Publications by authors named "Nikolaos Courcoutsakis"

Background: Single pulmonary nodules are a common issue in everyday clinical practice. Currently, there are navigation systems with radial-endobronchial ultrasound and electromagnetic navigation for obtaining biopsies. Moreover, rapid on-site evaluation can be used for a quick assessment.

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There are still diagnostic issues with lung cancer and mediastinum lymphadenopathy. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) is a state of the art equipment for the diagnosis of lymphadenopathy and central lesions. To investigate the sample size with one pass.

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Background: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic initiated officially in October 2020. Since then several observations have been made regarding the disease and its symptoms.

Patients And Methods: We included eighty seven in our observational study.

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Introduction: Lung cancer is diagnosed at a late stage due to lack of early disease symptoms. Therefore an efficient treatment is necessary for prolonged disease free survival.

Patients And Methods: In our study we recruited 124 patients NSCLC patients with adenocarcinoma and squamus cell carcinoma.

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Lung lesions and undiagnosed mesothorax lymphadenopathy is an issue that several doctors face in the everyday clinical practice. PET-CT and CT of the thorax are usually the first examinations to identify characteristics of the lesions before biopsy. We performed a retrospective study with 450 patients that had EBUS-TBNA with 22G, Upgraded 22G and 19G needles with and without PET-CT in order to identify the cost effeteness of performing EBUS-TBNA before or after PET-CT.

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Introduction: Lung cancer still remains undiagnosed for most patients until the disease is inoperable.

Areas Covered: We performed search on PubMed with the keywords: EBUS, radial-EBUS, bronchoscopy, lung cancer, electromagnetic navigation, ct-biopsy, transthoracic biopsy. We present diagnostic equipment and imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography, endoscopical navigation systems, endobronchial ultrasound, radial-endobronchial ultrasound, transthoracic ultrasound biopsy, and computed tomography guided biopsies.

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The greatest challenge vaccines face is that of acceptance from the general population. Healthcare professionals' (HCPs) recommendations have significant influence on general public vaccination behavior. The aim of this study was to assess the willingness of HCPs to get vaccinated against COVID-19, two weeks before initiation of vaccinations.

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Traditionally, tissue availability from rebiopsy is a prerequisite for adequate sequencing of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) in therapy for advanced-stage lung cancer. Tissue biopsy truly is the gold standard for genetic analyses, but in some cases, such as with inadequate localization of the lesion or a patient's inadequate performance status, comorbidities, or unwillingness to undergo an invasive procedure, liquid biopsy-based ctDNA analysis can be a noninvasive alternative approach. However, in some cases the gold standard might not shine that much.

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Novel technologies are currently used for lung cancer diagnosis. EBUS-TBNA 22G is considered one of the most important tools. However; there are still issues with the sample size.

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: Immunotherapy is a treatment option for non-small cell lung cancer advanced disease. However; immunotherapy in several patients induces orogonitis and effusion in different cavities. It is up to the treating physician to understand whether there is effusion due to adverse effect or disease progression.

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Background: Massive ovarian oedema is a rare non-neoplastic clinicopathologic entity has a higher incidence in women during their second and third life decade. The oedema can be presented in one or both ovaries as a result of partial intermittent torsion of the ovarian pedicle that interferes to the venal and lymphatic drainage of the ovary.

Case Presentation: We present a clinical case of a 16 year old with massive ovarian oedema and we performed a review of the literature.

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Background: Encouraging results on survival of patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma have been shown with the use of cytoreductive surgery and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy. This study explores the impact of aggressive surgical treatment on overall survival of peritoneal mesothelioma.

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected clinical data of all patients with diagnosis of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma treated in a designated referral centre in Greece.

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Pancreatic cancer is an insidious type of cancer with its symptoms manifested upon extensive disease. The overall 5-year survival rates between 0.4 and 4%.

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Pneumothorax can occur in several situations such as; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) where emphysema is observed or due to a biopsy for malignancy suspicion. In any case it is a dangerous situation that requires immediate attention and treatment. Pneumothorax can be divided in primary and secondary.

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) causes severe handicap among smokers. Most patients have to remain under continuous oxygen therapy at home. Moreover, respiratory infections are very common among these patients and vaccination is obligatory against influenza.

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Endometriosis is a clinical entity characterized by the presence of normal endometrial mucosa abnormally implanted in locations other than the uterine cavity. Endometriosis can be either endopelvic or extrapelvic depending on the location of endometrial tissue implantation. Despite the rarity of extrapelvic endometriosis, several cases of endometriosis of the gastrointestinal tract, the urinary tract, the upper and lower respiratory system, the diaphragm, the pleura and the pericardium, as well as abdominal scars loci have been reported in the literature.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The TNM staging system is crucial for determining treatment options, with lobectomy being the standard surgical approach, although segmentectomy may be a feasible alternative for early-stage patients with limited lung function.
  • * For patients with N2 disease, which complicates surgical options, primary treatment typically involves chemoradiotherapy, while small cell lung cancer is often deemed systemic at diagnosis, with less clarity on the effectiveness of surgical procedures.
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Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents 12.95% of all lung cancer diagnoses and continues to be a major clinical problem, with an aggressive clinical course and short disease-free duration after 1st line therapy. Treatment of SCLC remains challenging because of its rapid growth and development of drug resistance during the course of the disease.

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Involvement of the pleura in lung cancer is a common manifestation accompanying with reduced life expectancy. Symptoms relief and improvement of the quality of life are the primary goals of the management of malignant pleural effusion (MPE). Histological confirmation is essential for optimal patient management.

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Neurilemomas are benign usually encapsulated nerve sheath tumors derived from the Schwann cells. These tumors commonly arise from the cranial nerves as acoustic neurinomas but they are extremely rare in the pelvis and the retroperitoneal area (less than 0.5% of reported cases), unless they are combined with von Recklinghausen disease (type 1 neurofibromatosis).

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Diffuse pulmonary ossification (DPO) is a rare entity which is characterized by metaplastic bone formation in the lung parenchyma. It is an uncommon condition without significant symptoms, which is usually diagnosed on autopsy. Diffuse pulmonary ossification can be easily misdiagnosed as one of interstitial lung diseases due to diffuse pulmonary lesions.

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Background: Several studies have demonstrated that reduced lung function is a significant risk factor for lung cancer and increased surgical risk in patients with operable stages of lung cancer. The aim of the study was to perform pulmonary function tests and investigate which is a favorable respiratory function test for overall survival between lung cancer stages.

Methods: Lung function tests were performed to lung cancer patients with non-small cell lung cancer of stage I, II, III and IV (241 patients in total).

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Article Synopsis
  • Peritoneal tuberculosis is a rare disease, but it's been happening more often recently.
  • A 61-year-old woman had stomach pain for 5 months, which led to her diagnosis after several medical tests, including scans and a surgery.
  • She was treated in the hospital with four different medicines to help fight the disease, showing that careful tests and doctors’ observations are really important for correct diagnosis and treatment.
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Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive malignancy of the pleura correlated with exposure to asbestos, with a medium survival of 11-12 months after diagnosis. A case of a 67-year-old male who had previously worked in the asbestos industry and is a current smoker is reported. The computed tomography evaluation revealed a right pleural mass with pleural thickening, and the pleural biopsy confirmed a diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

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