A mixed-methods study of patient and healthcare professional perceptions of care pathways for knee osteoarthritis.

Background: This study aimed to address research gap concerning the perception of the care pathway for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients, focusing on both the patient and health professional perspectives in countries with inefficient health systems, such as Slovenia, by examining patient satisfaction with conservative treatment, assessing the perceptions of both patients and health professionals regarding the latter's involvement, and justifying the chosen KOA treatment approaches.

Methods: A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with KOA patients (n = 82) and healthcare professionals (n = 68).

Results: The care pathway for conservative KOA treatment in Slovenia begins with general practitioners (GPs), who conduct initial examinations, prescribe analgesics, and refer patients to radiologists and orthopaedic surgeons.

Enhancing Bystander Intervention: Insights from the Utstein Analysis of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests in Slovenia.

: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and survival is a pressing matter all around the world. Despite years of research and great strides and advancements, survival remains alarmingly low. The aim of this study was to measure the survival and characteristics of patients having an OHCA in Slovenia, with an in-depth look at how the bystanders affect the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival of OHCA.

Beyond diagnosis: exploring coeliac disease incidence alongside clinical and laboratory characteristics of newly diagnosed children in Slovenia.

Objective: Coeliac disease is characterized by a wide array of clinical presentations. The focus of our study was to comprehensively assess the clinical manifestations of coeliac disease in newly diagnosed children in Slovenia. Our objectives include estimating the incidence of the disease in children in 2022.

Insights into coeliac disease diagnosis: a 2021-2023 overview of diagnostic approach and delays in children in Slovenia.

Introduction: Over the past decade, the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) proposed the option of diagnosing coeliac disease (CD) in children without duodenal biopsy. The aim of our study was to assess the diagnostic approach in newly diagnosed children with CD in Slovenia.

Methods: In this prospective study, Slovenian paediatric gastroenterologists were invited to provide medical records of children under 19 years diagnosed with CD from March 2021 to October 2023.

A Model Predicting the 6-Month Disability of Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury to Assess the Quality of Care in Intensive Care Units: Results from the CREACTIVE Study.

Assessing quality of care is essential for improving the management of patients experiencing traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aimed at devising a rigorous framework to evaluate the quality of TBI care provided by intensive care units (ICUs) and applying it to the Collaborative Research on Acute Traumatic Brain Injury in Intensive Care Medicine in Europe (CREACTIVE) consortium, which involved 83 ICUs from seven countries. The performance of the centers was assessed in terms of patients' outcomes, as measured by the 6-month Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOS-E).

First Report on Species Isolated from Patients in Slovenia.

Leptospirosis is an important worldwide zoonosis, and it has also been reported in Slovenia. The cultivation of Leptospira from human material is difficult. Despite that, we successfully isolated 12 human strains isolated from patients between 2002 and 2020 and used various methods for the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the strains, including matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) using our own MALDI-TOF data library, melting temperature analysis of the amplified gene, determination of serogroups using rabbit immune sera, -RFLP of the whole genome, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of seven housekeeping genes, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-based typing.

Comparative Effectiveness of Intracranial Pressure Monitoring on 6-Month Outcomes of Critically Ill Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury.

Importance: While the relationship between persistent elevations in intracranial pressure (ICP) and poorer outcomes is well established for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), there is no consensus on how ICP measurements should drive treatment choices, and the effectiveness of ICP monitoring remains unknown.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of ICP monitoring on short- and mid-term outcomes of patients with TBI.

Design, Setting, And Participants: CREACTIVE was a prospective cohort study that started in March 2014 and lasted 5 years.

Anaphase-Promoting Complex Subunit 1 Associates with Bone Mineral Density in Human Osteoporotic Bone.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are one of the most common approaches to identify genetic loci that are associated with bone mineral density (BMD). Such novel genetic loci represent new potential targets for the prevention and treatment of fragility fractures. GWAS have identified hundreds of associations with BMD; however, only a few have been functionally evaluated.

Newborn Screening in a Pandemic-Lessons Learned.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected many essential aspects of public health, including newborn screening programs (NBS). Centers reported missing cases of inherited metabolic disease as a consequence of decreased diagnostic process quality during the pandemic. A number of problems emerged at the start of the pandemic, but from the beginning, solutions began to be proposed and implemented.

Detection and localization of hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands on [F]fluorocholine PET/ CT using deep learning - model performance and comparison to human experts.

Background: In the setting of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), [F]fluorocholine PET/CT (FCH-PET) has excellent diagnostic performance, with experienced practitioners achieving 97.7% accuracy in localising hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue (HPTT). Due to the relative triviality of the task for human readers, we explored the performance of deep learning (DL) methods for HPTT detection and localisation on FCH-PET images in the setting of PHPT.

Effects of early home-based strength and sensory-motor training after total hip arthroplasty: study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Background: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is very effective in alleviating pain, but functional deficits persist up to a year following surgery. Regardless of standard physiotherapy programs, significant additional muscular atrophy and weakness occur. Deficits in strength have serious adverse consequences for these patients with respect to physical function, the maintenance of independence, and the requirement for revision surgery.

Prophylactic Dose of Dalteparin in Pregnant Women With History of Venous Thromboembolisms and/or Thrombophilia: Real-World Data.

Women with a history of venous thromboembolisms (VTEs) and/or thrombophilia are at increased risk of VTE during pregnancy. We analysed our cohort of such women who were treated with a prophylactic doses of dalteparin. 152 pregnant women with 179 pregnancies were classified into 3 groups: (1) previous VTE without thrombophilia (122 pregnancies); (2) previous VTE with thrombophilia (26 pregnancies) and (3) thrombophilia only (31 pregnancies).

Image reconstruction using small-voxel size improves small lesion detection for positron emission tomography.

Background: PET/CT imaging is widely used in oncology and provides both metabolic and anatomic information. Because of the relatively poor spatial resolution of PET, the detection of small lesions is limited. The low spatial resolution introduces the partial-volume effect (PVE) which negatively affects images both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Hospitals with and without neurosurgery: a comparative study evaluating the outcome of patients with traumatic brain injury.

Background: We leveraged the data of the international CREACTIVE consortium to investigate whether the outcome of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) in hospitals without on-site neurosurgical capabilities (no-NSH) would differ had the same patients been admitted to ICUs in hospitals with neurosurgical capabilities (NSH).

Methods: The CREACTIVE observational study enrolled more than 8000 patients from 83 ICUs. Adult TBI patients admitted to no-NSH ICUs within 48 h of trauma were propensity-score matched 1:3 with patients admitted to NSH ICUs.

Impact of COVID-19 confinement on eating behaviours across 16 European countries: The COVIDiet cross-national study.

We aimed to evaluate the changes in eating behaviours of the adult population across 16 European countries due to the COVID-19 confinement and to evaluate whether these changes were somehow related to the severity of the containment measures applied in each country. An anonymous online self-reported questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics, validated 14-items Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) Adherence Screener (MEDAS) as a reference of a healthy diet, eating and lifestyle behaviours prior to and during the COVID-19 confinement was used to collect data. The study included an adult population residing in 16 European countries at the time of the survey.

Prognostic Value of a Combination of Circulating Biomarkers in Critically Ill Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury: Results from the European CREACTIVE Study.

Individualized patient care is essential to reduce the global burden of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This pilot study focused on TBI patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) and aimed at identifying patterns of circulating biomarkers associated with the disability level at 6 months from injury, measured by the extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS-E). The concentration of 107 biomarkers, including proteins related to inflammation, innate immunity, TBI, and central nervous system, were quantified in blood samples collected on ICU admission from 80 patients.

Current Status of Newborn Screening in Southeastern Europe.

Significant part of Southeastern Europe (with a population of 76 million) has newborn screening (NBS) programs non-harmonized with developed European countries. Initial survey was conducted in 2013/2014 among 11 countries from the region (Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia) to assess the main characteristics of their NBS programs and their future plans. Their cumulative population at that time was ~52,5 million.

Development of a model of integration for complex chronic conditions across levels of healthcare and the community in Novo mesto, Slovenia.

Background: People with complex chronic conditions have multidimensional needs and often experience fragmentation in care. A model of integration was developed based on a case study of chronic wound management in Novo mesto, Slovenia.

Methods: JA CHRODIS Recommendations and Criteria were used as a framework for developing the practice.

11% complications rate after Latarjet procedure at up to 14 years follow-up.

Purpose: Evaluate complications in correlation with radiological findings after an open Latarjet procedure performed on 140 shoulders with recurrent anterior instability with follow-up from 8 to 174 months.

Methods: Retrospectively, 140 shoulders, diagnosed with recurrent anterior glenohumeral instability, which were surgically treated with the open Latarjet procedure in our hospital, between January 2004 and November 2017, had been analysed. Mean age of operated patients was 29.

PROSAFE: a European endeavor to improve quality of critical care medicine in seven countries.

Background: Long-lasting shared research databases are an important source of epidemiological information and can promote comparison between different healthcare services. Here we present PROSAFE, an advanced international research network in intensive care medicine, with the focus on assessing and improving the quality of care. The project involved 343 ICUs in seven countries.

Diagnostic accuracy of (1→3)-β-D-glucan to predict Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in non-HIV-infected patients.

Background Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is a common and potentially fatal opportunistic infection in immunocompromised non-HIV individuals. There are problems with clinical and diagnostic protocols for PCP that lack sensitivity and specificity. We designed a retrospective study to compared several methods that were used in diagnostics of PCP.

Diagnostic and treatment challenge of unrecognized subacute bacterial endocarditis associated with ANCA-PR3 positive immunocomplex glomerulonephritis: a case report and literature review.

Background: Diagnosis and treatment of either ANCA disease or silent infection-related glomerulonephritis is complicated and is a huge treatment challenge when overlapping clinical manifestations occur. We report a case of ANCA-PR3 glomerulonephritis, nervous system involvement, hepatosplenomegaly and clinically silent subacute infectious endocarditis.

Case Presentation: A 57-year-old man with known mitral valve prolaps was admitted for unexplained renal failure with signs of nephritic syndrome, hepatosplenomegaly, sudden unilateral hearing loss, vertigo, malaise, new onset hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia.