Publications by authors named "Kestutis Zagminas"

Objectives: Sexual dysfunction was reported to compromise the quality of life in childhood cancer survivors. The aim of our study was to evaluate the reproductive health in long-term pediatric cancer survivors by conducting a crosscut survey.

Material And Methods: Childhood cancer survivors over 18 years of age, who were in remission for more than 5 years, were invited to complete a gender-specific questionnaire surveying on their reproductive health.

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Introduction: Estimation of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transfusion risk in blood donors is essential for monitoring the safety of the blood supply and the impact of new screening tests. Due to improvements in donor selection and continuing progress in screening assays, residual risk of virus transmission has significantly decreased over the past years. It is not practical and sometimes even not possible to measure residual risk in blood donors directly and mathematical models are used.

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: Recently, reports have suggested that rates of liver cancer have increased during the last decades in developed countries; increasing hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma rates were reported. The aim of this study was to examine time trends in incidence and mortality rates of liver cancer for the period of 1998-2015 in Lithuania by sex, age, and histology. : We examined the incidence of liver cancer from 1998 to 2015 using data from the Lithuanian Cancer Registry.

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Here, we report the coding-complete genome sequences of six influenza A(H1N1) strains that were detected in Vilnius, Lithuania, among patients exhibiting influenza-like symptoms during the 2009-2010 epidemic season, within national influenza surveillance. Several mutations were found in genes encoding hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, in comparison with the A/California/07/2009 reference strain (GenBank accession numbers NC_026433 and NC_026434).

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Background: HIV transmission remains a major concern in Eastern Europe, and too many people are diagnosed late. Expanded testing strategies and early and appropriate access to care are required. Infectious disease departments might be targets for expanded HIV testing owing to the intense passage of key patient populations that carry indicators of HIV disease.

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The objective of this study is to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients hospitalized in Lithuania who are infected with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and to compare pandemic A(H1N1) pdm09 infection with postpandemic. In total, 146 subjects hospitalized with influenza A(H1N1) pdm09 were identified from 2009-2011. There were 53 during the initial pandemic wave in the summer of 2009, 69 during the peak pandemic period, and 24 during the "postpandemic" period that we included in this study.

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Background And Objective: For athletes, the main purpose of nutrition is to ensure the compensation of increased energy consumption and the need for nutrients in the athlete's body, thereby enabling maximum adaptation to physical loads. The aim of this study was to determine the habits of highly trained endurance athletes depending on sports type, sex and age in order to improve the planning and management of the training of athletes using targeted measures.

Materials And Methods: In 2009-2012, the dietary habits of 146 endurance athletes were analyzed.

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Background: With environmental pollution increasing, interest in organic farming and organic foodstuffs has been growing all over the world. Data on organic food consumption by Lithuanian athletes is not yet available. This lack of data determined the aim of this study: to identify the particulars of organic foodstuff consumption among athletes.

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Background: Evaluation of eating habits and physical activity is very important for health interventions. Our aim in this study was to assess the characteristics of eating and physical activity of 6-7th grade schoolchildren in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania, as well as the association between dietary habits and physical activity.

Methods: The study was conducted within the project "Education of healthy diets and physical activity in schools".

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Background: Depression is associated with a variety of diabetes complications, including diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and macrovascular complications. The prevalence of the symptoms of anxiety (32%) and depression (22.4%) in patients with diabetes is considerably higher than in general population samples (10%).

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Background: Due to scarce information on seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness (SIVE) against severe clinical influenza outcomes in risk populations, we conducted a case-control study to assess its effects against laboratory-confirmed influenza in hospitalized patients during the 2012-2013 influenza season.

Methods: We conducted a test-negative case-control study among ≥18 years old patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) hospitalized in two Lithuanian hospitals. Cases were influenza A(H1N1), A(H3) or influenza B positive by RT-PCR, and controls were influenza negative.

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Background: Diabetic patients are more than twice as costly to manage as non-diabetic patients, due mainly to the high costs associated with management of diabetic complications. As in most nations of the world, the number of patients with DM is increasing every year in Lithuania. The aim of this study was to determine relation between quality of the life and disease and social factors of patients with type 2 diabetes in Lithuania.

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The aim of the research was to assess the prevalence and pattern of self-reported adverse reactions to food and food allergies among primary schoolchildren in Vilnius. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Vilnius University was a partner in the EuroPrevall project.

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Objective: To estimate the associations between educational load and health, and elements of day's routine among Lithuanian schoolchildren, attending classes of first stage of basic education curriculum.

Material And Methods: During 14-28 November, 2005, the study was performed in 108 secondary schools, providing basic secondary education in Lithuanian language. A total of 3744 schoolchildren and 1601 parents filled in an original, specially designed questionnaire.

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Objective: Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) has a high rate of chronic evolution; however, the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. We investigated natural clinical, virological, and immunological course of acute HCV infection in order to identify possible prognostic factors of spontaneous resolution and to gain more understanding of early characteristics responsible for viral clearance or persistence.

Materials And Methods: Eight patients with acute symptomatic hepatitis C were prospectively followed up for more than 6 months (range, 8-14 months).

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Bioterrorism is one of the main public health categorical domains. According to sociological analytics, in postmodern society terrorism is one of the real threats of the 21st century. While rare, the use of biological weapons has a long history.

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Objective: To assess parental attitudes and knowledge about children's vaccination.

Methods: In this study, 20 day-care centers, 25 schools, and 6 health centers were randomly selected in Vilnius, and an anonymous survey of 2743 parents was conducted. Females made up 85.

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Because several children were found infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) at a pediatric oncohematological department in Vilnius, 474 children were tested for anti-HCV. Fifty-eight percent of 96 children treated with blood and plasma products manufactured before the introduction of anti-HCV screening of blood in Lithuania in 1994 were positive for anti-HCV versus 3.4% of those treated after 1994.

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