic infection, for disease out-coming, naïve T-lymphocyte cells should be differentiated into pathogen-specific immunity responses, such as T-helper 1(Th-1) or (Th-2). HLA-G is a special protein defined as nonclassical HLA class I molecule can suppress the immune system through prevention of T-cell function by foul all T-cell mechanisms. So, this study aimed to detect and evaluate the level of sHLA-G in the sera of patients infected with VL. The results showed that there was

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the value and accuracy of longitudinal strain in detection of coronary artery disease compared to coronary angiography. Results: The left ventricular longitudinal strain-speckle tracking showed evidence of stenosis of left anterior descending artery, circumflex artery and right coronary artery in (86.1%), (76.4%), and (84.7%) respectively. For the stenosis in left anterior descending artery, the current study showed that the longitudinal strain was a good predictor for presence of significant stenosis with a sensitivity of (93.8%), specificity (75%) and accuracy (91.7%) compared with coronary angiography. For the stenosis in right coronary artery, the left ventricular longitudinal strain had

This study aimed to see how allicin (45mg/kg BW) affected diabetic Mellitus in male rats (DM). Forty male rats were utilized, and they were split into four groups at random for 42 days. T2 was treated with 45 mg/kg B.W of allicin dissolved in 1 ml of D.W daily and injected with a single dose of sodium citrate buffer (0.5ml Intra-Peritoneal IP), DM was induced in T1 and T2 by injection of a single dose of streptozotocin 50 mg/kg B.W IP, T1 was assigned as a positive control, T3 received 45 mg/kg B.W. of allicin dissolved in 1 ml D.W. every day, and a single dose of sodium citrate buffer was injected (0.5ml IP). When diabetic rats treated with allicin in T2 were compared to diabetic rats in T1, the findings indicated a significant increase (P

Twenty five vaginal swabs from outpatients' healthy women were collected from Kamal Al-Samarai Hospital, Baghdad, to isolate and identify of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Three isolates were diagnosed as L. acidophilus which represents 15% of the total number of lactic acid bacterial (LAB) isolates; other LAB types represent 65% (20 isolates).The ability of L. acidophilus to produce surlactin was detected after measuring its biological activity to inhibit the adhesion of biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa to surfaces using test tube method. It was found that all isolates were able to produce surlactin but the activity of surlactin was varying in each isolate. Surlactin produced by isolates 1 and 13 was the most effective. Biological appl

Straight tendons in pretensioned members can cause high-tensile stresses in the concrete extreme fibers at end sections because of the absence of the bending stresses due to self-weight and superimposed loads and the dominance of the moment due to prestressing force alone. Accordingly, the concrete tensile stresses at the ends of a member prestressed with straight tendons may limit the service load capacity of the member. It is therefore important to establish limiting zone in the concrete section within which the prestressing force can be applied without causing tension in the extreme concrete fibers. Two practical methods are available to reduce the stresses at the end sections due to the prestressing force. The first method based