Publications by authors named "Biljana Jelic-Puskaric"

During a routine ultrasound examination of the abdomen, a 60-year-old male patient was diagnosed with mass in the tail of the pancreas. However, computed tomography (CT) suggested that the lesion was an intrapancreatic accessory spleen (IPAS). IPAS is a congenital anomaly, which usually does not present with symptoms.

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Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by a specific expansion of mature B-cell clones. We hypothesized that the disease has a heterogeneous clinical outcome that depends on the genes and signaling pathways active in the malignant clone of the individual patient. It was found that several signaling pathways are active in CLL, namely, NOTCH1, the Ikaros family genes, BCL2, and NF-κB, all of which contribute to cell survival and the proliferation of the leukemic clone.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a severe inflammatory syndrome that can be genetic or acquired, and it may lead to acute liver failure.
  • A case report highlights the occurrence of acute liver failure linked to HLH following a COVID-19 vaccination, alongside a review of relevant literature on the topic.
  • Due to the high mortality associated with HLH and the impracticality of liver transplantation, early detection and appropriate conservative treatment are crucial for improving patient outcomes.
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Myelodysplastic syndrome Working Group of the Croatian Cooperative Group for Hematologic Diseases (CROHEM), Referral center of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia for diagnostics and treatment of MDS, as well as the Croatian Society for Haematology of the Croatian Medical Association have made Croatian guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). MDS is a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, dysplasia, cytopenia and risk of transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Diagnosis is based on morphological characteristics of hematopoietic cells supplemented with the cytogenetic analysis and bone marrow flow cytometry.

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Primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the renal pelvis is a very rare tumor often associated with renal calculi and chronic infections. There are only a few articles in literature which report renal pelvis SCC in kidneys treated for renal tuberculosis, diagnosed after nephrectomy. We report the case of SCC in a hydronephrotic kidney previously treated for tuberculosis, diagnosed by ultrasound (US)-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), prior to core biopsy and nephrectomy.

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Primary plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a rare and aggressive variant of plasma cell (PC) myeloma characterized by high levels of circulating PCs. Clinical presentation is like other acute leukemia, with extramedullary infiltration of various tissues and organs being a frequent complication. The disease has a fulminant course and poor prognosis.

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The objective of this study was to compare qualitative cytomorphology and morphometric characteristics of parotid gland tumor cells, with the aid of a computer-assisted system of image analysis. Routine qualitative cytologic and quantitative morphometric results from 64 parotid gland tumors were compared. Ultrasound (US)-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) specimens were taken from 54 patients.

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Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a B-cell neoplasm characterized by aggressive clinical course with an average 3- to 5-year patient survival. We present a patient whose illness turned from initial classical morphological variant to a more aggressive pleomorphic form of MCL in only a few months, but with unchanged long-term indolent clinical course. At the time when lymphoid cell pleomorphism was proven, the disease presented itself through recurrent peripheral lymphadenopathy without extranodal involvement or general symptoms.

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Red blood cells (RBC) normally lose their nuclei before appearing in peripheral blood. After having undergone differentiation in bone marrow, blood cells must cross the blood-marrow barrier to enter the bloodstream. Erythroblasts, or nucleated red blood cells (NRBC), do not distort easily, so they cannot escape this barrier.

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Article Synopsis
  • B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) and other B-cell neoplasms occurring in the same patient are rare, typically documented as isolated case reports.
  • Often, CLL is diagnosed years before a secondary condition, such as multiple myeloma, with some patients receiving no treatment and others already undergoing therapy for CLL prior to myeloma diagnosis.
  • The case presented involves a male patient diagnosed with multiple myeloma 11 years after being diagnosed with B-CLL, highlighting the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges posed by having two hematologic neoplasms simultaneously.
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Myeloid sarcoma is a rare extramedullary solid tumor consisting of immature myeloid cells and most commonly involving the bone, skin, lymph nodes, soft tissue, gastrointestinal tract and testis. Mediastinal myeloid sarcoma is very rare. There are two major types of myeloid sarcoma: granulocytic sarcoma and monoblastic sarcoma, according to immature cell type.

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Plastic bronchitis is a rare disorder characterized by formation and sometimes dramatic expectoration of bronchial casts. It may occur at any age, but most published cases refer to pediatric population. We report a case of an 81-year-old man hospitalized at intensive care unit, who presented with the appearance of plastic bronchitis type I.

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A finding of 80% or more of dysmorphic erythrocytes is assumed to point to kidney glomeruli, and of 80% or more of isomorphic erythrocytes to lower urinary tract as the origin of bleeding. In urine samples without significant origin of bleeding, there were 20%-80% of mixed results with both dysmorphic and isomorphic erythrocytes. The aim of the study was to show the origin of erythrocytes in malignant urine samples.

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The aims of the study were to investigate the association between cytomorphology and immunophenotypic expression of CD34 cell surface antigen of blasts and their relationship with clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Sixteen consecutive patients (male 69% and female 31%) diagnosed with APL at Department of Hematology, Merkur University Hospital between August 1998 and December 2010 were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 43.

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CD45 cell surface antigen is a transmembrane protein with tyrosine phosphatase activity, expressed by all nucleated cells of hematopoietic origin, except erythrocytes and platelets. Monoclonal antibodies directed against CD45 represent irreplaceable tool in differential diagnosis of hematologic and other, non-hematologic low differentiated malignancies, primarily in cases of: extranodal lymphomas, non-hematologic malignancies with nodal or bone marrow localization or their metastases in mentioned sites. As cell surface immunophenotype marker, CD45 is of great value in differentiation of lymphoproliferative diseases subtypes.

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Objective: To introduce new parameters of diploid histogram of image DNA cytometry and new types of silver-stained nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) and to validate resulting proliferative-kinetic index (PKI) in a prognostic study of patients with chronic leukemic lymphoproliferative disorders (CLLPD).

Study Design: A total of 413 smears of from various tumor mass compartments-bone marrow, peripheral blood and lymph node-were analyzed in CLLPD as a whole, as well as separately in the B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia with variants (B-CLL+V). The analysis of the diploid histogram included percentage of cells at the peak of the DNA histogram and percentage of cells with lower and higher contents of DNA than cells at the peak.

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Precursor T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL)/lymphoma (T-LBL) is a neoplasm with cytological features that include blast cells of medium size, high nuclear cytoplasmic ratio and inconspicuous nucleoli, which are usually TdT (Terminal Deoxynucleotidyl Transferase) positive and variably express T-cell markers. We report a case of T-ALL with atypical cytological presentation which showed lymphoblasts with homogenous nuclear pattern, larger amounts of cytoplasm with vacuoles and prominent nucleoli. A 56-year-old male was hospitalized due to high fever and kidney infection.

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A 49-year-old woman presented for hirsutism, deep voice and hypertension. Ultrasonography (US) revealed a solitary tumor mass, eight cm in size, of the right adrenal gland. Laboratory tests showed it to be a hormonally active, androgen secreting tumor (elevated testosterone level), which was consistent with the clinical picture of the disease.

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Angiosarcoma is a rare disease of the breast with the reported incidence of only 0.04% of all breast malignancies. The etiology of angiosarcoma remains unknown.

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Myeloid sarcoma is a tumor mass with extramedullary growth pattern, composed of myeloblasts or immature myeloid cells. The development of myeloid sarcoma may precede or concur with acute or chronic myeloid leukemia (AML or CML) or other myeloproliferative diseases or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Isolated myeloid sarcoma of the breast is very rare.

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Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children younger than 15 years. According to the World Health Organization, there are embryonal, alveolar and pleomorphic types of RMS. Most RMS patients present with a tumor mass in the head and neck region, urogenital tract or lower extremities.

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The detection of specific chromosomal abnormalities is important in the diagnostic workup of aggressive lymphomas, giving its impact on the treatment strategies and prognosis. This has been accomplished by using the fluorescent in situ hybridisation method (FISH) performed on fine needle aspiration (FNA) specimens what is attractive in the diagnosis of lymphoma in the comparation with other methods for collecting samples. The cytogenetic analyses were performed in series of 80 patients with lymphoma (43 women and 37 men, median age 48, range 3-90 years).

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The study consisted of morphometric analysis, assessment of the argyrophilic nucleolar organization region (AgNOR) characteristics, and image cytometry (ICM) in different tumor mass compartments: bone marrow (BM), peripheral blood (PB) and lymph nodes (LN) from patients with chronic leukemic lymphoproliferative disorders. A total of 71895 cells were analyzed on SFORM PC (VAMSTEC, Zagreb). Correlation between morphometric, AgNOR and ICM characteristics revealed the cells with low proliferative activity to possess small, homogeneous AgNOR, with the majority of cells in the peak of DNA histogram.

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Gaucher's disease (GD) has variable presentations, but cardiac involvement is a generally uncommon clinical manifestation of the disease. In the past 25 years, the underlying genetic disorder in GD has been well characterized, with almost 300 mutations identified in the glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA). Nevertheless, clear genotype-phenotype correlations have been confirmed only for the most frequent mutations.

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Cell viability in peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) grafts and its influence on the clinical course following transplantation was evaluated in 81 consecutive transplantations (72 autologous, 9 allogeneic) performed in patients with hematological diseases. Viability of cells in PBPC grafts immediately upon collection was 98.6 +/- 3.

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