The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first reported in China, in December 2019 and since then the digestive tract involvement of COVID-19 has been progressively described. In this review, I summed recent studies, which have addressed the pathophysiology of COVID-19-induced gastrointestinal symptoms, their prevalence, and bowel pathological and radiological findings of infected patients. The effects of gut microbiota on SARS-CoV-2 and the challenges of nutritional therapy of the infected patients are depicted. Moreover, I provide a concise summary of the recommendations on the management of inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and performing endoscopy in the COVID era. Finally, the COVID pancreatic relation was explored. Conclusions: digestive symptoms in COVID-19 patients can be the only manifestation and they may be correlated with worse clinical outcomes. The likelihood of fecal-oral transmission of COVID-19 has significant consequences and requires further research. A clear link may exist between the gut microbiome and COVID-19 progression and it may have a therapeutic and prognostic value. No evidence for an increased frequency of covid-19 cases in IBD and stopping immunosuppressive medications is not advised. Triage and risk assessment of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 before endoscopy is essential; deferral of elective endoscopies should be considered.
Background: Neonatal intensive care unit infants frequently experience acute kidney damage. Estimates of the prevalence of acute kidney vary depending on the definitions used. In Iraq, studies addressing the prevalence and risk factors of acute kidney injury in this age group are scarce, none of which has implicated the KDIGO diagnostic and staging criteria.
Objectives: To describe the prevalence, demographics, risk factors, etiology, and staging of acute kidney injury using KDIGO criteria in the Neonatal intensive care unit and correlate these findings with patient outcomes.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/ CWTH/ Medical Cit
... Show MoreBackground: IL-4 is an antibodies inflammatory cytokine which has an important role in protecting against the inflammatory reactions in most of diseases. Here, we try to highlights the role of this cytokine in chronic Rheumatic heart disease and its correlation with the extent of histopathological abnormalities.
Patients and Methods: Rheumatic mitral valve surgical fragments were taken from a total of 48 Iraqi patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease under mitral valve replacement surgery in Ibn Al- Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery-Iraq-Baghdad. Paraffin embedded mitral valve tissue sections were prepared. IL-4-expressing cells were detected by using immunohistochemical staining technique and
Background: Significant numbers of patients with spinal tuberculosis (TB), especially in developing countries, still present late after disease onset with severe neurological deficits.
Objective:This study was conducted to assess the outcome of surgery in patients with tuberculosis of the spine with motor deficits.
Type of the study: Retrospective study.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data obtained in all the patients with severe motor deficits due to spinal TB admitted to and surgically treated in four hospitals in Baghdad/Iraq during the period from January 2012 to January 2014. History, examination, imaging, histological, postoperative, a
... Show MoreBackground: The prevalence of obesity is continuously rising world-wide. Obesity is an important risk factor of cardiovascular disease (CVD), metabolic syndrome (MS), and type 2 diabetes (T2D).
Objective: To estimate the frequency of MS in obese versus non-obese subjects in Basrah, Iraq .
Methods: This is a prospective clinical study performed in Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital, Basrah, and included 86 obese subjects (with a BMI ≥ 30), 39 males and 47 females, and 132 non-obese subjects ( with a BMI < 30 ), 60 males and 73 females as a control group. Measurement of height, weight, waist circumference (WC), blood pressure ( BP ), fasting blood glucose ( FBG ), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG ) and high density lipoprotein-
Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, where the normal joint tissues attacked by body’s immune system, causing their inflammation. Cluster of Differentiation 69 (CD69) is a human transmembrane C-Type lectin protein encoded by the CD69 gene. It’s expression was induced by activation (in vivo and in vitro) of T lymphocytes and Natural Killer (NK) Cells. As CD69 early activation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of some inflammatory diseases, its expression on peripheral blood T-lymphocytes must be evaluated.
Objective: To evaluate the expression of CD69 on peripheral blood T-lymphocytes in RA Iraqi patients.
Patients and methods: This study carried out between March 2
Background: Hydatid disease remains an important & challenging medical problem.
Case report: A62 year old male patient was admitted complaining of upper abdominal discomfort. Six days earlier he suffered from acute pain in the right upper quadrant, mild systemic allergic manifestation, a fever of 38.5oC and chills. He was managed by a new surgical approach of myoplasty of the right hemidiaphragm combined with preoperative decompression of the bile duct by an endoscopic sphincterotomy. A case search identified study describing rupture of a hydatid cyst of the hepatic dome into biliary tract. The incidence of intrabiliary rupture of hepatic hydatid cysts is 25% in patients treated with external surgical
In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed and studied to describe the spread of shigellosis disease in the population community. We consider it divided into four classes namely: the 1st class consists of unaware susceptible individuals, 2nd class of infected individuals, 3rd class of aware susceptible individuals and 4th class are people carrying bacteria. The solution existence, uniqueness as well as bounded-ness are discussed for the shigellosis model proposed. Also, the stability analysis has been conducted for all possible equilibrium points. Finally the proposed model is studied numerically to prove the analytic results and discussing the effects of the external sources for dis
... Show MoreBackground: Atherosclerosis is a diffuse disease process, being present in one vascular bed predicts its presence in the others. Ankle –Brachial Pressure Index (ABI) is a simple index related to the extent of atherosclerosis in coronary and noncoronary arterial beds, reflecting generalized atherosclerosis.
Objectives: the aim of this study is to evaluate the relation of ABI to left ventricular systolic function using echocardiography in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).
Patients and Methods: Sixty seven patients (67) with CAD of either sex (70% males) with mean age 58± 6 years enrolled in this study, from December 2013 till May 2014; all were referred to the Iraqi Centre for Heart Disease (I.C.H.D.) for further evalua
Background: Imaging has a critical role in the diagnosis and evaluation of cardiac diseases, beginning with chest radiography and fluoro-scopy and progressing to coronary angio-graphy, echocardiography, nuclear medicine and recently multidetector computed tomo-graphy (MDCT) as well as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging
Objective: To highlight the role of Multi-detector CT in the evaluation of coronary artery disease and its importance of being noninvasive diagnostic technique.
Methods: A cross sectional study for 20 patients. Patients were asked to fast 6 hours prior to the examination and the patients with heart rates above 65 beats per minute were given cardio-
... Show MoreCeliac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by chronic inflammation that essentially affects the small intestine and is caused by eating gluten-containing foods. This study sought to determine gene expression of NLRP3 Inflammasome in peripheral blood of Iraqi CD children using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assay. Thirty children with CD (12 males and 18 females) were enrolled in the study and their age range was 3-15 years. The diagnosis of the disease was confirmed by serological examinations and intestinal endoscopy. A control sample of 20 age-matched healthy children was also included. The children were stratified for age, gender, body max index (BMI), histological findings, and marsh classification. Fu
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