Publications by authors named "Mikulic M"

This retrospective study analyses the impact HLA heterozygosity, supertypes, and alleles have on incidence of graft versus host disease (GvHD), relapse, overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and transplant-related mortality (TRM) after HSCT. The study included patients who underwent HSCT, typed at allele resolution level for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1, and -DPB1 loci. The analysis performed on the entire patient cohort (N = 232) showed that HLA-B07 supertype positive patients demonstrated decreased incidence of relapse, better OS and DFS in comparison to those negative for HLA-B07 supertype.

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  • Multiple studies indicate convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can effectively predict medical conditions, sometimes outperforming human professionals, but they often operate as "black boxes."
  • This research investigates how occluding confounding variables in medical images affects model predictions, focusing on osteopenia using the GRAZPEDWRI-DX dataset.
  • While models trained on non-occluded images generally performed better in numerical evaluations, radiologists preferred models with occluded images, highlighting a trade-off between model performance and interpretability.
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Red clover ( L.) is an important legume that is also known as a rich source of isoflavones, which are compounds with mild estrogenic activity. Therefore, this plant is often used as a raw material in the production of dietary supplements recommended in menopause.

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Purpose: This study retrospectively investigated the association between the level of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatches (MMs), direction of disparities and differences at particular HLA locus on clinical outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Investigated outcomes were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), relapse and non-relapse mortality (NRM).

Patients And Methods: Study cohort included 108 adult patients transplanted between 2011 and 2021 and their 9/10 mismatched unrelated donors (MMUD).

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Importance: Head impacts resulting in traumatic brain injury (TBI) lead to the elevation of phosphorylated tau protein (p-tau181) in plasma. To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate dynamics of p-tau181 levels and the ratio of p-tau181 to total tau in individuals after nonconcussive head impacts.

Objective: To determine the association of repetitive low-intensity head impacts on p-tau181 and total tau protein levels in the plasma of young adult elite soccer players and assess the possible association of head impacts with focused attention and cognitive flexibility.

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High-intensity intermittent performance in soccer is widely assessed using the yo-yo intermittent recovery level 2 test (YYIR2). This test is usually associated with aerobic-anaerobic performance. However, less is known about the direct or indirect contributions of abilities, including the anaerobic component.

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  • Disease and treatment-related immunodeficiencies can reduce the effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in patients with hematologic diseases, as demonstrated in a study of 118 individuals.
  • After the first vaccine dose, only 33% of patients showed positive antibody responses, but this increased to 64.4% and a higher antibody titer after the second dose.
  • Seropositivity rates varied significantly among different hematologic conditions, with lower rates observed in lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, emphasizing the need for tailored vaccination strategies for patients based on their specific diagnoses.
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Introduction: is present in the normal intestinal flora but some strains can cause intestinal and extraintestinal diseases, and research on its presence in food of animal origin is in the interests of public health. This study was designed to characterise strains according to their origin, their carriage of virulence genes specific for certain pathogroups, and phylogenetic group affiliation.

Material And Methods: The study was carried out on 100 strains isolated from food samples of various animal origin as well as pig and cattle carcass swabs.

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Campylobacteriosis is the most common gastrointestinal bacterial disease in the European Union (EU). Wild birds are one of the natural reservoirs of these pathogens. In this study we tested cloacal swabs of 643 gulls captured on rubbish tip in Zagreb, Croatia for the presence of spp.

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A 40-year-old female patient was admitted to the Department of Oral Medicine due to oral ulcerations. Oral ulcerations were present on vestibular mucosa above teeth 21, 22, 25 and 26 and were 1 cm in diameter, and also around teeth 45 and 46. The patient had prolonged neutropenia due to therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome that progressed to therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Matching for specific HLA alleles is essential for successful hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), but HLA mismatches can increase the risk of complications like acute graft versus host disease (GvHD).
  • The study examined the impact of mismatches in a specific genomic region (gamma block) on HSCT outcomes in 51 patients, finding that 29.41% had GT-matched donor-recipient pairs.
  • While univariate analysis indicated that GT mismatches were linked to a higher risk of aGvHD, this was not confirmed in multivariate analysis, and the study's small sample size calls for more research to clarify these findings.
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The impact of patient/donor matching for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1 and -DQB1 genes in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is well-recognized, but typing for additional genes, such as HLA-DPB1, is still controversial. Based on defined T-cell epitope (TCE) groups, all HLA-DPB1 mismatches can be classified as permissive or non-permissive. In this retrospective study we analysed 82 patient-matched unrelated donor (MUD) pairs who underwent HSCT, and explored the impact of HLA-DPB1 matches, permissive and non-permissive mismatches on transplantation outcomes.

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In order to detect thermotolerant spp., 241 samples of fresh chicken meat, at retail in Croatia, were analysed according to a standard method, followed by biochemical test and molecular polymerase chain reaction/restriction enzyme analysis for exact species determination. spp.

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Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are a family of inhibitory/activating receptors expressed on NK cells. Interactions of KIR receptors with KIR ligands have been shown to modify hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) outcome. The aim of this research was to determine the KIR2DS4 allele variants distribution among 111 patients with different hematological malignancy who underwent HSCT and their donors, and to evaluate KIR2DS4 alleles' impact on HSCT outcome.

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The knowledge of HLA characteristics of a patient's population helps to predict the probability of finding a MUD. The study included 170 transplanted patients for whom a search for a MUD in BMDW was performed and a sample of 4000 volunteer unrelated donors from the Croatian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (CBMDR). Patients and their MUDs were typed for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, and -DQB1 loci using PCR-SSO and PCR-SSP methods while donors were typed for HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DRB1 loci using the PCR-SSO method.

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THz-TDS techniques are applied to investigate selected pharmaceutical samples. Investigations were performed on selected pharmaceutical samples with active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)--famotidine, ranitidine, fenofibrate, lovastatin, simvastatin, aspirin, ketoconazole, acyclovir (hydrated and non-hydrated), on excipients--lactose, glucose (hydrated and non-hydrated), Pluronic 127, and on mixtures of selected compounds. Pseudo-polymorphism effects are considered as well.

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We present case of oral and skin anaplastic T-cell lymphoma in a 68-year-old woman. The patient presented with extensive ulcerations and necrotic tissue on the left mandibular gingiva. Orthopantomogram finding showed extensive necrolytic lesions of the adjacent mandible.

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The aim of the present study was to investigate HLA alleles and haplotypes among Croatian patients in an unrelated HSCT program, and to analyze HLA matching in patient/donor pairs. Analysis was performed on a group of 105 patients and their donors, and 4000 unrelated donors from our registry (CBMDR) served as controls. PCR-SSO and PCR-SSP high-resolution methods for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, and -DQB1 loci were used for typing patient/donor pairs.

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The determination of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 alleles in the routine procedure of a volunteer hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) donor's registration in the Croatian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (CBMDR) is performed to enhance the odds of finding a suitable HLA compatible donor for patients in need of a HSC transplantation worldwide. However, besides its original purpose, it also provides valuable information about the HLA polymorphism among Croats. The aim of the present study was to analyse the HLA allele and haplotype frequencies in a sample of 4000 donors from CBMDR.

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Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 is a filamentous cyanobacterium commonly used as a model organism for studying cyanobacterial cell differentiation and nitrogen fixation. For many decades, this cyanobacterium was considered an obligate photo-lithoautotroph.

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Aplastic anemia is a bone marrow disease characterized by marrow aplasia and pancytopenia. Because hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) cures severe aplastic anemia (SAA), it is the treatment of choice for younger patients. For many years, antithymocyte globulin (ATG) has been standard immunosuppressive therapy for those aplastic anemia patients that have no HLA matched related donor.

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Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a standard therapeutic option in the treatment of patients with malignant hematologic diseases and some acquired or inherited nonmalignant hematologic disorders. It is the most efficacious method for eradication of acute leukemia, its efficacy being described by DFS (Disease Free Survival) and OS (Overall Survival), however, still associated with a high Transplant Related Mortality (TRM) rate. At Department of Hematology, University Department of Medicine, Zagreb University Hospital Center, bone marrow transplantation has been a standard procedure since 1983.

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Human acute leukemias (AL) are classified as myeloid or lymphoid according to cytomorphology and the expression of leukocyte differentiation antigens/CD-markers. However, in the minority of cases leukemic cells express markers of more than one lineage, which has led to the introduction of a new subgroup of acute leukemias termed mixed or biphenotypic acute leukemias (BAL). In an effort to distinguish between BAL and those AL with aberrant expression of markers of other lineage, the European Group for the Immunological Characterization of Acute Leukemias (EGIL) has proposed a scoring system in which CD-markers are assigned a score of 0.

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Current classification of acute leukemia is based on morphology, immunophenotyping, cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities of leukemic cells. All these techniques have a diagnostic and prognostic value. Molecular abnormalities in many cases suggest the pathogenesis of acute leukemia, but also point to the key site of genetic abnormalities that may be targeted with the therapy.

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Background: Biphenotypic acute leukemia (BAL) is a distinct entity that is immunophenotypically defined by the European Group for the Immunological Classification of Leukemia (EGIL) scoring system and accounts for less than 5% of all acute leukemia cases. Since it is a rare and heterogeneous form of acute leukemia with an allegedly poor outcome, there is no consensus on the best treatment approach in these patients. Our objective was to analyze the biological features and outcome of patients diagnosed with BAL in our institution.

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