Background: Pressure ulcers remain a serious complication for immobile patients and a burden for healthcare professionals. Objectives: To assess health behavior prevention among critical care nurses regarding pressure ulcer prevention for hospitalized patients and to find out the relationship between critical care nurses health behavior prevention and sociodemographic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional design study was carried out in critical care units at three teaching hospitals. The study period extended from November 1, 2022, to January 28, 2023. Non-probability purposive sampling, whose target population was 100 nurses who work in critical care units in Baghdad, Iraq. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The data was collected from November 10th through December 23rd, 2022. Study instruments consist of two parts. First, the demographic sheet included sociodemographic information about the participants. The second part includes nurses’ attitudes toward the pressure ulcer prevention instrument (APuP). The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 26. Results: Findings of the current study showed nearly three-quarters (74%) of critical care nurses had positive health behaviors regarding pressure ulcer prevention based on a total mean score of 2.26. Conclusion: This study concluded that the critical care units’ nurses surveyed in this study demonstrate an acceptable level of knowledge regarding pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. Continuing education or in-service training should be provided to enhance critical care units’ nurses’ practices and positive health behaviors about pressure ulcer prevention.
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the new respiratory virus SARS-CoV2. It has a tropism in the lung tissues where excess target receptors exist. Periostin plays a role in subepithelial fibrosis associated with bronchial asthma. Since the Coronavirus's target is the human respiratory system, Periostin has been recently described as a valuable new biomarker in the diagnosis and evaluation of disease in patients with COVID-19 lung involvement. Objectives: To assess the level of Periostin in the serum of COVID-19 patients and to correlate its role in disease severity and prognosis. Subjects and Methods: Periostin serum levels were measured for 63 patients attending three main COVID
... Show Morethe association between celiac disease and viral infection
: Partial purification of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) from type 2 diabetic patients sera take place using some purification steps such as participation with ammonium sulphate (55-80%) and filtered through dialysis, then ion exchange chromatography by DEAE sepharose anion column, gel filtration chromatography by sephadex G-100 column. In ion exchange step, there are four peak are obtained, the highest enzyme activity obtained by (0.4 M Nacl) with purification fold (2.18), yield (44.3) of enzyme and specific activity (13.5) mg/ng, which obtained a single peak by gel filtration chromatography, the degree of purification (5.34) fold, yield of enzyme (20%) with specific activity (33.109mg/ng). The purified enzyme had an optimum tem
... Show MoreThe mean age of AS patients was (35.0 ± 9.8) years.When the patients and control subjects were divided into different age groups (>40, 30-40, <30 years), the differences were not significantin terms of disease prevalence. The results also showed that the percentage of male patients is higher than that of females. There was no significant difference (P?0.05) between patients and controls in the distribution of males and females.Most of the patients had the disease for a period of 5 years or higher, with a disease severity of ? 2.1 and functional disability degree of I, II. The resultsshoweddifferent patterns of distribution for the three tested cytokines. A significant increase in the level of TNF-?, anon-significantincrease i
... Show MoreDue to its association with hepatocellular carcinoma and being one of the ten most common malignancies worldwide, hepatitis C viral infection has become a severe public health concern. Therefore, establishing an accurate, reliable and sensitive diagnostic test for this infection is strongly advised. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been created to achieve this purpose. The current study was established to investigate the hepatitis C virus among Iraqi patients with chronic renal failure and to detect the virus immunologically by the fourth generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique and molecularly by real-time PCR. As a result, out of 50 patients with chronic renal failure undergoing dialysis, 39 patients tes
... Show MoreBackground:Periodontal diseases are infectious diseases in which periodontalpathogens trigger chronic inflammatory and immune responses. Interleukine-6 is a multifunctional cytokine playing a central role in inflammation and tissue injury.The aim of the study IS to determine the level of Interleukin-6(IL-6) in saliva of patients with chronic periodontitis compared to healthy subjects. Materials and Methods:The total subjects of the present study is 60, divided into 3 groups; 20 patients with chronic periodontitis with pocket depth(PD ≥4 mm)(group I), 20 patients with pocket depth(PD <4 mm) with clinical attachment loss (group II), and 20 healthy controls with pocket probing depth (PPD ≤ 3 mm) without clinical attachment loss (g
... Show MoreBackground: Psoriasis is a common inflammatory condition worldwide, with an average prevalence ranging from 2% to 3%. However, the incidence of psoriasis varies among different ethnic groups and regions. Elevated leptin levels have been associated with increased cellular proliferation, including T-cells. Additionally, high leptin levels may stimulate the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines such as ILـ6 and TNFـα. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of Apremilast on Leptin in obese psoriatic patients. Subjects and Methods: Thirty patients with psoriasis were included in This prospective cohort study to measure the levels of serum Leptin by using the ELISA technique, before and after receiving Apremilast. Result: The present work
... Show MoreThe 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 boo
The members of the family of Eentrobacteriaceae harbour a gene cluster called polyketide synthase (pks) island. This cluster is responsible for the synthesis of the genotoxin colibactin that might have an important role in the induction of double-strand DNA breaks, leading to promote human colorectal cancer (CRC). Eleven out of the eighty eight isolates (12.5%) were pks+, distributed as 7 (8%) isolates of E. coli, 2 (2.25%) of K. pneumoniae and 2 (2.25%) of E. aerogenes. The cytotoxic effects of selected pks+ isolates (E. coli and E. aerogenes) on HeLa cells were represented by decreasing cell numbers and enlarged cell nuclei in comparison to the untreated cells. Cyt
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