Introduction: Chronic hypertension is a serious physiological condition that develops histopathological abnormalities such as remodelling, hypertrophy in heart muscle and vasoconstriction of blood vessels. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of almond, walnut and corn oils on remodelling and hypertrophy of the heart, aorta and testicles in high blood pressure (BP)-bearing rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five adult male albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) weighing 200–250 g were used. Rats were divided into 5 groups, with 5 rats in each group, as the following: Group first: normal control: standard rat chow and tap water ad libitum; Group 2: hypertension induced by L-NAME (model): This group received L-NAME (40 mg/kg/day) orally; Group 3: model + walnut oil, received almond oil (3 ml/kg) for 3 weeks; Group 4: model + almond oil, received walnut oil (3 ml/kg) for 3 weeks and Group 5: mode + corn oil, received corn oil (3 ml/kg) for 3 weeks. The experiment took 28 days, BP was recorded each week and then the animals were sacrificed under the effects of ketamin-xylazine anaesthesia by cervical dislocation. Histopathological slices were taken from the whole heart, aorta and testes using the standard method. The mean BP for each group was presented in the table, and t-test was used for statistical analysis. Histopathological results for each group are shown in the figures. Results: In contrast to almond oil, walnut oil and corn oil have significantly reduced BP (157.9 ± 4.490 mmHg) to (140.1 ± 3.068 mmHg) but not to the control level (130.7 ± 2.605). Walnut and corn oil could prevent tunica media thickness in the aortic, remodelling and hypertrophy in cardiac muscle and protect the architecture of spermatogenesis tissue in seminiferous tubules of testicle. Almond-treated groups showed no improvement in histopathological changes when compared with the model in aorta, cardiac muscle and testicle. Conclusion: Unlike almond oil, corn and walnut oil can reduce high BP induced by L-NAME and alleviate the histopathological changes that occur as the result of hypertension, such as aortic wall thickness and myocadiac hypertrophy.

The new highly transmitted pathogenic viral infection started from Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. The World Health Organization publicized that it is phylogenetically belonging to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), introduced as COVID-19 pandemic disease, and spread around the world. The first confirmed case in Kurdistan region was on 1st of March, 2020. While the first COVID-19 case in Halabja province/Kurdistan region was recorded on 27th of March, 2020. This study was designed, when the Wafa Hospital constructed in Halabja/Kurdistan region for infected patients. The data were collected from 14th April to the end of December, 2020 and included name and age of the infected persons. Samples were obtained nasopharyngeal using a sterilized swab following WHO guidelines and then the real time PCR (RT-PCR) machine was used for analysis. This study was particularly representing the impact of COVID-19 on suspected person. It was focused on the susceptibility of suspected cases in Halabja province, according to ages and sexes. During the study, 5183 cases were tested, 2796 (54%) cases were confirmed as positive result and 2387 (46%) cases were negative, including all ages, males and females. Confirmed male cases among 3116 cases were 1646 (60.1%), and 1150 (39.9%) positive cases recorded among 2067 female tests. In addition, the ages of the tested cases were divided into 10 sub-groups (0-9) years old to (90-99) years old, subsequently. The result of this study for both sexes, revealed that, the most confirmed cases among (30-39) years group and (40-49) years group were (1521) and (1223) confirmed positive cases. The lowest cases were among over 80 years old and below 9 years old (10, 3) confirmed cases. Besides, the confirmed cases for other age groups for both sexes were (50-59) years old was 397, (60-69) years old was 205, (70-79) was 77. Finally, the data showed that, the common confirmed cases were among groups 20-59 years old and the rare cases were under 9 and over 80 years.

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.

Every laboratory needs to establish its own community-based reference intervals for the achievement of the optimal and true diagnosis in the clinical practice. However, such vital experimentations are not been conducted sufficiently in Halabja city and Kurdistan region of Iraq as a whole. This study is an attempt to introduce for the first time a set of reference intervals of lipid profile variables that are based on the healthy and asymptomatic adult population of Halabja using international standards. The methodology recruited for this purpose is based on the IFCC, CLSI, and WHO’s standards, in which the study population was subjected to strict exclusion criteria for the sake of higher accuracy in the results. The reference intervals are computed as the 95th percentile of the lipid profile variable values. The results are broken down based on the gender and age groups. All of the estimated intervals fall perfectly in the internationally known reference intervals. Even so, the outcome values are similar and sometimes higher than the currently used intervals by the laboratories and physicians for the diagnosis purposes. The out-turns from the study encourage us to demand the healthcare providers to reconsider the currently approved reference intervals for the lipid profile test (TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, and VLDL-C) in the clinical practice and consider the results of this study for further diagnostic purposes.

Objective: This study was employed to assess the effects of Ramadan fasting on anthropometric measures, blood pressure, and lipid profile among hypertensive patients. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among a representative sample, which was selected using a census survey of hypertensive patients (both gender, aged 25–50 years, on regular antihypertensive drugs (atenolol: 50 mg orally once a day)), during Ramadan month that was falling in April to May 2020. The patients were receiving care at Halabja hospital in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. All patients were assessed in two phase’s baseline (a week before Ramadan) and end stage (a week after Ramadan), using anthropometric indices, physical examination, biochemical tests, and a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 120 hypertensive patients were included in the study (50% females and 50% males), with a mean age of 37.5 ± 6.6 years. The major finding of our study was the significant decrease in blood pressure (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference of the participants decreased after Ramadan fasting in a significant approach (P < 0.001 for all). However, for the lipid profile components, the total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol change persisted not statistically significant (P > 0.05), while only triglyceride decreased drastically after Ramadan fasting (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Ramadan fasting could contribute in the improvement of blood pressure and lowers triglyceride levels, body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference of adult hypertensive patients.

In this study, the 6PGD enzyme from Japanese quail erythrocytes was purified with specific activity of 52.84 EU/mg and 69% yield of purification by 2ˈ, 5ˈ- ADP Sepharose 4B affinity gel in a single chromatographic method. The purification folds of the enzyme were 4984 folds. The purified enzyme was checked using SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) method; the result of gel showed a single band. The subunit molecular weight of the enzyme was calculated as 81 kDa by the SDS-PAGE method. The characterization studies of the 6PGD enzyme from erythrocytes of Japanese quail showed: the optimum ionic strength to be at 0.5 M Tris-HCl, optimum and stable pH values to be at 0.5 M Tris-HCl buffers pH 8.0. The optimal temperature for the enzyme activity was found at 60 ˚C. Finally, the KM and Vmax values for the 6PGD enzyme from Japanese quail’s erythrocytes were calculated respectively for the 6PGA the KM value found as 0.120 mM, Vmax value as 0.191 EU/mL and for NADP+ the KM value as 0.017 mM and Vmax value as 0.228 EU/mL.

Recently, the infection transmitted by the latest coronavirus (COVID-19), was associated with significant increase in morbidity and mortality, reflecting major public health issue. However, Ramadan fasting throughout an outbreak may be a new phenomenon for many of Muslims worldwide. The aim of this review was to determine the impact of Ramadan fasting on immune system function during COVID-19 pandemic. This review gathered the contemporary information throughout PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct databases from relevant articles, to provide understanding of the potential impact of Ramadan fasting on the immune system during pandemic viral infection. The results of this review show many justifiable concerns arise to the consequences of refraining the body from essential nutrients and fluids for prolonged periods of time through a day. Especially this practice might intricate the health status of selected groups including the elderly and people having chronic diseases. On the other hand, many studies suggest that intermittent fasting boost the immune response of the body towards infections. Furthermore, there is no conclusive evidence regarding the relationship between fasting and increasing or decreasing the risk of catching a virus or improving oxidative stress status as well. Therefore, Muslims who practice fasting during pandemic face a circumstance in which no concrete scientific evidence proves the safety or danger of this religious practice. We conclude that there are proven benefits of fasting in augmenting the immune response; however, this summoned by many factors including general health status of the person who fasts, lifestyle, and epidemiological circumstances.

Balanced nutrition is vital for peak performance of immune function, especially when a global pandemic is emerging, and there is major lack in approved treatments for it. Many nutrients and their abundance in cells induce immune function. We performed a narrative review to describe existing literature with regard to role of nutrients in supporting the immune system against viral infection including coronavirus (SARS-COV-2). PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were searched for relevant articles. This review represents a picture of the current state of the art. In particular, we classified the nutrients by means of their types, abundance, importance and possible antiviral effects in immune system. The macronutrients such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins are essential for cells to generate energy and participate in immune function as well. However, unbalanced diet with high levels of macromolecules could lead to chronic diseases that impair the body’s immune abilities. The micronutrients including vitamins and minerals participate in immune system on a bigger scale that almost all body’s immune mechanism depends on the expressions of micronutrients. Vitamins improve immune responses. Some vitamins include A, D, K, B, and C enroll in antiviral mechanism of the immune cells. A group of trace elements including zinc, copper, selenium, magnesium, manganese, and iron are heavily contributed in maintaining body’s immunity. The susceptibility toward the infectious diseases is highly elevated in cases of their deficiencies. Besides their antiviral roles, vitamins such as E and C with minerals in the cells adopt antioxidant properties that help immune cells to fight oxidative stress in the cells. Nevertheless, the high levels of minerals such as iron could threat the immune system by growing the oxidative stress. So, maintaining rich and balanced nutrition could improve body’s immune function, and possibly prevent viral infections including COVID-19.

Cardiovascular disease patients frequently suffer from the incidence of renal dysfunctions, the prevalence of the correlation, however, remains ambiguous. This study aims to see how CVD and renal function are related to the subjected group of patients suffer from symptoms of CVD. The method recruited for this objective was using of serum lipid profile test as a marker for evaluating the CVD and making correlations to the blood urea, serum uric acid, and serum creatinine levels as markers for assessing renal function on 159 individuals with CVD symptoms in Erbil city. Two statistical analysis methods (The linear regression and Pearson’s correlation) were employed for determining the existence from a lack of relationship between them. The results showed a statistically significant correlation p<0.05 by both methods between the renal function markers and TC. The UA was correlated to TG, LDL-C, and VLDL-C p<0.05 by regression analysis. The SCr was correlated to TG and LDL-C p<0.05 by both methods, and to VLDL by regression analysis. According to the outcome of the current study both lipid profile and renal function markers are correlated in mostly a statistically significant manner. Yet, the results are not conclusive, further studies are needed in this area for indemnify the irrefutable evidence concerning this relation.

The naturalness of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections (SARS-Cov-2) appears to impact the respiratory system and lungs, however, the etiology of many cases exhibited several various features of the disease. The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms are not limited to the virus’s first definitions. This review gathered the contemporary information throughout PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct databases regarding possible effects of the virus in generating reactive oxygen species and causing oxidative stress. However, this ensures a hypothesis for now, yet from the literature and incidence of COVID-19 symptoms along with comorbidities we can observe the potentials of the virus in the generation of oxidative stress. Especially the virus’s route to cell entry via angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor is well known that leads to pathogenesis in angiotensin II (AT II) which are critical in NADH/NADPH oxidase inducing ROS generation. Moreover, the virus’s activity to replicate seems to be reduced in high antioxidant glutathione level concentrations. The outcome of the review proposes a hypothesis that COVID-19 is associated with reactive oxygen species and its comorbidities mostly joined with oxidative stress including hypertension, cardiovascular, thrombosis, obesity, and diabetes besides of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.

Obesity and overweight are extensive phenomena that reached epidemics extent worldwide, including the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The aim of this study is to evaluate the values of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), body mass index (BMI), and the state of physical activity in Halabja’s public employees. Overall 355 adults aged from 19 to 63 including 246 males and 109 females contributed to the study. The lipid profiles were tested in all subjects after over-night fasting. In addition, anthropometry measurements were taken; the mean height for males is 1.7129 m and 1.5732 m for females. The mean weights of males and females are 80.4813 and 69.9459 kg, respectively. The mean BMI value for males and females is 27.4258 and 28.3274, respectively. Some of the cases were diagnosed with diabetes, renal diseases, hypertension, and other relevant diseases. 246 of participants adopted sedentary lifestyles while 109 of them lived an active lifestyle. 65, 162, 98, and 206 of participants had TC, TG, LDL-C, and HDL-C off-limits, respectively. Pearson’s correlation between BMI with TC, TG, and LDL-C showed a significant relationship at 0.01 level as 0.156**, 0.140**, and 0.144**, respectively. HDL-C was negatively correlated to BMI at −0.062 level. The analysis of variance showed statistically significant p-values between TC, TG, and HDL-C according to BMI at 0.027, 0.000, and 0.000, respectively. The sedentary group of participants showed a higher Mean range of TC, TG, LDL-C, and HDL-C than an active group of participants.