The Faculty of Pharmacy discussed the master’s thesis titled “Serum Levels of Neopterin, Ischemia Modified Albumin, and Fetuin-A in Iraqi COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients” by Marwa Younus Fadhil and her supervisor, Prof. Dr. Eman S. Saleh in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department. This study aimed to measure the level of some serum biomarkers, levels namely neopterin, ischemia-modified albumin, and fetuin-A in Iraqi patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in comparison to apparently healthy individuals as a control group and study the possible correlation between, serum levels of the measured biomarkers. Also to measure some hematological parameters such as D-dimer, ferritin, the neutrophil to lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), and lymphocyte to monocyte count ratio (LMR). The thesis included a case-control study, that involved 89 (non-vaccinated for COVID-19) participants, 45 of whom were hospitalized patients diagnosed clinically with severe COVD-19 infection, and with positive results of nucleic acid amplification testing by real-time reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of respiratory samples, and the other 44 were apparently healthy controls. 5 mls of blood specimens were collected, 1ml putted in EDTA tube to obtain whole blood used to measure white blood cells counts, 1 ml blood putted in sodium citrate tube to obtain plasma to measure D-dimer, and the remainder 3mls putted in gel tube to obtain serum to measure neopterin, ischemia-modified albumin, fetuin-A, and ferritin that were measured using Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) specific kits. The results proved that neopterin, IMA, D-dimer, ferritin, and NLR levels were significantly increased in the blood of severe COVID-19 patients, while fetuin-A serum levels were unaffected by the infection, and lymphocyte and LMR levels were significantly lower in the blood of severe COVID-19 patients.
