Background and objective: Vaginal candidiasis is a common infection among pregnant women. The current study aimed to investigate the etiologic species of vaginal candidiasis and the genotypes of C. albicans isolated from vaginal samples among pregnant women in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Methods: Vaginal swabs were collected from pregnant women admitted to the Maternity hospital in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil cities from March 2016 to December 2018. Candida isolates were identified on CHROMagar medium, then confirmed with PCR depending on ITS region. All C. albicans isolates were confirmed using chitin synthase gene (CHS1) and subjected to genotypic analysis based on the transposable intron in 25S rDNA with using CA25S and CA-INT primers. DNA sequencing of 25S rDNA region was done by using CA and CA-INT primers. Results: Among 340 women tested, 114 (33.53%) were positive for vaginal candidiasis. Five Candida species were identified, where they are C. albicans (56.14%), C. glabrata (24.56%), C. kefyr (11.40%), C. tropicalis (5.27%) and C. krusei (2.63%). It has been found that C. albicans significantly (P <0.01) higher than non-albicans species. The genotypes A (450 bp), B (840 bp), and C (450 and 840 bp) of C. albicans were detected. The Genotype A (54.69%) was the most prevalent, followed by Genotype B (34.38%) and Genotype C (10.94%). In regards to genetic variation, genotypes A and B were more similar compared to genotype C. Conclusion: The current study revealed a high prevalence of vaginal candidiasis with different genotypes of C. albicans among pregnant women. Therefore, it is worth considering a vaginal swab culture with clinical symptoms during the diagnosis of vaginal candidiasis. Keywords: Candida; Genotypes; Vulvovaginitis; Candidiasis; Prevalence.
Nowadays in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the number of patients have common symptoms with COVID-19 infection rapidly increased. 123 patients which they had common symptoms with COVID-19 and 94 healthy control individuals (non-COVID-19) were subjected for quantitative analysis for each one of the following biochemical parameters, Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Creatine Phosphokinase (CPK), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. We analyze clinical features and compared the differences between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 symptoms. Among the healthy control individuals, the absolute value of LDH, CPK Creatine Kinase and CRP were determined in between the normal range, and in compare with patients with COVID-19 symptoms their values were smaller and, the P value was (P <0.05). All three biochemical parameters increased among patients with COVID-19 symptoms, but more significantly, steadily increase was observed only in LDH value in age above and under 40 years (284.43±10.29 and 321.23±16.32 U/L), and p-value was (0.0488). Male patients had higher levels of LDH (299.32±11.42 U/L), CPK Creatine Kinase (195.90±26.65 mg/L), and C-Reactive Protein (5.86±3.96 mg/L) in compared with the female patients. Our study suggested that among patients who have COVID 19 symptoms, increased LDH is the advised and helpful biochemical marker among routine panel for COVID-19 infection evaluation. Also, CRP levels were positively correlated with male patients when compared with the healthy control.
Background and objective: Many tests are conducted for monitoring the progression and the severity of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection. However, the extent to which these tests are helpful in clinical practice and therapeutics of COVID-19 is still ambiguous. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of performing inflammatory marker tests, liver function tests, and procalcitonin test in the diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19 infection. Methods: The current study compares the results of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, ferritin, and procalcitonin tests in two different populations of 123 COVID-19 suspects and a control group of 110 healthy individuals in Erbil city of Kurdistan region of Iraq to search for possible significant differences in both groups. Results: The COVID-19 group had significantly higher ferritin and procalcitonin mean values than the control group (P = 0.001). The differences between alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were significant in some age and gender classes of both groups. However, the overall differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.339 and 0.286, respectively). Conclusion: The outcome of the current study suggests that among the group of tests conducted for the study population, the most useful tests are ferritin and procalcitonin to monitor the COVID-19 patients' health status.
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