Upper extremity function and quality of life in patients with breast cancer related lymphedema.

Background/aim: Exposed to increasing needs of users for better and faster services, more medications and innovative health technologies, managers of healthcare services in the public sector need motivation, permanent updating of information and constant personal development. The aim of this paper was to evaluate, on the basis of experienced healthcare managers, the impact of their motivation, selected character traits, managerial skills and formal education in management on healthcare facilities performances in the public sector.

Methods: For the purposes of this study, 97 experienced managers from public hospitals and primary health centers in Serbia answered to 30 questions on the motivation of managers, essential skills for successful management and formal education in management in health facilities.

Health care economics in Serbia: current problems and changes.

One of the fundamental rights of every human being is to enjoy "the highest attainable standard of health". Achieving better health requires no only adequate medical knowledge and technologies, laws and social measures in the field of health care, but also sufficient funding for fulfilling people's right to health. However, economic crisis has left every community with limited possibility of investing in health care and forced them to use the available resources more efficiently.

Coronary vasomotion one year after drug-eluting stent implantation: comparison of everolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting coronary stents.

First-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) have been associated with impaired localized coronary vasomotion and delayed endothelialization. We aimed to compare coronary vasomotion after implantation of a newer-generation everolimus-eluting stent (EES), with a first-generation paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES). Coronary vasomotion was studied in 19 patients with EES and 13 with PES.

Mentality and organisational changes are key to developing primary angioplasty.

At the moment of signing the Stent for Life (SFL) Initiative on August 31st, 2009, it was shown that, in Serbia during 2008, 48% of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) did not receive any reperfusion and only 19% and 33% received primary percutaneous coronary intervention (p-PCI) or hospital thrombolysis, respectively. However, during 2009, there was a trend towards a substantial increase in p-PCI procedures. This was the result of the commitment of cardiologists, the contract signed by the Health Insurance Fund (HIF) for remuneration of catheterisation laboratory (cathlab) staff for each p-PCI procedure (2005), and the provision of new cathlabs by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Implementation of the action plan for human resources in the health system of Serbia--facing inherited problems.

It is through an objective insight into the situation of the health system, in the period of a ten-year isolation of the country, that the policy of planning staff has been defined. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia has produced an Action Plan for Human Resources for 2005-2010, after having performed the analysis of the situation. It is based on the evaluation of the health status of the inhabitants and its internal migrations.

Risk factors related to the failure of venous leg ulcers to heal with compression treatment.

Background: Compression therapy is the most widely used treatment for venous leg ulcers and it was used in different forms for more than 400 years. Published healing rates of venous ulcers obtained with compression therapy vary widely from 40-95%. According to numerous studies, it has been suggested that the application of external pressure to the calf muscle raises the interstitial pressure resulting in improved venous return and reduction in the venous hypertension.

The pharmacokinetics of Biolimus A9 after elution from the Nobori stent in patients with coronary artery disease: the NOBORI PK study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the pharmacokinetics and tolerability of Biolimus A9 eluted from Nobori coronary stents.

Background: : The release kinetics and pharmacokinetics of drugs delivered via coronary stents have been shown to play an essential role in the efficacy and safety of drug eluting stents.

Methods: Twenty patients with coronary artery disease were treated with single 14-mm (10 patients) or 28-mm long stent (10 patients).

Differential effects of drug-eluting stents on local endothelium-dependent coronary vasomotion.

Objectives: The aim of our study was to compare coronary vasomotion after implantation of a second-generation biolimus A9-eluting stent (BES) and of a sirolimus-eluting stent (SES).

Background: Drug-eluting stents (DES) have been associated with impaired local coronary vasomotion, delayed endothelialization, and increased late thrombotic risk. New DES with different drugs, pharmacokinetics, and polymers have been developed.

Prevention of pocket related complications with fibrin sealant in patients undergoing pacemaker implantation who are receiving anticoagulant treatment.

Aim: The aim of our study was to establish the efficiency of fibrin sealant in the prevention of pocket related complications in patients undergoing pacemaker implantation who are receiving anticoagulant treatment.

Methods: The study was performed on 40 and 41 patients prospectively randomized into treatment and control groups who underwent pacemaker implantation procedure between January 2002 and July 2004 at the Pacemaker Center - Clinical Centre Nis, Serbia. Both groups of patients were receiving anticoagulant treatment with either heparin or warfarin.

[Predictive significance of residual ischemia detected by the dobutamine stress-echocardiography test soon after the first uncomplicated myocardial infarction].

Background: To evaluate the long-term prognostic value of dobutamine stress-echocardiography (ECG) test for new coronary events (new episodes of angina pectoris, cardiac-related deaths, and reinfarctions) early after the first uncomplicated myocardial infarction.

Methods: Dobutamine stress-echocardiography tests were performed in all of 104 patients 10-20 days after the first myocardial infarction. Patients were followed-up for 36 (29 +/- 7) months.