Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is an important respiratory bacterial pathogen, especially among children. It causes acute upper and lower respiratory infections.Objective: This study was aimed to measure anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies among hospitalized children who were admitted to hospital diagnosed with acute respiratory tract infections.Method: Automated ELISA technique was performed to detect anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies (IgM and IgG antibodies) in serum from 108 children less than 5 years old. The children were admitted to the Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Suleimani city/Kurdistan Region/Iraq because of acute respiratory tract infections. A questionnaire was designed to collect demographic and clinical data from those children.Results: IgM anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies were positive in 15 (13.9%) out of 108 children. The highest seroprevalence was found in the age group 25-36 months while the lowest is in the age group 1-12 months. M. pneumoniae infections were more common among males than females though results were statistically not significant, and attendance of kindergarten or nursery, residency, history of chronic diseases, history of contact with similar conditions, and family history of chronic diseases, they were all statistically not significant. The IgMseropositive children were suffering from bronchitis, croup, pneumonia, or other respiratory infections, in frequencies of 7 (46.6%), 4 (26.7%), 3 (20%), and 1 (6.7%) respectively. Increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, diagnosis of croup, and diagnosis of bronchitis were more frequent in M. pneumoniae infected group and the results were statistically significant. The IgG anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies were positive in 31 (28.8%) out of the 108 children, and the greatest IgG seroprevalence was highest in age group 49-60 months.Conclusion: M. pneumoniae is an important respiratorypathogen among hospitalized children in Sulaimanigovernorate/Kurdistan/Iraq, and nearly one third of childrenhad experienced M. pneumoniae infection by the age of fiveyears
Background: The early detection of oral cancers gives the greatest chance of curing and the delay in presentation has a significant impact on the associated morbidity and mortality. The lack of general dental practitioners (GDP) knowledge in early cancer detection has been shown to contribute to delays in referral and treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the oral cancer awareness among a group of GDP by assessing their knowledge of detection and prevention of oral cancer. Materials and methods: A questionnaire based study was designed. The questionnaire was delivered to 200 GDP assessing oral examination method, knowledge of oral cancer risk factors, clinical appearance and the most common site, point of referral and requests
... Show MoreBack ground: One out of six children in the
world today is involved in child labor, doing
work that is damaging to his or her mental,
physical and emotional development.
Objective: Assessment of some health
problems among the studied working children.
Method; A cross-sectional study was
conducted in Al Amen Primary Health Care
(PHCC) during the period from January to
August 2009, a sample of 6048 children were
selected randomly(3218girls and2866 boys age
between 5-17 years ) and interviewed to collect
information using a structured questionnaire
form, information related to different aspects
of child labor prevention were included in the
form as well as a general medical examination
and lab
Background: In the elderly, depression is the most frequent mood condition. It has been linked to major consequences such as disability, functional decline, decreased quality of life, higher mortality, it is the most costly health problem among elderly, a little study is written about depression among elderly patients in Iraq.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence of depression in elderly aged 60 years and more who visited primary health care centers in Diyala.
Methodology: It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study that was conducted on 218 patients from PHCs of 2 sectors: Al-Kales and 1st Baquba, Diyala governorate-Iraq. A direct interview was conducted by
... Show MoreBackground: The timing of eruption of permanent teeth is of considerable importance to the dental health planning for diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic measures for children and teenagers. The purposes of this study were to determine timing of maxillary and mandibular permanent teeth emergence (except third molars) and to evaluate the effect nutritional status by anthropometric measures on the eruption time of permanent teeth, investigations had been done according to jaw and gender variations. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among four to fifteen years old children and teenagers from kindergarten and schools in Basrah city in the south region of Iraq. The total sample composed of 1807 children and teenagers that were
... Show MoreBackground: Complement (C) & CRP in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)'could be trigger disease activity.
Aim: To study the correlation between C, CRP, IgM,, IgG, IgA & some clinical presentation in RA patients.
Methods: Latex agglutination test(AG) & single radial immunoassay(SRIA) were used to asses CRP, IgMJgGJgA,, C, in 74 patients with RA.
Results: IgA & IgG were significantly increased, while the mean ofC3, C4 were slightly elevated in RA patients .
Conclusion: There is correlation between IgG and IgM with joint deformity and joint swelling respectively, while C3 was showed statistically significant P<0.01 with joint
stiffness, joint swelling and Rheumatoid nodule, whe
Background: the novel coronavirus (2019-ncov), formally known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2), the etiological cause of the (corona virus disease 2019) covid-19, appeared in wuhan, hubei province, china. On 11 march 2020, the world health organization (who) declared this disease as a pandemic. As new information on the clinical characteristics, treatment options, and outcomes for covid-19 emerges approximately every hour, physicians should keep themselves up-to-date on this topic.
Objective: to study the demographic features, clinical signs and symptoms and certain vital and laboratory findings of covid-19 hospitalized cases; and to identify the used medication, complications, length of stay at the hosp
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in a group of Iraqi obese children attending children welfare teaching hospital
Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses are the major health problem in the worldwide. In the Middle East, the prevalence of HBV in general population with the chronic infectionsis 2-5%,whereas the prevalence of HCV is about 1% in Arabian Gulf countries. World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the risks of HBV and HCV transmissionas well as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through the transfusion of contaminated blood and blood products is high, because of the fragility of health services in these countries. Several viral diseases are transportby different modes like bloodtransfusion, sexual contact, and unsafe injections. The mostcommon blood-transmitted viruses are hepatitis B virus(HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and humanimmunodeficie
... Show MoreBackground: The number of coronavirus infection cases has increased rapidly since early reports in the December 2019 in China. But data on the clinical features of infected peoples is variable from one country to the other.
Objective: Studying clinical features of patients with a positive RT PCR COVID – 19, in a group of Iraqi patients.
Results: The study included 200 patients with 133 (66.5%) males and 67 (33.5%) females, and age range of 14- 89 years, with mean age 46.4 years. A history of contact with a COVID -19 positive case was found in 80 patients (40%), Ischemic Heart Disease in 11 patients (5.5%), hypertension 34 (17%), diabetes mellitus 36 patients (18%). The
... Show More