Biochemical and hematological findings of Halabja victims: 34 years after sulfur mustard exposure

The city of Halabja situated in Kurdistan-Iraq faced a deadly attack using chemical warfare including the use of sulfur mustard (SM) in 1988. The survivors of this attack also faced the consequences of exposure to the toxic chemical SM in the form of multiple health complaints. The aim of this study is focused to gather data about the biochemical and hematological findings of Halabja victims who suffered from Sulfur Mustard (SM) exposure after completing 34 years of the attacks. A total of Twenty-five non-smoker patients (f: m19:6, mean age 59.2 years (range 35-85) and ten non-smokers control, healthy people (f: m 3:7, mean age 25.3 years (range 20-37) were interviewed and subjected to be tested. A purposive sampling strategy was adopted to recruit the study participants in August 2022. There were no significant differences between patients and controls regarding thyroid function markers. The levels of total protein and total albumin were significantly lower in the victims than in the controls (total protein: 7.67 +/- 0.55 g/dL, P < 0.05, albumin: 4.30 +/- 0.26 g/dL, P < 0.01). In addition, the serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) was decreased significantly in patients com-pared to control groups (43.02 +/- 8.15 mg/dL, P < 0.01). Moreover, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol were not considerably increased in the patients. On the other hand, hematological parame-ters did not show a significant difference except for the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) level significantly lower in the victims than in the controls (33.48 +/- 0.56 g/dL, P < 0.01). Finally, there were significant differences in total iron and ferritin levels in the groups. From this study, it was concluded that some of the victim's biochemical factors can be influenced owing to the long-term consequences of SM. From the similarity of functional test results of thyroid and hematology between groups, it is also stated that biochemical changes detected may be due to a patient's delayed respiratory complications.