The rapid spread of novel coronavirus disease
(COVID19) throughout the world without available
specific treatment or vaccine necessitates alternative
options to contain the disease. Historically, children
and pregnant women were considered high-risk
population of infectious diseases but rarely have been
spotlighted nowadays in the regular COVID-19
updates, may be due to low global rates of incidence,
morbidity, and mortality. However, complications did
occur in these subjects affected by COVID-19. We
aimed to explore the latest updates of
immunotherapeutic perspectives of COVID-19
patients in general population and some added details
regarding pediatric and obstetrical practice.
Immune system boosting strategy is one of the
recently emerging issues allowing the body defense
mechanism to produce virus-neutralizing antibodies to
counteract the viral impacts on multiple organ
damage. Measles vaccination (which is universally
used for children in many countries, but
contraindicated during pregnancy) could urge the
body to produce these antibodies which may apply
their effects through cross-reactivity of measles
vaccine and COVID-19 antigenic proteins. In
addition, intravenous immunoglobulin and
convalescent plasma could have such neutralizing
antibody effect leading to clinical improvement and
viral elimination. Pediatric and obstetrical experience
has appeared in previous publications.
Human monoclonal antibodies are the future
promising approach to treat and prevent COVID-19
with the use of tocilizumab in recent studies. Pediatric
data are still in progress while no pregnancy ongoing
trials are planned up to date.
The better understanding of the host antiviral response
may pave the way to develop immunotherapeutic
plans against COVID-19 in the near upcoming days.
Medulloblastomas and ependymomas are the most common malignant brain tumors in children. However genetic abnormalities associated with their development and prognosis remain unclear. Recently two gene fusions, KIAA1549–BRAF and SRGAP3–RAF1 have been detected in a number of brain tumours. We report here our development and validation of RT-RQPCR assays to detect various isoforms of these two fusion genes in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues of medulloblastoma and ependymoma. We examined these fusion genes in 44 paediatric brain tumours, 33 medulloblastomas and 11 ependymomas. We detected both fusion transcripts in 8/33, 5/33 SRGAP3 ex10/RAF1 ex10, and 3/33 KIAA1549 ex16/BRAF ex9, meduloblastomas but none in the 11 ep
... Show MorePolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) referring to a syndrome that is recognized as a life-course disease and has both metabolic and reproductive signs; main pathophysiological cause includes insulin resistance, hyperandrogenism, and oxidative stress state. The study aimed to assess the impact of combining Myoinositol and Metformin, the main insulin-sensitizing drugs, on improving clinical, metabolic, and hormonal parameters in females with PCOS. A clinical trial that was prospective, randomized, and comparative on 54 patients (aged 18-40 y) are divided into three groups: group1 patients allocated to receive Myo-inositol(4g), group2 patients assigned to receive Metformin(1g) and group3 patients assigned to receive Myo-inositol(4g) + Metformin
... Show MoreASTRACT
The current study aimed to identify the quality of health services provided by the Omani health sector through the comparison between public and private hospitals in Dhofar Governorate, Oman. A questionnaire has been developed to collect data from 360 patients who received health services in one public Hospital (Sultan Qaboos) and three private Hospitals (Badr Al-Sama, Lifeline, and Al-Hakeeim). The data were analyzed using independent samples T-Test and One Way ANOVA. The results of the study showed that the quality levels of health services offered in private hospitals were better than public hospitals. The study results also reveled that there are significant differences between public hospitals and private hos
... Show MoreThe chronic renal disease is a principle common medical dilemma in Iraq. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a prevalent infirmity in the hemodialysis people. The aim of present study was to estimate the prevalence of PAD in subjects with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This cross-sectional study was done between January 2016 and May 2017 on ESRD subjects regularly attending renal dialysis unit in Al-Kindy teaching hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. PAD was diagnosed on the base of the ankle-brachial index (ABI) measured by using a hand-held Doppler ultrasound. Subjects with ABI ≤0.9 were supposed positive for PAD. A total of 150 ESRD cases were analyzed. The mean age of the subject was 49.52±15 years. Majority of them were males 87(58%). Most
... Show MoreObesity is a risk factor for a number of chronic conditions. Obesity is clinically defined using the body mass index (BMI) as weight in kg divided by (height)2 in m2 correlated with obesity. Currently, genetic markers of obesity are being studied. This study focused on the association between the angiotensin II receptor AGTR1 gene (A1166C) and fat mass and obesity-associated protein also known as alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase (FTO) (rs9939609) in obese children and adolescents patients in Rostov region, Russia. Five-hundreds of Russian nationality child and adolescent were recruited for the obesity-control studies. The relationship between the A1166C polymorphism of the AGTR1 gene in
... Show MoreAnalyze the relationship between genetic variations in the MTHFR gene at SNPs (rs1801131 and rs1801133) and the therapy outcomes for Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study was conducted on a cohort of 95 RA Iraqi patients. Based on their treatment response, the cohort was divided into two groups: the responder (47 patients) and the nonresponder (48 patients), identified after at least three months of methotrexate (MTX) treatment. A polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) technique was employed to analyze the MTHFR variations, specifically at rs1801133 and rs1801131. Overall, rs1801131 followed both codominant and dominate models, in which in
Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is
the most common form of chronic anovulation
associated with androgen excess; it occurs in about 5
– 10% 0f reproductive age women. Metabolic
syndrome is characterized by insulin resistance,
hypertension, obesity, abnormalities of blood clotting
and dyslipidemia.
Adult women with PCOS have an increased
prevalence of the metabolic syndrome(MBS).
Objectives: To detect the prevalence of metabolic
syndrome in women with proved PCOS, attending the
Specialized Center for Endocrinology and Diabetes, in
Baghdad.
Materials and methods : A total number of 40
women with proved PCOS were included in this study
which was conducted in the Specialized Center f
Breast tumors patients generally have more oxidative stress than normal females. This was clear from a highly significant elevation (P<0.05) in malondialdehyde level in RBCs, serum and tissue of all patients groups with breast cancer as compared with control group. In this study we had found that free radicals in malignant breast tumors were higher than benign tumors, therefore the MDA might be used as a marker for prognosis of the disease.