Examining the presence of ABO(H) antigens of blood types in the saliva of patients with oral cancer

Number of researches dealing with the influence of the ABO blood group antigens on the development of the oral cancer have hypothesized that people who do not secrete these substances in the saliva are more prone to suffer from this disease. The objective of this research is to examine this hypothesis. In total 114 subjects were examined, half of which suffered from oral cancer, while the other half was the healthy control group. All examinees were subjected to clinical examinations and the experimental group to pathohistological examination. An analysis of the secretor status was carried out using the Wiener agglutination test. The experimental group consisted of 78.95% of secretors, while the control group consisted of 82.46% of secretors. This difference is not statistically significant. The starting hypothesis that non-secretors are more prone to the development of oral cancer was not confirmed.     

Densitometric analysis of dental implant placement between flapless technique and the two-stage technique--a pilot study

Flapless technique is a surgical approach of implant placement without raising a mucoperiosteal flap. Such approach has many advantages: shorter surgical treatment, minimal bleeding, postoperative discomfort for the patient is reduced; possibility of immediate loading of the inserted implant, faster procedure of implant placement and by that less time is needed for the complete implant-prosthetic restoration. Purpose of this pilot study was radiographic assessment of flapless technique and determination of its clinical values in comparison with two-stage dental implant technique through computerized densitometric analysis. The sample consisted of 10 patients with missing teeth in the premolar region in the upper jaw. An implant was placed in that position. In the first group of 5 patients the implants were inserted with the flapless technique, and in the other group of 5 patients implant insertion was done with a two-stage technique. All inserted implants were loaded with metal-ceramic crowns 3 months after placement. The patients were followed for 18 months through clinical follow-ups and radiovisiographical (RVG) images made after 3, 12 and 18 months. After comparing the average densities, the results showed similar decrease of density in both groups, conventional two-stage technique showed 3.24 and flapless technique 1.23. It can be concluded that flapless technique in everyday clinical usage has the same result as the two-stage dental implant technique.     

Quantitative analysis of basal dendritic tree of layer III pyramidal neurons in different areas of adult human frontal cortex

Large long projecting (cortico-cortical) layer IIIc pyramidal neurons were recently disclosed to be in the basis of cognitive processing in primates. Therefore, we quantitatively examined the basal dendritic morphology of these neurons by using rapid Golgi and Golgi Cox impregnation methods among three distinct Brodmann areas (BA) of an adult human frontal cortex: the primary motor BA4 and the associative magnopyramidal BA9 from left hemisphere and the Broca's speech BA45 from both hemispheres. There was no statistically significant difference in basal dendritic length or complexity, as dendritic spine number or their density between analyzed BA's. In addition, we analyzed each of these BA's immunocytochemically for distribution of SMI-32, a marker of largest long distance projecting neurons. Within layer IIIc, the highest density of SMI-32 immunopositive pyramidal neurons was observed in associative BA9, while in primary BA4 they were sparse. Taken together, these data suggest that an increase in the complexity of cortico-cortical network within human frontal areas of different functional order may be principally based on the increase in density of large, SMI-32 immunopositive layer IIIc neurons, rather than by further increase in complexity of their dendritic tree and synaptic network.     

Depression and suicidality in the adolescents in Osijek, Croatia

Mood disorders in children and adolescents and their treatments have received increasing attention and clinical investigation over the last few decades. The core features of mood disorders are essentially the same across the life span. Developmental level, however, appears to influence the expression of certain mood symptoms with greater frequency than other within the framework of depressive disorders. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in children between the ages of 10 and 15 years and the third leading cause of death among the adolescents and young adults 15-25 years. In this article the authors presents cross-sectional study done on the sample of 286 adolescents. Adolescents fulfilled self-rating scale Beck Depression Inventory for the screening of the depression and suicidality. In our sample 3.85% of the adolescents fulfilled the criteria for severe depressive episode and the 5.94% of the adolescents fulfilled criteria for moderate depressive episode. Also on the item of suicidality (Item 9) 0.7% of the adolescents had very high score, while 8.4 had significant score for the suicidal risk. Our results are in concordance with similar epidemiological studies done world while.     

Access site complications following cardiac catheterization assessed by duplex ultrasonography

Access site complications are major source of morbidity following cardiac catheterization. Their incidence varies in the literature because of multiple definitions and methods of determining the presence of particular complication. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the incidence of access site complications following cardiac catheterization using arterial duplex ultrasonography. A total of 319 consecutive patients, who had cardiac catheterization underwent femoral artery duplex study 24 to 48 hours following manual hemostasis. Diagnostic angiogram had 232 (71.8%) while 87 (28.2%) had percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Femoral artery duplex ultrasound was normal in 247 (77.4%). Haematoma was found in 48 (15.1%), pseudoaneurysm in 17 (5.3%), AV fistula in 2 (0.6%) and dissection of the femoral artery in 5 (1.6%) patients. Baseline demografic characteristics were similar in group with normal duplex study and group with detected complication. Pseudoaneurysm and AV fistula were more commonly observed in patients following PCI than diagnostic angiogram (9.2% vs. 4.7%, p<0.001). Patients with documented complications more frequently had concomitant administration of antiplatelet and anticoagulant medication compared to the patients without complications (p=0.003). Hemodynamic disturbances (hypotension and bradycardia) during manual compression were more frequent in patients with complication (11% vs. 4.5%, p=0.047). Low threshold for use of duplex ultrasound should be exercised in patients following cardiac catheterization to establish the presence of access site complications. Special attention is needed in the setting of aggressive antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy, interventional procedures and hemodynamic disturbances during manual hemostas.     

Acute appendicitis and ileal perforation with a toothpick treated by laparoscopy

A 69-year-old man underwent an emergency laparoscopic procedure after the acute appendicitis diagnosis has been established. Laparoscopic exploration showed inflamed appendix and perforation of terminal ileum with a swallowed part of the wooden toothpick. The treatment consisted of typical laparoscopic appendectomy and laparoscopic removal of the foreign body, followed by laparoscopic closure of the perforation site and lavage of the abdominal cavity. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged from the hospital on day 3 after the operation.     

Radiofrequency ablation as locoregional therapy for unresectable hepatic malignancies: initial results in 24 patients with 5-years follow-up

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is one treatment modality for unresectable liver metastases. Patients with hepatic malignancies (n = 24) underwent elective RFA. All tumors were ablated with a curative intent, with a margin of 1 cm, in a single session of RFA. The median diameter of tumor was 3.1 cm (range 1.7-6.9 cm). Studied patients were not candidates for resection due to multifocal hepatic disease, extrahepatic disease, proximity to major vascular structures or presence of cirrhosis with functional hepatic reserve inadequate to tolerate major hepatic resection. Complete tumor necrosis was achieved in 87.5% and tumor recurred in 3 patients (12.5%) with lesions larger than 5 cm. Distant intrahepatic recurrence was diagnosed in another 4 (16.7%). Distant metastases were found in 7 (29.2%) patients. Four of these 7 patients had also distant intrahepatic recurrence of disease. Two and 5-years survival rates were 41.7% (10 patients) and 8.3% (2 patients) respectively. RFA is safe and effective option for patients with unresectable hepatic malignancies smaller than 5 cm without distant metastatic disease. RF ablation resulted in complete tumor necrosis in 87.5% with 2 and 5-years survival rates much higher than with chemotherapy alone or only supportive therapy, when survival is measured in weeks or months. If RFA is unavailable, percutaneous ethanol injection therapy can be done but with inferior survival rates.     

Transventricular and transpial absorption of cerebrospinal fluid into cerebral microvessels

It is generally accepted that volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is secreted in brain ventricles and flows to subarachnoid space to be absorbed into dural venous sinuses or/and into lymphatics via perineural sheats of cranial nerves. Since 99% of CSF volume is water, in experiments on cats 3H-water was slowly infused into lateral ventricle and found that it does not flow to subarachnoid space but that it is rapidly absorbed transventricularly into periventricular capillaries. When 3H-water was infused in cortical subarachnoid space, it was absorbed locally into cerebral capillaries via pia mater. On the contrary, when macromolecule 3H-inulin is applied in CSF it is very slowly eliminated in bloodstream, and, with time, is carried by systolic-diastolic pulsations and mixing of CSF bidirectionally along CSF system. Thus, CSF volume (water) is absorbed rapidly into adjacent cerebral capillaries while inulin is distributed bidirectionally due to its long residence time in CSF Previously, the macromolecules have been used to study CSF volume hydrodynamics and with this misconception of CSF physiology arose.     

Serum cholesterol concentrations in suicidal and non-suicidal male patients suffering from persistent delusional disorder

Suicidal behavior is a major health risk in psychiatric disorders, especially in affective and psychotic disorders. The neurobiology of suicidal behavior is still unclear. Suicidality has been related to a reduced cholesterol levels. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum cholesterol concentrations in suicidal and non-suicidal men suffering from persistent delusional disorder and in healthy volunteers. Results showed that serum cholesterol concentrations were significantly lower in suicidal than in non-suicidal patients and healthy controls. Also, level of psychopathology (measured by Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) is significantly marked in the group of suicidal patients, which indicates the importance of detecting some clinical symptoms in patients with persistent delusional disorder in order to prevent suicidal behavior.     

Subplate zone of the human brain: historical perspective and new concepts

Subplate zone (SP) is prominent, transient laminar compartment of the human fetal cerebral wall. The SP develops around 13 and gradually disappears after 32-34 postovulatory weeks. The SP neurons can be found as late as nine postnatal months, while remnants of the SP neurons can be traced until adult age in the form of interstitial neurons of the gyral white matter. SP is composed of postmigratory and migratory neurons, growth cones, loosely arranged axons, dendrites, glial cell and synapses. The remarkable feature of the SP is the presence of large amount of extracellular matrix. This feature can be used for delineation of SP in magnetic resonance images (MRI) of both, in vivo and post mortem brains. The importance of SP as the main synaptic zone of the human fetal cortex is based on the rich input of ,waiting,< afferents from thalamus and cortex, during the crucial phase of cortical target area selection. SP increases during mammalian evolution and culminates in human brain concomitantly with increase in number and diversity of cortico-cortical fibers. The recent neurobiological evidence shows that SP is important site of spontaneous endogeneous activity, building a framework for development of cortical columnar organization. The SP which can be readily visualized on conventional and DTI (diffusion-tensor-imaging) MRI in vivo, today is in the focus of interest of pediatric neurology due to the following facts: (1) SP is the site of early neural activity, (2) SP is the major substrate for functional plasticity, and (3) selective vulnerability of SP may lead to cognitive impairment.