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.
Introduction: Selenium is an essential trace element involved in different physiological functions of the human body. An inverse relationship between serum selenium levels and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia has been reported. cervical intraepithelial neoplasia is regarded as a potentially premalignant transformation of squamous cells of the cervix. Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between the serum level of selenium and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Methods: A case-control study was conducted at Baghdad Teaching Hospital and Iraqi National Cancer Research Center in the University of Baghdad during the period from July 2021 to July 2022. A convenient sample of 100 women was enrolled in the current study and included
... Show MoreIntroduction: Selenium is an essential trace element involved in different physiological functions of the human body. An inverse relationship between serum selenium levels and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia has been reported. cervical intraepithelial neoplasia is regarded as a potentially premalignant transformation of squamous cells of the cervix. Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between the serum level of selenium and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Methods: A case-control study was conducted at Baghdad Teaching Hospital and Iraqi National Cancer Research Center in the University of Baghdad during the period from July 2021 to July 2022. A convenient sample of 100 women was enrolled in the current study and included
... Show MoreThe survival of dried spores of A.flavus, Penicillia Spp., and Cladosporia Spp.inoculated into multivitamins and folic acid tablets were examined at different compression pressures.Survival of fungal spores decreased with increasing compression pressure. The level of survival at particular pressures was shown to depend on the size of the contaminating fungal spores.The lethal effect of tabletting was attributed to shearing forces upon the contaminating spores generated by interparticulate movement. This hypothesis was supported by the dependence of survival upon spore size.
Key words: Fungal spores, microbial contamination.
It is uncertain whether terminal ileum intubation should be performed routinely during colonoscopy, as there is uncertainty regarding its diagnostic value. The aim of the present study is to assess the diagnostic yield of terminal ileum intubation during colonoscopy according to indications for colonoscopy. This is a cross-sectional study in which the results of 294 total colonoscopy procedures were reviewed; ileal intubation was performed in 269 (91.49%) patients. The indications for colonoscopy, the results of ileoscopy, and the histopathological results of ileal biopsies were evaluated.
A total of 54 (20%) out of 269 patients who had successful intubation into the terminal ileum sh
Biosignal analysis is one of the most important topics that researchers have tried to develop during the last century to understand numerous human diseases. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) are one of the techniques which provides an electrical representation of biosignals that reflect changes in the activity of the human brain. Monitoring the levels of anesthesia is a very important subject, which has been proposed to avoid both patient awareness caused by inadequate dosage of anesthetic drugs and excessive use of anesthesia during surgery. This article reviews the bases of these techniques and their development within the last decades and provides a synopsis of the relevant methodologies and algorithms that are used to analyze EEG sig
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: HLA-B27 can effect clinical presentation and course of ankylosing spondylitis. Different detection techniques of HLA-B27 are available with variable sensitivities and specificities. OBJECTIVE: To compare serologic and molecular diagnostic techniques of detecting HLA-B27 status and to correlate it with some clinical variables among ankylosing spondylitis patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 83 Iraqi patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Clinical and laboratory evaluations were reported. HLA-B27 status was determined in all patients by real-time PCR using HLA-B27 RealFast™ kit; ELISA method was used as well to detect soluble serum HLA-B27 antigens using Human Leukocyte Antigen® kit. RESULTS:
... Show MoreBackground : The hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is defined as the triad of liver disease, arterial deoxygenation, and pulmonary vascular dilatation. The reported prevalence of HPS in cirrhotic patients varies between 5% -17.5%.Objective : To estimate the prevalence of hepatopulmonary syndrome among patients with chronic liver disease and portal hypertension and to study the correlation between HPS and the severity of liver disease.Patients and methods : Thirty patients were studied for the presence of HPS using transthoracic contrast echocardiography for detection of pulmonary vasodilatation. Arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) was determined in erect and supine position using a pulse oximeter , (SaO2 ≤ 92 % in supine position and/or a d
... Show MoreObjective : To study the effect of some risk factors like age, smoking and Diabetes mellitus (DM) among patients with
certain cardiovascular diseases (Angina pectoris and Myocardial infarction), in addition to the assessment of the Creactive
protein (CRP) in the sera of those patients.
Methodology: The study was carried out on (100) subjects who were hospitalized in the Iraqi Center of heart Diseases
in Baghdad city and were suffering from Myocardial InfarcƟon (MI) (16) and Angina Pectoris (AP) (79) or from both (5)
over a period from September 2009 to June 2010. The results of paƟents were compared with those of (30) healthy
and age-matched individuals as a control group. Data were obtained from patients who were alr
Celiac disease (CD) is an immune-mediated disorder caused by gluten in genetically susceptible individuals characterized by chronic inflammation that essentially affects the small intestine. Objective: this study was designed to measure the potential role of some serological biomarkers including vitamin B12 and homocysteine (HCY) in the progression of CD as well as their relations to global DNA methylation (5mC). Materials and methods. Forty CD patients were enrolled in the study with an average age of (36.60 ± 2.03) years (range between 15 and 60). The diagnosis of the disease was confirmed by serological examinations and intestinal endoscopy in Gastroenterology and Liver Teaching Hospital in the Medical City Hospital in Baghdad
... Show MoreThis study was designed to compare the effect of two types of viral hepatitis A and E (HAV
and HEV) on liver functions in Iraqi individuals by the measurement of biochemical changes
associated with hepatitis.
The study performed on 58 HEV and 66 HAV infected patients compared with 28 healthy
subjects. The measured biochemical tests include total serum bilirubin, serum transminases (ALT
and AST) alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT).
The study showed that adolescent and young adults (17-29) years, were mostly affected by
HEV while children (5-12) years were frequently affected by HAV. The severity of liver damage in
HEV patients was higher than HAV patients as a result of high serum transa