Background: Since December 2019. millions of people in the world have been affected with the novel Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and high economic impact has affect many countries especially low socioeconomic one like Iraq due to the high cost and limited availability of RT-PCR for diagnosis of COVID-19, so there should be predictive low cost easily available laboratory tests that can be used before proceeding to the high cost techniques. Objective: In this retrospective study we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CRP, ferritin, LDH and D-dimer in predicting positive cases of COVID-19 in Iraq. Methods: It is a retrospective observational cohort study based on STARD guidelines to determine the diagnostic accuracy of (CRP, LDH, ferritin and D dimer) for COVID-19 of electronic medical records of private medical center in Najaf city, at which 566 individuals were recruited. The investigated subjects were either in close contact with previously COVID-19 positive patients or have one or more symptoms of COVID-19. They were categorized into 2 groups, 205 subjects diagnosed with RT-PCR as COVID-19 negative, and 361 COVID-19 positive patients, results of study variables of the cohort were recruited from the medical records. Results: Combining of these parameters had the following findings: CRP + ferritin; AUC: 0.77 with 55% sensitivity and 97% specificity, Ferritin + LDH; AUC: 0.83 with 65% sensitivity and 92% specificity, CRP+LDH; AUC: 0.78 with 56% sensitivity and 98% specificity, CRP + LDH + ferritin; AUC: 0.85, with 73% sensitivity and 88% specificity, CRP + LDH + ferritin + D dimer; AUC: 0.85 75% sensitivity and 87% specificity. Conclusion: Combination of routine laboratory biomarkers (CRP, LDH and ferritin ±D dimer) can be used to predict the diagnosis of COVID-19 with an accepted sensitivity and specificity before proceeding to definitive diagnosis by RT-PCR.

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OBJECTIVE: It has been shown that ANGPTL8 controls the metabolism of fatty acids and triglycerides (TG). Reduced adipogenesis, which was defined by decreased TG, was linked to decreased ANGPTL8. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of ANGPTL8 gene polymorphism with the occurrence of coronary artery disease in Iraqi population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: two hundred coronary artery disease patients with >70 blockage coronary artery as well as to 200 apparently individuals who were diagnosed as negative findings by coronary angiography (Control group) were investigated for several biochemical parameters as well as genotyping for rs892066 and rs2278426 of ANGPTL8 gene SNPs by ARM-PCR technique. RESULTS: The examinations of rs892066 approved significant varaition after the adjustment for age and sex under the codominant model in heterozygous genotype, and under the dominant model the GG+CG genotype in patients group was be higher than of control group. The assessment of the minor allele frequency (G) approved the association of rs892066 in the occurrence of CAD. Along with the most recent outcomes, Multinominal logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the genotype and allele frequencies of the rs2278426 ANGPTL8 gene polymorphism in CAD and control individuals under the codominant, dominant, recessive, and overdominant models. The examinations failed to explore significant varaition after the adjustment for age, sex and BMI and smoking status. The assessment of the minor allel frequency (T) indicated that no association between presence minor allel frequency (T) in CAD patients and the control group. CONCLUSIONS: SNP rs892066 may play unique role in the occurrence of CAD while rs2278426 of ANGPTL8 genes are not associated with CAD in Iraqi patients.

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The idea for this work was to assess the frequency of lipid profile in patients at the clinical chemistry laboratory of Al-Sader Medical city in An Najaf/Iraq from January to April 2018. The current work was conducted in clinical chemistry laboratory, Al-Sader medical city, An-Najaf, Iraq after institutional ethical approval and informed, to describe an observational and analytical study of outpatients, between January 2018 and April 2018. A total outpatient number of 820 who were visit the medical city for either check up or complain from an abnormal health state were involved in the this study. Age and sex of patients were ⩾ 18 years ( 404male, 414 female). Triglyceride levels and HDL –c levels were associated with gender and age not associated with occupational class or deprivation category. This contributed to the prevalence of hyperlipidemia. The findings of this study hyperlipidemia affects on the large number of Najaf population. This study suggest the variations in lipid profile association with gender and age may be largely attributed to potentially modifiable factors such as obesity, physical activity and dietary intake.