Background: Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is the mildest form of hepatic encephalopathy. One of the neuropsychological tests that detects MHE is the Stroop test (via EncephalApp). The aim was ...to evaluate the Stroop test for the screening and diagnosis of MHE. Methods: This prospective case–control study was performed at the Clinic for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Clinical Center of Serbia, and included patients with cirrhosis and MHE and healthy controls. In all patients, the presence of MHE was confirmed using the animal naming test. The Stroop test was performed on each participant, and the results were compared between the two groups. The test has two components, the “OFF” and “ON” states. Results: A total of 111 participants were included. The median OFF time did not differ between the two groups, 106.3 and 91.4, p > 0.05. However, in patients with MHE, the median values of ON time and total time were significantly higher, with 122.3 vs. 105.3 and 228.0 vs. 195.6, respectively, p < 0.05. Statistical significance between patients and controls in examined parameters was detected in younger participants and the group with higher educational levels. Conclusions: The Stroop test displayed limited sensitivity in Serbian patients. Age and education affect time measurements and test performance.
Foreign body ingestion is a frequently encountered emergency in healthcare institutions. It mostly affects pediatric populations, although it can also affect adults with developmental delays, those ...with psychiatric diseases, drug abusers, and prisoners. Endoscopy is a diagnostic and treatment method for suspected foreign body ingestion. In this article, we discuss a 45-year-old tailor who swallowed a sewing pin while at work. The abdominal X-ray showed a needle-shaped metal shadow in the stomach region. During an upper endoscopy, it was discovered that a sewing pin with a sharp edge was stuck in the pylorus. The sewing pin was extracted endoscopically, and the patient was discharged the same day in good condition. Since the estimated risk of complications of foreign body ingestion in the adult population is about 35%, and the most common complications include impaction, laceration, bleeding, or perforation of the gastrointestinal wall, endoscopic or surgical removal is necessary. This also emphasizes the importance of a careful endoscopic evaluation of some at-risk occupations for foreign body ingestion with or without gastrointestinal complaints.
Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a gestation-specific liver disorder, defined most often as the onset of pruritus, usually from the third trimester of pregnancy, associated with ...abnormal liver test results and/or increased total serum bile acids and spontaneous relief after delivery. The 21-year-old patient was admitted to our ward in the 11th week of pregnancy due to raised liver enzymes. The first onset of pruritus and jaundice appeared a month before hospitalization. Immunology tests and
were negative. We excluded viral etiology, while alpha-1-antitrypsin, serum and urine copper levels, and thyroid hormones were within the reference values. The patient denied she had taken any medicines and herbal preparations before and during pregnancy. Total bile acids in the serum were significantly elevated (242 μmol/L). The abdominal ultrasound revealed a regular finding. Liver biopsy suggested a cholestatic liver disorder. After a presentation of all risks, the patient decided to stop the pregnancy. After a month, the hepatogram was within the reference values. Very rarely an ICP can occur in early pregnancy (first trimester), which calls for close monitoring. The risk of serious adverse fetal outcomes and spontaneous preterm delivery is proportional with increased levels of maternal serum bile acid.
Data suggests that nearly 30% of the general population have steatosis and up to 5% of this population develops nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Liver biopsy is still considered to be the gold ...standard for the diagnosis of NASH. Great effort is being made toward the identification of sensitive diagnostic tests that do not involve invasive procedures to address a common concern in patients with the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease-whether they have NASH or simple steatosis. We aimed to investigate the independent predictors and develop a non-invasive, easy-to-perform, low-cost set of parameters that may be used in clinical practice to differentiate simple steatosis from NASH. Methods: А cross-sectional study of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients divided into two groups: group I-simple steatosis (SS) and group II-biopsy-proven NASH. Strict inclusion criteria and stepwise analysis allowed the evaluation of a vast number of measured/estimated parameters.
One hundred and eleven patients were included-82 with simple steatosis and 29 with biopsy-proven NASH. The probability of NASH was the highest when homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was above 2.5, uric acid above 380 µmol/L, ferritin above 100 µg/L and ALT above 45 U/L. An acronym of using first letters was created and named the HUFA index. This combined model resulted in an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.94, provided sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and a negative predictive value for NASH of 70.3%, 95.1%, 83.1% and 90.0%, respectively.
: We suggest a simple non-invasive predictive index HUFA that encompasses four easily available parameters (HOMA-IR, uric acid, ferritin and ALT) to identify patients with NASH, which may reduce the need for a liver biopsy on a routine basis in patients with NAFLD.
Although previous studies indicated that chronic alcohol abuse (CAA) and alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC) are associated with increased bone fragility, understanding bone fragility determinants is ...still modest in these individuals. We used a comprehensive individualized clinical fracture risk assessment approach (vertebral osteodensitometry, femoral osteodensitometry and geometry, and serum bone turnover biomarkers) to compare adult male patients with ALC who have not previously had femoral or vertebral fractures (
= 39), patients with CAA (without liver cirrhosis,
= 78) who have not previously had femoral or vertebral fractures and healthy age- and sex-matched controls (
= 43). Our data suggested that intertrochanteric bone mineral density was significantly lower in ALC and CAA patients than in controls. Also, the trabecular bone score was considerably lower in ALC patients compared with CAA and control individuals. The most significant inter-group differences in femoral geometry were noted on the femoral shaft. Patients with ALC and CAA have a higher 10-year risk of major osteoporotic fractures compared to the controls. Analysis of bone turnover biomarkers showed increased osteoprotegerin and beta-C-terminal telopeptide serum concentrations and decreased insulin growth factor-1 concentrations in patients with ALC compared to CAA and control groups. Our data revealed that bone alterations are present in patients with ALC and CAA even if they did not sustain a nontraumatic bone fracture, but it is also indicative that current bone-assessing clinical methods are not entirely reliable. Thus, future studies should focus on developing a reliable integrative clinical tool that can be used to accurately predict and prevent bone fracture occurrences in patients with ALC and CAA.
Calprotectin is a cytoplasmatic protein of neutrophilic granulocytes and it is an established marker for the assessment of localized intestinal inflammation.
To explore correlation between values of ...fecal calprotectin and degree of liver cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy.
We included 60 patients with liver cirrhosis and 37 healthy patients as controls. Patients revealing other causes of abnormal calprotectin results (gastrointestinal bleeding or inflammatory bowel disease) were excluded. The degree of liver insufficiency was assessed according to the Child-Pugh classification and Model of End Stage Liver Disease (MELD), and degree of hepatic enceph- alopathy by West-Haven criteria, serum concentration of ammonium ion and the number connection test.
The mean value of fecal calprotectin in patients with liver cirrhosis was 189.1 ± 168.0 μg/g, and 35.0 ± 26.0 μg/g in the control group, respectively. We have confirmed significantly higher fecal calprotectin in patients with cirrhosis (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in values of fecal calprotectin between the patients with different stages of liver cirrhosis according to Child-Pugh classification and MELD score (p > 0.05). We observed statistically significant difference comparing fecal calprotectin by West-Haven criteria of hepatic encephalopathy (p < 0.001), while there were no correlation with the number connection test and serum concentration of ammonium ion (p > 0.05).
We confirmed significantly higher values of fecal calprotectin in patients with liver cirrhosis, especially in hepatic encephalopathy according to West-Haven criteria.
Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic, idiopathic, inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. The aim of this study was to determine a possible correlation between the ...clinical parameters of the disease activity degree and the presence of extraintestinal manifestations with disease activity histopathological degree, in patients presented with CD and UC.
This cross-sectional study included 134 patients (67 with CD and UC, respectively) treated at the Clinic of Gastroenterology, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade. After clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, histopathologic and radiologic diagnostics, the patients were divided into two groups according to their histopathological activity. The group I comprised 79 patients whose values of five-grade histopathological activity were less than 5 (45 with CD and 34 with UC), while the group II consisted of 55 patients with the values higher than 5 (22 with CD and 33 with UC). The CD activity index (CDAI) and Truelove and Witts' scale of UC were used for clinical evaluation of the disease activity.
CD extraintestinal manifestations were present in 28.9% and 63.6% of the patients in the groups I and II, respectively (p < 0.05). Comparison of the mean CDAI values found a significant difference between these two patients groups (the group I: 190.0 +/- 83.0, the group II: 263.4 +/- 97.6; p < 0.05). No correlation of extraintestinal manifestations of the disease, Truelove and Witts' scale and histological activity was found in UC patients (p > 0.05).
In the patients presented with CD, the extraintestinal manifestations with higher CDAI suggested a higher degree of histopathological activity. On the contrary, in the UC patients, Truelove and Witts' scale and extraintestinal manifestations were not valid predictors of the disease histopathological activity.
Attitudes of Nurses Toward Organ Donation in Serbia Vlaisavljevic, Zeljko; Jankovic, Slobodan; Maksimovic, Natasa ...
Transplantation proceedings,
April 2020, 2020-Apr, 2020-04-00, 20200401, Volume:
52, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Nurses represent the key persons in the process of organ donation, acting as intermediaries between the patient and the family of a potential donor. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors ...influencing the attitudes of nurses toward bequeathing and organ and tissue donation.
The research was designed as a cross-sectional study from November 2013 to November 2014 and included a sample of 264 nurses employed in the health system of Serbia. Data were collected using a specific questionnaire of 18 questions referring to the information on sociodemographic characteristics and the knowledge of organ donation.
The investigation enrolled 264 participants, of which 78% were women. The majority of study subjects had secondary medical education (64.4%), lived in an urban area (82.6%), were married (56.4%), and were predominantly Orthodox (87.1%) with their work experience between 5 and 10 years (29.9%) and 10 to 20 years (29.5%). The average knowledge score concerning organ donation was 29.03 (SD, 2.33; range, 23-34). There was a statistically significant difference in the scores between 2 groups formed according the length of service (P < .001) and the level of education (P = .019), which showed the strongest influence on nurses’ attitudes toward donation.
This investigation showed that nurses did not express strong positive attitude toward this issue. Further education of nurses in the Serbian health care system focusing on transplantation and bequeathing of organs and tissues are warranted.
Background: Metabolic bone disease in patients with chronic liver disease is called hepatic osteodystrophy and is primarily a sequel to osteopenia/osteoporosis, and rarely secondary to osteomalacia. ...The aim of this work was to define the influence of vitamin D3 and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the pathogenesis of hepatic osteodystrophy, as well as the predictive significance of biochemical bone markers. Methods: This prospective study included 58 male patients with alcoholic (49) and viral (9) cirrhosis. The concentrations of serum vitamin D3, PTH, osteocalcin and ß-carboxy-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (ß-CTX) were determined. Bone density was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in the L1-L4 spinal segment and the femoral neck. Results: Lower bone mineral density (BMD) was measured in 41 patients (70.7%). There was no significant correlation between PTH and vitamin D3 values and T score in the femoral neck (p = 0.51; p = 0.063) and lumbar spine (p= 0.49; 0.064). Also, no significant correlation was found between the osteocalcin values in lumbar spine BMD (p= 0.944) and femoral neck (p= 0.161), or with ß-CTX values and BMD in the lumbar spine (p=0.347) and femoral neck (p=0.73). Statistically significant difference was confirmed between the stage A osteocalcin (p=0.000) and ß-CTX (p=0.008) values in relation to advanced stages B and C. Conclusions: PTH and vitamin D3 do not influence the development of hepatic osteodystrophy. In patients with cirrhosis, osteocalcin and ß-CTX are not valid indicators of decreased BMD, but their values correlate with the degree of liver insufficiency.
Introduction: COVID-19 is an infectious disease, caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and there have been outbreaks worldwide. The presentation may include ...unspecific and mild symptoms, myalgia, headaches, high fever, dry cough, severe dyspnea and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Case study: We present a rare case of microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) with interstitial lung disease and without renal involvement misdiagnosed as COVID-19.
Conclusions: Differential diagnosis of COVID-19 is extremely important, and must be correctly identified in order to proceed with correct treatment.
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