Background:SARS-CoV-2 infection has caused a global pandemic that continues to negatively impact human health. A large group of microbial domains including bacteria co-evolved and interacted in complex molecular pathogenesis along with SARS-CoV-2. Evidence suggests that periodontal disease bacteria are involved in COVID-19, and are associated with chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. This study was performed to investigate the association between bacterial loads of Porphyromonas gingivalis and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fifty patients with confirmed COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, their age ranges between 20-76 years, and 35 healthy volunteers (matched accordingly with age and sex to the patients) participated in this case control study. Oral hygiene status was determined by the simplified oral hygiene index. Blood and saliva samples were obtained from patients and controls, Porphyromonas gingivalis quantification from extracted DNA of blood and saliva samples performed by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction. The present result revealed that the quantity of salivary Porphyromonas gingivalis was significantly higher (p=0.003) in the patients’ group than in the controls group, while there was no significant difference in the number of bacteria in the blood samples between the two groups. Moreover, the number of bacteria in severe cases was higher than that in moderate and mild with no significant differences, and there was a significant increase in the number of bacteria among patients with poor oral hygiene compared to patients with good oral hygiene. This study demonstrated that the high level of salivary Porphyromonas gingivalis in patients increases in number with disease severity, which may indicate that bacterial infections contribute to the spread of the disease.
Malaria is a curative disease, with therapeutics available for patients, such as drugs that can prevent future malaria infections in countries vulnerable to malaria. Though, there is no effective malaria vaccine until now, although it is an interesting research area in medicine. Local descriptors of blood smear image are exploited in this paper to solve parasitized malaria infection detection problem. Swarm intelligence is used to separate the red blood cells from the background of the blood slide image in adaptive manner. After that, the effective corner points are detected and localized using Harris corner detection method. Two types of local descriptors are generated from the local regions of the effective corners which are Gabor based f
... Show MoreBackground: Ulcerative colitis has been reported to be associated with autonomic dysfunction, mainly of vagal involvement.
Objectives: To Determine whether there is a parasympathetic dysfunction in ulcerative colitis patients in remission state or not.
Results: For all of the three tests, patients group gave significantly lower results (P˂ 0.05) which was the least level of significance. Materials and methods: Three standardized tests of parasympathetic function, based on heart rate variation in response to certain stimuli (heart rate response to Valsalva maneuver, to deep breathing and to standing from supine position) were used on 54 ulcerative
The current study was conducted in the period extending from November 2018 to October 2019 and designed as a case-control study and aimed to assess the seroprevalence of HCMV. However, a total number of 91serum specimens were collected to fulfill this purpose from females (71 breast cancer patients, and control group of 20 females) attending Al-Amal hospital for cancer management and Baghdad teaching hospital and the practical part was performed in College of Science, University of Baghdad. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Department of Biology (Reference: BEC/0220/0011). The immunological part for evaluation of seroprevalence of HCMV was accomplished by ELISA technique which revealed that anti-HCMV IgG was sco
... Show MoreBackground:
Background: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an unresolving inflammation of the liver of unknown cause associated with interface hepatitis on histological examination,hypergammaglobulinemia and presence of circulating autoantibodies. Antibody-mediated tissue injury might be responsible for tissue injury in AIH therefore; a number of studies have been focused on the immunoglobulines in these patients .The aim of the study is to estimate the level of immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA and IgM ) in different types of Autoimmune hepatitis ( AIH).
Patients and Methods: The study was performed on 73 Iraqi patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), attending the teaching hospital for gastroenterology and liver disease in a p
Background: disturbed physiological rhythm of blood pressure in preeclampsia is a common finding. The role of oxidative stress in pathogenesis of preeclampsia is well accepted. Melatonin is a powerful free radical scavenger so it's rapidly consumed by enhanced reactive oxygen species in preeclampsia causing non-dipping in blood pressure.
Objective: To evaluate the change in plasma melatonin levels in patients with preeclampsia and its relationship with blood pressure.
Patients and methods: In this prospective case control study a total of 40 primigravidae pregnant women were recruited during the period of 11 months between August 2015 and August 2016 in Baghdad teaching hospital, medical city, Iraq, divided into two groups:
Firs
Background: It is well known that oral carriage
of Candida species increase in many situations, like
obesity, debility, leukemia, viral infection, use of
certain drugs in addition to diabetes mellitus.
Objective: find the relation between diabetes and
its control on oral carriage of Candida.
Methods: Thirty four hundred oral swabs from
diabetic patients 67% are females and 33% are
males, 41.7% are type 1 diabetes and 58.3% are type
2.different culture media are used.
Results: we found that 37.9% of diabetics had oral
carriage, older age group had more but the
difference is not significant statistically P>0.05, in
addition females carry more Candida than males
P<0.05, while type of diabetes
Background: Apoptosis is a physiological type of cell death; it is active, well-controlled genetic program of cell death that does not produce inflammatory process. It is involved in cell turnover in healthy adult tissues and it is responsible for focal elimination of unwanted cells during normal embryonic development, organ homeostasis, immune regulation and defense without causing stress to the neighboring cells.
Method: This study was carried on 30 Grave's disease female patients with a mean age of (29.8 ± 8.3) years. The study parameters were considered as: before and after treatment; patient becomes clinically and biochemically euthyroid after 4-6 weeks of starting treatment with antithyroid drug&nb
Background: Diabetic cheiroarthropathy is a term derived from the Greek word “cheiros” meaning “of the hand”, It is characterized by stiff hands with distinctively thick, tight, and waxy skin, especially on the dorsal aspects of the hands. It is part of long term complication of diabetes and many suggest it is associated with microvascular complication. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of diabetic cheiroarthropathy in Iraqi patients with diabetes, and to study its association with diabetic retinopathy and glycemic control. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study in which 110 diabetic patients and 110 non-diabetic healthy people who accepted to take part in the study were ran
... Show MoreBackground: Preeclampsia, the de novo occurrence of hypertension and proteinuria after the 20th week of gestation, continues to exert an inordinate toll on mothers and children alike.
The idea that asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) accumulation may be a cardiovascular risk factor in patients with preeclampsia was advanced in 2003. Furthermore, High ADMA levels have been associated with alterations in the regulation of cerebral blood flow and neural function, with insulin resistance, thyroid dysfunction, and alterations in bone homeostasis, fertility, and erectile function.
Subject and methods: the present study is a cross-sectional case-control study includes measurement of s.ADMA in 60 patients with