Publications by authors named "Luksic I"

Aim: To investigate histopathological changes in the lung tissue of long-COVID patients.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, transbronchial lung biopsy was performed in long-COVID patients with persisting symptoms and radiological abnormalities. Histopathologic analyses were performed by using hematoxylin-eosin, Martius, Scarlet and Blue, Movat's, thyroid transcription factor 1, CD34, and CD68 staining.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Patients with oral cancer who are clinically node-negative (cN0) and treated primarily with surgery show significant mortality risks from competing causes, not just cancer recurrence.
  • - In a study of 152 long-term survivors, 76 patients died, with 22.4% of deaths caused by the primary tumor recurrence and 27.6% from other factors, primarily cardiovascular disease and second primary cancers.
  • - The findings suggest that while these patients can be highly curable for their initial cancer, nearly one-third die from other causes, emphasizing the need for tailored follow-up care focusing on these specific risks after the fourth year of treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Higher red blood cell distribution width (RDW) levels have gained attention in the prognostication of many chronic metabolic and malignant diseases, as well as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to evaluate whether accounting for RDW might contribute to risk stratification when added to commonly used risk scoring systems in adult COVID-19 patients. We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 3212 non-critical COVID-19 patients hospitalized in a tertiary-level institution from March 2020 to June 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Odontogenic abscesses are a common cause of emergency visits to oral and maxillofacial surgery departments and can lead to life-threatening complications if they are not recognized and treated promptly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the Aggregate Index of Systemic Inflammation (AISI) in comparison to other systemic inflammatory indices, including the Systemic Immune Inflammation Index (SII), the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), the Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR), and the Lymphocyte-to-Monocyte Ratio (LMR), in predicting the severity of odontogenic abscesses. This retrospective study included 221 patients hospitalized for odontogenic abscesses at Dubrava University Hospital between January 2019 and December 2023.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the head and neck with an extremely poor five-year survival rate of approximately 50 to 55%, despite significant advances in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures over the past three decades [...

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Data from patients with post-ablative dural defects reconstructed using a free temporalis muscle fascia graft (FTFG) after resection of anterior or central skull base tumors were retrospectively analyzed.

Methods: The primary predictor and outcome variables were the reconstructive methods for dural repair and postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage rate, respectively.

Results: Eighty patients were included, and 94 postoperative dural reconstructions were performed using FTFG.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The presence of supernumerary tooth (SNT) in the nasal cavity is a rare condition with limited literature data. We report two cases with a history of nasal obstruction and difficulty breathing. In both cases, clinical and radiological examination confirmed intranasal SNT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Patients with COVID-19 have an increased risk for microvascular lung thrombosis. In order to evaluate the type and prevalence of perfusion defects, we performed a longitudinal analysis of combined perfusion single-photon emission and low-dose computed tomography (Q-SPECT/CT scan) in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods: Consecutive patients with severe COVID-19 (B.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tumor necrosis is a recurrent characteristic of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). There is a need for more investigations on the influence of biomolecules released by these necrotic foci in the HNSCC tumor microenvironment. It is suspected that a fraction of the biomolecules released by necrotic cells are damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), which are known to be natural endogenous ligands of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), including, among others, proteins and nucleic acids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of this study was to evaluate selected parameters of redox signaling and inflammation in the granulocytes of COVID-19 patients who recovered and those who died. Upon admission, the patients did not differ in terms of any relevant clinical parameter apart from the percentage of granulocytes, which was 6% higher on average in those patients who died. Granulocytes were isolated from the blood of 15 healthy people and survivors and 15 patients who died within a week, and who were selected post hoc for analysis according to their matching gender and age.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Thromboprophylaxis is crucial for hospitalized COVID-19 patients due to frequent thrombotic events, but it raises bleeding risk; this study examines bleeding incidence, predictors, and outcomes.
  • A retrospective analysis of 4014 patients revealed that 8% experienced bleeding, with 3.2% facing major bleeding—40.1% of which were present at admission.
  • Key predictors for major bleeding included intensive care treatment, atrial fibrillation, high white blood cell counts, low hemoglobin, and a history of bleeding, with major bleeding linked to significantly higher in-hospital mortality (59.7% vs. 34.8%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Significant advances in reconstructive head and neck surgery with free microvascular flaps have had a positive impact on esthetic outcomes and quality of life. However, complications still occur in some patients. This study investigated the influence of the Hemoglobin, Albumin, Lymphocyte, and Platelet Score (HALP score), an immunonutritive marker, on complications and flap success.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Blood plasma is a large reservoir of circulating mediators of inflammation and its expansion has been associated with unfavorable outcomes in patients with inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this study was to determine clinical and prognostic value of estimated plasma volume status (ePVS) in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We retrospectively investigated 5871 consecutive COVID-19 patient hospitalized in our tertiary-level institution in period 3/2020-6/2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: There are uncertainties regarding associations of prior proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use with susceptibility for COVID-19 and risks associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to evaluate the associations of prior PPI use with outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Research Design And Methods: We have retrospectively evaluated a total of 5959 consecutively hospitalized patients with COVID-19 from a tertiary-level institution in the period 3/2020-6/2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Despite the importance of hospital bed network during the pandemic, there are scarce data available regarding factors predictive of prolonged length of hospitalization of COVID-19 patients.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a total of 5959 consecutive hospitalized COVID-19 patients in period 3/2020-6/2021 from a single tertiary-level institution. Prolonged hospitalization was defined as hospital stay > 21 days to account for mandatory isolation period in immunocompromised patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The impact of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the setting of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV‑2) infection is not clearly defined. Blood eosinophil count is a standard diagnostic test which, according to the previously published literature, might have a potential prognostic role on mortality in patients with SARS-CoV‑2 infection.

Aim: To investigate the potential prognostic value of peripheral blood eosinophil count on all-cause mortality of patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV‑2 infection, as well as to assess the impact of asthma or COPD premorbidity on all-cause mortality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of preoperative anaemia on the risk of occurrence of regional metastases and second primary tumours in patients with early-stage (cT1-T2N0M0) oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) after primary surgical treatment. Consecutive patients with OSCC who were referred to University Hospital Dubrava and University Clinical Centre of Kosovo between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2010, and who met the following criteria, were included: adult> 18 years of age; verified cT1-T2N0M0 stage; available data on clinical and laboratory work-up allowing the assessment of demographics, lifestyle/habits, anaemia, and comorbidities. The inclusion time-frame allowed a maximum potential censored observation of 15 years and minimum censored observation of 5 years (patients treated by the end of 2010).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of this study was to determine, by immunohistochemical methods, the expression of nEGFR and markers of cell proliferation (Ki-67), cell cycle (mEGFR, p53, cyclin D1), and tumor stem cells (ABCG2) in 59 pathohistological samples of healthy oral mucosa, 50 oral premalignant changes (leukoplakia and erythroplakia), and 52 oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). An increase in the expression of mEGFR and nEGFR was found with the development of the disease ( < 0.0001).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of various prognostic scores in predicting survival outcomes for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
  • A review of 4,014 patient records showed that all scores could distinguish mortality rates, with CURB-65 and 4C Mortality Score being the most effective, particularly for predicting 30-day mortality and in-hospital mortality.
  • The results indicated that simpler scores like CURB-65 performed equally or better than more complex prognostic systems, making it a valuable tool for risk assessment in COVID-19 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In our retrospective longitudinal study based on the data from 292 patients, we wanted to investigate whether there was an association between weather conditions and the occurrence of odontogenic abscesses (OA) requiring hospitalization. In the adult group (249 patients), the incidence of severe OA was highest in winter (32.9%) during January (11.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To evaluate the association of remdesivir use and the survival of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 5959 COVID-19 patients admitted to our tertiary-level hospital from March 2020 to June 2021. A total of 876 remdesivir-treated patients were matched with 876 control patients in terms of age, sex, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), WHO-defined COVID-19 severity on admission, and oxygen requirement at the time of remdesivir use.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of nuclear EGFR (nEGFR) and the stem cell marker ABCG2 in oral leukoplakia (OL) and oral erythroplakia (OE) and to assess their significance as prognostic biomarkers for malignant transformation.

Methods: In this study we included 50 patients with oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD), 31 with OL and 19 with OE, in whom we examined the expression of nEGFR and ABCG2 by immunohistochemical methods.

Results: Twenty-one (42%) of 50 patients with OL and OE developed oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Thorough understanding of metabolic changes, including lipidome alteration, associated with the development of COVID-19 appears to be crucial, as new types of coronaviruses are still reported. In this study, we analyzed the differences in the plasma phospholipid profiles of the deceased COVID-19 patients, those who recovered and healthy people. Due to identified abnormalities in plasma phospholipid profiles, deceased patients were further divided into two subgroups (D1 and D2).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection, inflammation develops, which promotes oxidative stress, leading to modification of phospholipid metabolism. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the effects of COVID-19 on the levels of phospholipid and free polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and their metabolites produced in response to reactions with reactive oxygen species (ROS) and enzymes (cyclooxygenases-(COXs) and lipoxygenase-(LOX)) in the plasma of patients who either recovered or passed away within a week of hospitalization. In the plasma of COVID-19 patients, especially of the survivors, the actions of ROS and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) cause a decrease in phospholipid fatty acids level and an increase in free fatty acids (especially arachidonic acid) despite increased COXs and LOX activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF