IntroductionThe current period is marked by several negative aspects of the COVID 19 pandemic, wh... more IntroductionThe current period is marked by several negative aspects of the COVID 19 pandemic, which have led to a series of emotional and cognitive changes that affect our functioning. The ability to “read” the minds of others is the key aspect of social behavior, helping us understand our context.ObjectivesTo identify the level of emotion recognition in Medicine students during the Covid 19 pandemic.Methods Throughout 2021, we evaluated 649 Romanian General Medicine students in years 4, 5 and 6, by using a Google Play application (android and iOS). We analyzed socio-demographic parameters and the affective component of Theory of Mind (The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test). The mean scores between groups were compared with the Student’s t and the ANOVA tests.ResultsThe mean score was 25.83 ± 3.36 (min 11, max 33) out of a possible maximum of 36. We noted that women have a higher capacity for recognizing emotions than men (26.04 ± 3.22 vs. 25.01 ± 3.78, P = 0.0016) without differen...
Background and Objectives: Responding to the need for additional biomarkers for the diagnosis of ... more Background and Objectives: Responding to the need for additional biomarkers for the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa), mounting studies show that microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) possess great potential as future promising diagnostic tools. However, the usefulness of these miRNAs is still highly debated, as the degree of inconsistency between study designs and results is still elevated. Herein, we present a meta-analysis evaluating the diagnostic value and accuracy of circulating miR-375, as it is one of the most studied types of miRs in PCa. Materials and Methods: The diagnostic accuracy of miR-375 was evaluated using the QUADAS-2 tool, analyzing different statistical parameters. The seven studies (from six articles) that matched our selection included 422 PCa patients and 212 controls (70 healthy volunteers + 142 with benign prostate diseases). Results and Conclusion: We obtained a p-value of 0.76 for sensitivity, 0.83 for specificity, 16 for DOR, 4.6 for LR+, 0.29 for LR−, and 0.87 for A...
Introduction: The novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread a... more Introduction: The novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across the globe generating a pandemic. Every affected country has tried its best to mitigate the virus's effects. Aim: This study was designed to implement the good clinical practice in the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Timisoara (ICDT) for Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection by a retrospective search for patients with a possible COVID-19 infection before widespread testing was available in our country. Materials and Methods: The retrospective study was conducted on selected group of 19 patients admitted to the ICDT, who displayed radiological signs of possible SARS-CoV-2 infection, between September 2019 and May 2020 in collaboration with the Radiology Department. Patients have been followed-up regarding their clinical status and asked to participate in Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody testing at a local laboratory. The patients were divided based on the period they ...
Pregnant women often present in the evolution of pregnancy urinary tract infections, sexually tra... more Pregnant women often present in the evolution of pregnancy urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted infections and group beta streptococcus carriage requiring treatment with antibiotics. Also, it is standard practice to give antibiotics to women with pre-term, prelabor rupture of membranes (PROM). Antibiotics for PROM reduce complications due to pre-term delivery and post-natal infection. The physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy result in pharmacokinetic changes that can alter the effectiveness of antimicrobial agents. The possible risk of teratogenic and toxic effects of antibiotics on the fetus is an additional cause of concern. In general, pregnant women are excluded from clinical trials and there is little pharmacokinetic information on the use and proper dosing of antimicrobials in this population. Although most antimicrobials can cross the placental blood barrier, data on the potential teratogenic effects, fetal and neonatal toxicity caused by these drugs are ...
Introduction. L’état minéral inadéquat impliquant les oligo-éléments cuivre et zinc est lié à l’h... more Introduction. L’état minéral inadéquat impliquant les oligo-éléments cuivre et zinc est lié à l’homéostasie cardiovasculaire, à l’anémie et à l’hypertension artérielle. Dans nos études précédentes, nous avons révélé que la thérapie de longue date avec inhibiteurs de l’enzyme de conversion de l’angiotensine cause une carence en zinc excessive par rapport au traitement antihypertenseur à triple combinaison à dose fixe, qui est plus sûr pour le patient âgé. ABSTRACT
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Medical professionals require adequate abilities to identify others’ emotions and express persona... more Medical professionals require adequate abilities to identify others’ emotions and express personal emotions. We aimed to determine the validity and reliability of an empathy measuring tool in medical students for this study. We employed Spreng’s Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) as a starting point for this validation. The process was performed in several steps, including an English-Romanian-English translation and a focus group meeting to establish each question’s degree of understandability and usability, with minor improvements of wording in each step. We checked internal and external consistency in a pilot group (n = 67). For construct and convergent validity, we used a sample of 649 students. The overall internal and external reliability performed well, with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.727 and respective ICC = 0.776. The principal component analysis resulted in 3 components: prosocial helping behavior, inappropriate sensitivity, dismissive attitude. Component 1 includes positively w...
Many prognostic factors for HL have been proposed in the past and some of these were included in ... more Many prognostic factors for HL have been proposed in the past and some of these were included in several prognostic scores. Tumor stage and spread, age, gender and various biological parameters are considered to have an effect on disease evolution, with the prognostic scores stratifying patients into risk groups and guiding the course of treatment. In the present study we have enrolled 54 patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma admitted in the Hematology Department within the City Emergency Clinical Hospital Timisoara over a 4-year period. We aimed to see if a statistically significant correlation can be made between hemoglobin, white blood cell, lymphocyte, eosinophil, monocyte and platelet levels at the time of diagnosis on the one hand, and response to treatment and patients’ survival, on the other hand. Patients’ response to treatment was evaluated according to Cheson criteria, with best response to the combination of ABVD(doxorubicin C27H29NO11, bleomycin C55H84N17O21S3, vinblastine C...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
The aim of this paper is to examine aggressive behaviors among Romanian high school students betw... more The aim of this paper is to examine aggressive behaviors among Romanian high school students between 15 and 16 years old, to compare data in two national representative samples and to identify factors associated with physical fighting. This study investigates the association of selected factors (social, school performance and substance use) with physical fighting. A total of 2289 Romanian students were included in the 2007 database and 2770 in the 2011 database. This study revealed that 35.87% of the teenagers have taken part in a physical fight during the previous 12 months, as compared with the European average of 31.5%. Romania has the highest prevalence of violent behavior by participating in a group bruising of an individual in both surveys, 2007 and 2011. A logistic regression analysis performed for the 2011 study revealed the following factors associated with physical fighting: binge drinking during the previous 30 days, male gender, serious problems with friends, parent(s) w...
In myeloma therapy, various biological parameters are considered to have an effect on disease evo... more In myeloma therapy, various biological parameters are considered to have an effect on disease evolution and guiding the course of treatment. In the present study we have enrolled 105 patients with Multiple Myeloma admitted in the Hematology Department within the City Emergency Clinical Hospital Timisoara over a 4-year period. This study aims to assess the adverse events, response and overall survival after administration of bortezomib and dexamethasone vs. carfilzomib and dexamethasone regimens. Keywords: Carfilzomib, Bortezomib, Multiple myeloma
The Hodgkin lymphoma treatment is adapted to the disease type, disease stage and to an evaluation... more The Hodgkin lymphoma treatment is adapted to the disease type, disease stage and to an evaluation of the risk. The treatment is focused on the adjustment of the therapy to each patient depending on the age, toxicity risk on short and long term and the relapse risk. The study proposes the evaluation of the response to the treatment further to the administration of different therapeutic regimens as well as the correlation with the negative diagnosis factors of Hodgkin lymphoma. This is a retrospective study on 71 patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in the Hematology Department of Timisoara between January 2014 and December 2017. The data obtained have been collected from a database and processed with the SPSS 20.0. software . In our study there were included 71 patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma with a medium age of 42.12�16.45 years old. By the time of the diagnosis, the patients showed the following hematological, biochemical and immunological parameters. The response to ...
Clinical studies have shown that, besides the biomarkers with proven role in both the diagnosis a... more Clinical studies have shown that, besides the biomarkers with proven role in both the diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure, such as pro-BNP and NT-pro-BNP, certain inflammatory markers may influence heart failure evolution. Aim: As almost half of the heart failure patients are those with preserved ejection fraction, we ai-med to assess the presence of inflammatory mar-kers at the time of primary diagnosis of heart fa-ilure with preserved ejection fraction and to com-pare their values with the proven diagnostic and prognostic parameters (pro-BNP, NT-proBNP), as well as with the clinical status parameters (exerci-se capacity and quality of life). Material and methods: Patients diagnosed for the first time with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction were included. We have determi-ned pro-BNP and NT-pro-BNP inflammatory mar-kers and after stabilisation of heart failure we have assessed the clinical status components. Patients were monitored for one year, and then all these p...
Introduction : Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) is, currently, the treatment we ... more Introduction : Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) is, currently, the treatment we choose for patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The thrombolytic treatment is an appreciated alternative when the reperfusion therapy is not available in due time. Aim: our study aims to assess both the costs and the benefits of the patients with IMA with ST segment elevation treated with Primary coronary intervention (PCI) associated with medical therapy vs. Thrombolytic therapy vs. Conventional therapy. Methods: 625 patients with acute ST – elevation myocardial infarction admitted in our clinic from January 2010 until May 2011 were analyzed. In carrying out the cost analysis we took into account the direct medical costs and, in order to assess the benefits of these therapies the major complications were analyzed. Results: the c osts of therapy for the acute myocardial infarction with ST segment elevation in the three different therapeutic approaches are dif...
Multiple myeloma (MM) is typically sensitive to a range of cytotoxic agents, both as initial ther... more Multiple myeloma (MM) is typically sensitive to a range of cytotoxic agents, both as initial therapy and as relapsed disease treatment. Unfortunately, the responses are transient, and MM is not considered curable with the current approaches. This paper aims to assess the response to first line treatment of patients included in the study and their correlation with the negative prognostic factors in multiple myeloma: age over 60 years, male gender, anemia, hypercalcemia, elevated levels of creatinine, Beta 2 microglobulin, hypoalbuminemia and Bence-Jones proteins type. The study was conducted on a group of 105 patients admitted to the Hematology Department of the Municipal Emergency Clinical Hospital of Timisoara from 01 January 2013 until 31 December 2017. Twenty-seven patients received VAD regimen, while 78 underwent Bortezomib + Dexamethasone regimen as fist line therapy. When analyzing anthropometrical data, different gender distribution in the two groups of patients is seen, whil...
Adjunctive therapeutic strategies that modulate the inflammatory mediators can play a significant... more Adjunctive therapeutic strategies that modulate the inflammatory mediators can play a significant role in periodontal therapy. Periodontitis has been reported to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). In this prospective and controlled study, 132 eligible postmenopausal women with chronic periodontitis were evaluated for 60 days. The experimental group (66 patients) received once-daily 60 mg of selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor etoricoxib. The control group (66 patients) did not receive any anti-inflammatory drugs, only periodontal maintenance therapy. Plaque index (PI), probing pocket depth (PPD) and bleeding on probing (BOP) were monitored with an electronic probe at baseline and after 30 days and 60 days. Inflammatory mediators and lipid profiles were comparatively evaluated at baseline and at the end of the study. Both groups displayed clinical improvement in PPD, PI and BOP. They also showed statistically similar values (p>0.05) of PPD reduction on day ...
IntroductionThe current period is marked by several negative aspects of the COVID 19 pandemic, wh... more IntroductionThe current period is marked by several negative aspects of the COVID 19 pandemic, which have led to a series of emotional and cognitive changes that affect our functioning. The ability to “read” the minds of others is the key aspect of social behavior, helping us understand our context.ObjectivesTo identify the level of emotion recognition in Medicine students during the Covid 19 pandemic.Methods Throughout 2021, we evaluated 649 Romanian General Medicine students in years 4, 5 and 6, by using a Google Play application (android and iOS). We analyzed socio-demographic parameters and the affective component of Theory of Mind (The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test). The mean scores between groups were compared with the Student’s t and the ANOVA tests.ResultsThe mean score was 25.83 ± 3.36 (min 11, max 33) out of a possible maximum of 36. We noted that women have a higher capacity for recognizing emotions than men (26.04 ± 3.22 vs. 25.01 ± 3.78, P = 0.0016) without differen...
Background and Objectives: Responding to the need for additional biomarkers for the diagnosis of ... more Background and Objectives: Responding to the need for additional biomarkers for the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa), mounting studies show that microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) possess great potential as future promising diagnostic tools. However, the usefulness of these miRNAs is still highly debated, as the degree of inconsistency between study designs and results is still elevated. Herein, we present a meta-analysis evaluating the diagnostic value and accuracy of circulating miR-375, as it is one of the most studied types of miRs in PCa. Materials and Methods: The diagnostic accuracy of miR-375 was evaluated using the QUADAS-2 tool, analyzing different statistical parameters. The seven studies (from six articles) that matched our selection included 422 PCa patients and 212 controls (70 healthy volunteers + 142 with benign prostate diseases). Results and Conclusion: We obtained a p-value of 0.76 for sensitivity, 0.83 for specificity, 16 for DOR, 4.6 for LR+, 0.29 for LR−, and 0.87 for A...
Introduction: The novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread a... more Introduction: The novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across the globe generating a pandemic. Every affected country has tried its best to mitigate the virus's effects. Aim: This study was designed to implement the good clinical practice in the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Timisoara (ICDT) for Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection by a retrospective search for patients with a possible COVID-19 infection before widespread testing was available in our country. Materials and Methods: The retrospective study was conducted on selected group of 19 patients admitted to the ICDT, who displayed radiological signs of possible SARS-CoV-2 infection, between September 2019 and May 2020 in collaboration with the Radiology Department. Patients have been followed-up regarding their clinical status and asked to participate in Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody testing at a local laboratory. The patients were divided based on the period they ...
Pregnant women often present in the evolution of pregnancy urinary tract infections, sexually tra... more Pregnant women often present in the evolution of pregnancy urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted infections and group beta streptococcus carriage requiring treatment with antibiotics. Also, it is standard practice to give antibiotics to women with pre-term, prelabor rupture of membranes (PROM). Antibiotics for PROM reduce complications due to pre-term delivery and post-natal infection. The physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy result in pharmacokinetic changes that can alter the effectiveness of antimicrobial agents. The possible risk of teratogenic and toxic effects of antibiotics on the fetus is an additional cause of concern. In general, pregnant women are excluded from clinical trials and there is little pharmacokinetic information on the use and proper dosing of antimicrobials in this population. Although most antimicrobials can cross the placental blood barrier, data on the potential teratogenic effects, fetal and neonatal toxicity caused by these drugs are ...
Introduction. L’état minéral inadéquat impliquant les oligo-éléments cuivre et zinc est lié à l’h... more Introduction. L’état minéral inadéquat impliquant les oligo-éléments cuivre et zinc est lié à l’homéostasie cardiovasculaire, à l’anémie et à l’hypertension artérielle. Dans nos études précédentes, nous avons révélé que la thérapie de longue date avec inhibiteurs de l’enzyme de conversion de l’angiotensine cause une carence en zinc excessive par rapport au traitement antihypertenseur à triple combinaison à dose fixe, qui est plus sûr pour le patient âgé. ABSTRACT
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Medical professionals require adequate abilities to identify others’ emotions and express persona... more Medical professionals require adequate abilities to identify others’ emotions and express personal emotions. We aimed to determine the validity and reliability of an empathy measuring tool in medical students for this study. We employed Spreng’s Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) as a starting point for this validation. The process was performed in several steps, including an English-Romanian-English translation and a focus group meeting to establish each question’s degree of understandability and usability, with minor improvements of wording in each step. We checked internal and external consistency in a pilot group (n = 67). For construct and convergent validity, we used a sample of 649 students. The overall internal and external reliability performed well, with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.727 and respective ICC = 0.776. The principal component analysis resulted in 3 components: prosocial helping behavior, inappropriate sensitivity, dismissive attitude. Component 1 includes positively w...
Many prognostic factors for HL have been proposed in the past and some of these were included in ... more Many prognostic factors for HL have been proposed in the past and some of these were included in several prognostic scores. Tumor stage and spread, age, gender and various biological parameters are considered to have an effect on disease evolution, with the prognostic scores stratifying patients into risk groups and guiding the course of treatment. In the present study we have enrolled 54 patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma admitted in the Hematology Department within the City Emergency Clinical Hospital Timisoara over a 4-year period. We aimed to see if a statistically significant correlation can be made between hemoglobin, white blood cell, lymphocyte, eosinophil, monocyte and platelet levels at the time of diagnosis on the one hand, and response to treatment and patients’ survival, on the other hand. Patients’ response to treatment was evaluated according to Cheson criteria, with best response to the combination of ABVD(doxorubicin C27H29NO11, bleomycin C55H84N17O21S3, vinblastine C...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
The aim of this paper is to examine aggressive behaviors among Romanian high school students betw... more The aim of this paper is to examine aggressive behaviors among Romanian high school students between 15 and 16 years old, to compare data in two national representative samples and to identify factors associated with physical fighting. This study investigates the association of selected factors (social, school performance and substance use) with physical fighting. A total of 2289 Romanian students were included in the 2007 database and 2770 in the 2011 database. This study revealed that 35.87% of the teenagers have taken part in a physical fight during the previous 12 months, as compared with the European average of 31.5%. Romania has the highest prevalence of violent behavior by participating in a group bruising of an individual in both surveys, 2007 and 2011. A logistic regression analysis performed for the 2011 study revealed the following factors associated with physical fighting: binge drinking during the previous 30 days, male gender, serious problems with friends, parent(s) w...
In myeloma therapy, various biological parameters are considered to have an effect on disease evo... more In myeloma therapy, various biological parameters are considered to have an effect on disease evolution and guiding the course of treatment. In the present study we have enrolled 105 patients with Multiple Myeloma admitted in the Hematology Department within the City Emergency Clinical Hospital Timisoara over a 4-year period. This study aims to assess the adverse events, response and overall survival after administration of bortezomib and dexamethasone vs. carfilzomib and dexamethasone regimens. Keywords: Carfilzomib, Bortezomib, Multiple myeloma
The Hodgkin lymphoma treatment is adapted to the disease type, disease stage and to an evaluation... more The Hodgkin lymphoma treatment is adapted to the disease type, disease stage and to an evaluation of the risk. The treatment is focused on the adjustment of the therapy to each patient depending on the age, toxicity risk on short and long term and the relapse risk. The study proposes the evaluation of the response to the treatment further to the administration of different therapeutic regimens as well as the correlation with the negative diagnosis factors of Hodgkin lymphoma. This is a retrospective study on 71 patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in the Hematology Department of Timisoara between January 2014 and December 2017. The data obtained have been collected from a database and processed with the SPSS 20.0. software . In our study there were included 71 patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma with a medium age of 42.12�16.45 years old. By the time of the diagnosis, the patients showed the following hematological, biochemical and immunological parameters. The response to ...
Clinical studies have shown that, besides the biomarkers with proven role in both the diagnosis a... more Clinical studies have shown that, besides the biomarkers with proven role in both the diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure, such as pro-BNP and NT-pro-BNP, certain inflammatory markers may influence heart failure evolution. Aim: As almost half of the heart failure patients are those with preserved ejection fraction, we ai-med to assess the presence of inflammatory mar-kers at the time of primary diagnosis of heart fa-ilure with preserved ejection fraction and to com-pare their values with the proven diagnostic and prognostic parameters (pro-BNP, NT-proBNP), as well as with the clinical status parameters (exerci-se capacity and quality of life). Material and methods: Patients diagnosed for the first time with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction were included. We have determi-ned pro-BNP and NT-pro-BNP inflammatory mar-kers and after stabilisation of heart failure we have assessed the clinical status components. Patients were monitored for one year, and then all these p...
Introduction : Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) is, currently, the treatment we ... more Introduction : Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) is, currently, the treatment we choose for patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The thrombolytic treatment is an appreciated alternative when the reperfusion therapy is not available in due time. Aim: our study aims to assess both the costs and the benefits of the patients with IMA with ST segment elevation treated with Primary coronary intervention (PCI) associated with medical therapy vs. Thrombolytic therapy vs. Conventional therapy. Methods: 625 patients with acute ST – elevation myocardial infarction admitted in our clinic from January 2010 until May 2011 were analyzed. In carrying out the cost analysis we took into account the direct medical costs and, in order to assess the benefits of these therapies the major complications were analyzed. Results: the c osts of therapy for the acute myocardial infarction with ST segment elevation in the three different therapeutic approaches are dif...
Multiple myeloma (MM) is typically sensitive to a range of cytotoxic agents, both as initial ther... more Multiple myeloma (MM) is typically sensitive to a range of cytotoxic agents, both as initial therapy and as relapsed disease treatment. Unfortunately, the responses are transient, and MM is not considered curable with the current approaches. This paper aims to assess the response to first line treatment of patients included in the study and their correlation with the negative prognostic factors in multiple myeloma: age over 60 years, male gender, anemia, hypercalcemia, elevated levels of creatinine, Beta 2 microglobulin, hypoalbuminemia and Bence-Jones proteins type. The study was conducted on a group of 105 patients admitted to the Hematology Department of the Municipal Emergency Clinical Hospital of Timisoara from 01 January 2013 until 31 December 2017. Twenty-seven patients received VAD regimen, while 78 underwent Bortezomib + Dexamethasone regimen as fist line therapy. When analyzing anthropometrical data, different gender distribution in the two groups of patients is seen, whil...
Adjunctive therapeutic strategies that modulate the inflammatory mediators can play a significant... more Adjunctive therapeutic strategies that modulate the inflammatory mediators can play a significant role in periodontal therapy. Periodontitis has been reported to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). In this prospective and controlled study, 132 eligible postmenopausal women with chronic periodontitis were evaluated for 60 days. The experimental group (66 patients) received once-daily 60 mg of selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor etoricoxib. The control group (66 patients) did not receive any anti-inflammatory drugs, only periodontal maintenance therapy. Plaque index (PI), probing pocket depth (PPD) and bleeding on probing (BOP) were monitored with an electronic probe at baseline and after 30 days and 60 days. Inflammatory mediators and lipid profiles were comparatively evaluated at baseline and at the end of the study. Both groups displayed clinical improvement in PPD, PI and BOP. They also showed statistically similar values (p>0.05) of PPD reduction on day ...
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