Background: The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19, a respiratory syndrome. It causes inflammation and damages several organs in the body. miRNAs play a role in regulating the infection resulting from SARS-CoV-2. MicroRNA-155, a kind of microRNA linked to viral defences, can affect the immune responses during COVID-19. Objectives: Examination of the involvement of microRNA-155 in the development and severity of COVID-19, as well as finding the correlation between microRNA-155 and viral load (copies/mL) in severe cases of the disease. Materials and Method: A case-control research study was performed between October 2022 and June 2023. It included a cohort of 120 hospitalised individuals with severe cases of COVID-19, together with 115 individuals with mild cases of COVID-19 and apparently healthy individuals. A real-time PCR procedure was applied to determine microRNA-155 expression in the studied groups and the viral load (copies/mL) in severe cases of the disease. Results: MicroRNA-155 was expressed in severe cases threefold more than its expression in mild cases of COVID-19 and healthy individuals. Also, a strong association was demonstrated between microRNA-155 and viral load (copies/mL) in severe COVID-19. Conclusion: MicroRNA-155 could be used as a biomarker for severe COVID-19 conditions and could have a role in disease severity and infectious particles of the virus. Since it is positively correlated with viral load (copies/mL) in severe cases of the disease
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a worldwide distribution and common infections. The presence of HCMV genome and antigens has been detected in many kinds of human cancers. The proto-oncogene Her2/neu is overexpressed in 25% to 30% of human breast cancers and frequently associated with tumor aggressiveness and worse prognosis. Examination was applied to detect different HCMV antigens and to demonstrate their correlation with Her2/neu overexpression in breast cancer. The present study includes samples from 70 women of 60 breast cancer patients and 10 normal breast tissues. Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks were obtained from each woman according to ethical approval. Human cytomegalovirus early antigen expression was detected in 5
... Show MoreKeloids are prevalent fibro-proliferative tumors, and treating them is still a challenge although intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide (TAC) are effective, they have frequently linked adverse effects. Pentoxifylline (PTX) is an anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory, and vasodilator. It has not yet been tested for intralesional injection in keloids. The aim of the study is to study the efficacy of intralesional pentoxifylline versus triamcinolone acetonide in keloid scars of 40 patients. In this study, 40 patients with keloid scars regardless of the cause of keloid born, 20 patients have injected with intralesional triamcinolone acetonide, and 20 patients with intralesional pentoxifylline every two weeks until the lesi
... Show MoreRenal function tests are commonly used in clinical practice to look for renal disease, the most common includes the serum urea, uric acid and creatinine. Heart failure patients have a higher incidence of renal function test abnormalities than individuals who do not have heart failure disease. Fifty subjects of adults (male) were divided in to two groups, 25 subjects (healthy) as control (group1) and 25 subjects with heart failure (group 2). Our results indicate that serum uric acid, urea, and creatinine values were significantly elevated (P≤0.05) in patients group (2) compared with healthy group (1). The results also showed, the effect of age categories on uric acid blood urea nitrogen and creatinine values (P≤0.05) and there were no si
... Show MoreBackground: Normal Left Ventricular systolic function is present in nearly 50% of patients with congestive heart failure, the majority of such patients have systemic hypertension. Recent studies have demonstrated Left Ventricular dyssynchrony among patients with heart failure and normal systolic function. The co-existence between Left Ventricular dyssynchrony and hypertension with normal systolic function (with no clinical evidence of heart failure) is less well understood.
Objective:
To assess the Left Ventricular dyssynchrony among hypertensive patients with normal systolic function by using Tissue doppler imaging.To find out the associations between the LV dyssynchrony and other global
... Show MoreBackground: Patients who have both neurological impairment and kyphotic deformity can be treated medically, and this treatment can be achieved with anti-tuberculous drugs alone.
Objective: To evaluate conservative medical management of patients with tuberculosis of the spine (Pott disease). The prognostic significance of various clinical, radiological, and long-term follow-up findings in these patients was also evaluated.
Methods: Between January 2009 and January 2018 data were collected prospectively at The Neurosciences Hospital/ Baghdad/ Iraq in 44 patients with Pott disease in the thoracic and lumbar spine. These patients had no major neurological deficits or
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic cough is often the key
symptom not only of chronic pulmonary diseases
but for other important extrapulmonary
pathologies, in particular upper airway and
gastrointestinal diseases.
Objective: This study was designed to
determine the etiology of chronic cough and the
usefulness of the available diagnostic tests in
reaching its causes.
Methods: One hundred patients presenting with
chronic cough at Baghdad Teaching Hospital
Outpatient Clinic were enrolled in this study. The
patients underwent a full clinical interview,
physical examination with indicated diagnostic
test(s) (such as chest x ray, bronchoscope, PFT,
GIT study, sinus X ray or CT).
Results: An etiology of chronic
To determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis B markers in chronic hepatitis B patients, 75 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus of ages (8-70) years have been investigated and compared with 50 apparently healthy individuals. All the studied groups were carried out to measure (HBsAg), (HBsAb), (HBeAg), (HBeAb), and (Total HBcAb) by Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. The percentage distribution of HBsAg was (86.67%) and HBsAb was (1.33%) in sera of CHB patients and there were a highly significant differences (P<0.01) when compared between studied groups, while, the percentage distribution of HBeAg was (22.67%) in sera of CHB patients and the significant represent the difference in distribution of HBeAg as infection but no
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori is an important gastrointestinal infective bacteria with many serious complications including gastric erosions and ulceration, duodenal ulcer, gastric carcinoma and MALT gastric lymphoma. The gastric biopsy is commonly performed in H. pylori-positive dyspeptic individuals, and many previous researchers studied the histopathological features of infected gastric biopsies however little previous studies focused on the histopathological findings in young population in comparison to the older one. AIM: To make a focus on the histopathological effects of H. pylori infection in young patients compared with the older one and predicts the need for endoscopy in this population, also to estimates the prevalence of
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