Background Several studies have addressed the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), among Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients in different countries, and the potential association between the infection and PD; the results of these studies were conflicting. The study aims to investigate the prevalence of Toxoplasma infection among sample of Iraqi PD patients. Also, to examine the potential association of age, PD duration, gender, smoking habit, zone of residence and family history of PD, with the prevalence of Toxoplasma infection in PD patients.

Patients and Methods Seventy-four PD patients attaining Dr. Saad Al-Witry Neuroscience Hospital in Baghdad/ Ir

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds on reducing glucose level for white albino mice. Twenty adults mice were used, divided randomly into four groups (five mice per each group). The first group (normal mice) was administrated with 0.1 ml of distilled water as a control, the second group (normal mice) was administrated with 0.1 ml of the plant extract, whereas the third and fourth groups (diabetic mice) were administrated with single dose of alloxan (150 mg/kg of the body weight) to induce diabetes, and the fourth group was administrated with 0.1 ml of the plant extract for 10 days, then blood glucose level was measured for all of the experimental animals (diabetic and no

The study aimed to investigate the role of Dectin-1 and Card-9 in pathogenicity of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This investigations involved 150 blood samples for IBD patients which divided in to two groups (50 for crohns disease CD (G2) and 50 for ulcerative colitis UC (G3)). All a apparently (male and female) attended to) Al-Kindy hospital) in Baghdad city, department of Gastroenterology. and all of thin were diagnosis by consulters medical staff and pathologists with age range 15-65years average 40 years. in addition to 50 blood samples were collected from apparently healthy individuals as control group (G1). 10 ml were withdrawn from all participants, 5ml for the immunological study which carried by ELISA technique and 5 ml used fo

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

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

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 relations

     Staphylococcus haemolyticus is one of the most frequently isolated coagulase-negative staphylococci. The ability to form biofilm is considered as one of the most important virulence factors of coagulase negative staphylococci. There is only limited knowledge of the nature of S. haemolyticus biofilms. This study was aimed at evaluating the ability of S. haemolyticus strains to produce biofilm in the presence of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONPs). The biological synthesis of nanoparticles is an environmentally friendly approach for large-scale production of nanoparticles. Copper oxide nanoparticles were produced in the current study from the S. haemolyticus viable cell filtrate. UV-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, X-ray diffra