Background: Coronary artery disease remains the main cause of death despite several preventive programs. Epicardial adipose tissue is a visceral fat depot of the heart located along the large coronary arteries and on the surface of ventricles and apex. Intima media thickness is commonly recognized as the initial stage in the development of atherosclerosis. The development of ultrasound machines, advances in echocardiographic devices and high resolution transducers facilitate comprehensive analysis of epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT).
Aim: To investigate the relationship of echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT) with the severity of coro

The relationship of hyperuricemia to kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension and the risk of cardiovascular diseases remain controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of uric acid (UA) levels to find the higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with end stage renal disease that have diabetic nephropathy (DN), nephropathy with hypertension (NH) and patients with both diabetic nephropathy with hypertension (DNH). This study deals with 115 patients with end-stage renal disease under hemodialysis sub-grouped into 35 patients with (DN), 40 patients with (NH), and 40 patients with (DNH). Some biochemical parameters were determined in the serum of all participants such as HbA1c, fasting blood glucose (FBG), UA, urea,

Background:

     Inflammation markers are significantly higher among hemodialysis (HD) patients, which have been associated with chronic activation of the immune system. Hemodialysis centers in Baghdad appear to be taking measures with low adequacy and frequency of dialysis sessions, which can be a reason for decreased kidney functions. Therefore, the objective of this study focuses on the assessment of different aspects of hemodialysis for regular HD patients in Baghdad, including inflammatory markers (serum C-reactive protein, CRP, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, ESR), dialysis dose, comorbidities, and demographic factors for a period of one year (2018), the assessment covered four major hospitals in Baghdad namely (Al-Kind

Background: Study the correlation between the left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV), ejection fraction (EF) and the development of arrhythmia.
Patients and methods: Two hundreds patients with documented acute coronary syndrome and myocardial infection with dysrhythmia documented by ECG and holter monitoring assessed at the cardiac department at Baghdad teaching hospital over the period Jan-Dec 2007. These dysrhythmias were corelated with left ventricular end diastolic volume and ejection fraction.
Results: The patients were divided into 4 groups according to LVEDD and EF. The 1st group, 40 patients (20%) found to have non sustained ventricular tachycardia was associated with higher LVEDD (62-72

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

The present study aims at assessing the effects of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on thyroid hormone and leptin by evaluating the level of: leptin hormone along with thyroid hormone in CKD patients. The study has been conducted on  70 subjects, 50 patients with an age range between 20-50 years (25  males and 25 females) who were diagnosed to have CKD stage-5, and 20 normal controls whose ages ranged between 20-48 years (10  males and 10 females), who attended  the Nephrology and Transplant Center in Medical City of Baghdad- Iraq from April  2018  to July  2018. The study showed a highly significant (P<0.01) increase in TSH level in CKD patients in comparison with controls. While T3 and T4 levels observed highly significant decrea

This study was conducted to investigate thyroid function and Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) in (Chronic kidney disease) CKD patients by evaluating their levels in CKD patients, 50 patients were diagnosed to have CKD stage-5, their ages ranged between 20-50 years (25 males and 25 females) who attended the Nephrology and Transplant Center in Medical City of Baghdad- Iraq, they were recruited from April 2018 to July 2018 and were enrolled into the study. The control group consisted of 20 healthy individuals, their ages ranged between 20-48 years (10 males and 10 females). The study showed non-significant (p>0.05) increase in AMH level in CKD patients compared to the control group. On the other hand, TSH was recorded a highly significant (

Susceptibility to the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recently been associated with ABO blood groups in patients of different ethnicities. This study sought to understand the genetic association of this polymorphic system with risk of disease in Iraqi patients. Two outcomes of COVID-19, recovery and death, were also explored. ABO blood groups were determined in 300 hospitalized COVID-19 Iraqi patients (159 under therapy, 104 recovered, and 37 deceased) and 595 healthy blood donors. The detection kit for 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) RNA (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) was used in the diagnosis of disease.

       In spite of the high rate of morbidity and mortality heart failure (HF) is common, and none of the medications are now entirely available for HF treatment. In addition to many environmental influences and clinical diseases, genetic factors may also contribute to the progression and development of HF.  In the current study, samples of blood were collected from 150 heart failure patients and 130 healthy controls. We evaluated the association of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) of Toll-like receptors (TLR6 and TLR5) with (HF) susceptibility in the Iraqi population. In this work, (SNP) called Toll-like receptor 5 (rs5744168, rs2072493) and Toll-like receptor 6 (rs1039559, rs5743810) were employed. (PCR-RFLP) for snps