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The main findings of this retrospective analysis on 790 unvaccinated patients with COVID-19 respiratory infection may be summarized as follows: Vitamin D supplementation had no meaningful effect on in-hospital mortality. Neither isoprinosine nor ivermectin had any effect on in-hospital mortality either. Prophylactic anticoagulation treatment was to some degree beneficial compared with the full dose anticoagulation. 35.7% of patients died in the hospital: 37.7% males and 33.3% females, and the difference between sexes was not significant (except for the age group 61-70 years)

The use of epidural analgesia in neonates raises concerns due to possible drug cumulation and toxicity. In general, studying PK and modelling using plasma concentrations of the used local anaesthetic (LA) in neonates is applicable in daily clinical practice because the intravenous blood volume is small, and the number of samples does not have to be large. To the best of their knowledge, this is the first case report of the pharmacokinetic profile of levobupivacaine (LA) achieving pharmacotherapy goals during epidural use in preterm neonates. A special adjustment of the laboratory method reduced the blood samples to 0.2-0.5 mL each. Although elimination of levobupivacaine was prolonged, no accumulation occurred and concentrations of total and free levobupivacaine were well below the toxicity threshold. Epidural analgesia at this age should be monitored and used with caution.

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a surgical modality that resolves ischemic myocardial disease. The success of the procedure depends on a number of factors. Construction of the anastomosis and graft characteristics play a functional role in graft patency. This follow-up analysis of a study on the effects of endoscopic vein harvest after bypass surgery compared the outcome of sequential anastomoses and single grafts, vein graft length and diameter, calcium score, and target artery quality on long-term vein graft patency. The differences between sequential and individual grafts were not statistically significant. Graft and target artery diameters had a statistically significant influence on patency. Longer graft lengths and higher calcium scores were associated with statistically significant graft occlusion.

Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and successful treatment is difficult. The optimization strategy is linked to identifying the specific subgroups of pancreatitis. To improve prognosis, it is crucial to identify patients at risk, in other words patients following acute pancreatitis and those with recurrent acute pancreatitis. The risk for pancreatic cancer development is very high in patients who are positive for other risk factors such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, alcohol abuse, smoking etc.

This is a review of current and new methods for improving on the sensitivity of biliary stenoses examinations, especially in relation to suspected carcinoma. Included are fluorescence in situ hybridization, next generation sequencing, the immunocolorimetric ELISA test, methylation markers of DNA and liquid. biopsy.

This work describes the first robotic assisted living donor nephrectomy in the Czech Republic which was performed in June 2022. Worldwide, this operation was first carried out in 2001 and has now become common practice at many workplaces. It not only provides all the advantages of a laparoscopic operation but it also adds other technical improvements and minimizes intraoperative stress on the surgeon. The authors believe this breakthrough in the Czech Republic will trigger an increase in robotic assisted kidney harvesting. This paper also incorporates our ten-year experience in living donor nephrectomies, conducted using various techniques.

Progress in the of diagnostic and neurosurgical techniques of the last decade have enabled even safe resection of suspected GBMs located in eloquent brain regions. Currently, patients indicated for only the needle biopsy represent a minority group with a common poor prognosis. The purpose of stereotactic biopsy is to obviate misdiagnosis and to choose the optimal treatment strategy. The aim of this paper is to evaluate life expectancy in patients with GBM confirmed by needle biopsy and the relationship with the following oncotherapy. Patients in this study who had undergone oncotherapy, had a slight increase in overall survival. The effect of this treatment was enhanced in patients with favourable clinical factors such as age and Karnofsky score.

In this prospective study the authors attempted to confirm that VI-RADS system is safe enough to replace transurethral resection of bladder tumour in diagnosis of muscle invasive bladder cancer in every day urological practice. Primarily in risk/benefit question.

A prospective pharmacokinetic study was carried out on patients undergoing cardiac surgery using extracorporeal circulation, to describe the population pharmacokinetics of prophylactically administered ampicillin, cefazolin and ciprofloxacin. Measured serum concentration-time profiles of the three antibiotics were analyzed using a nonlinear mixed-effects modeling approach. The main factor determining the achievement of the PK/PD target was found to be eGFR in ampicillin and cefazolin and body weight in ciprofloxacin.

Approximately one in ten patients with chronic pancreatitis have primary painless disease with the major being attributed to an idiopathic etiology. Knowledge of the prominent symptoms is important for diagnosis – these patients may have any combination of pancreatic steatorrhea, diabetes mellitus, pancreatic calcifications and unclear loss of body-weight. Even if the incidence of this form of chronic pancreatitis is relatively low, early diagnosis is paramount.  Further research on this patient population is necessary.

This paper describes two cases of CLIPPERS. The first demonstrates the benefit of the early introduction of corticosteroids with side effects from long-term treatment. The second demonstrates the efficacy of ocrelizumab (anti-CD20 molecule) in a severe course of CLIPPERS. To the author s knowledge, this is only the second published case of CLIPPERS treated with ocrelizumab. The aim was to draw attention to this rare, often misdiagnosed but treatable disease.

A large proportion of patients with acute ST elevation myocardial infarction have significant residual stenoses exclusive of an infarct related artery. There is conflicting data regarding the optimal treatment strategy as well as its timing in such patients. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of this important and currently highly debated topic.

Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a cytokine that participates in inflammation and apoptosis. It has been identified as a strong and independent predictor of prognosis and adverse cardiac events in various cardiac conditions. Based on the data, this study supports a potential role of GDF15 in mortality and other clinical adverse outcomes such as bleeding complications and acute kidney injury prediction following transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

This case report illustrates that if tension pneumopericardium is apparent on CT in a polytrauma patient, it is necessary to bear in mind that a) it can mask bleeding from concomitant injuries, b) mechanical ventilation can seriously aggravate the patient's condition and c) if possible, pericardiocentesis should be performed in such patients before initiating mechanical ventilation. Such a recommendation is missing in ATLS guidelines.

This review paper discusses ascorbic acid intake during pregnancy and ascorbic acid deficiency for the individual maternal and foetal organ systems. If ascorbic acid is able to lower the risk of pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, premature rupture of membranes or lower foetal morbidity remains inconclusive or controversial. Ascorbic acid appears to increase the iron available for erythropoiesis, and thus improves the anemia response to treatment and positively impacts maternal immune function. In the maternal-foetal unit, deficiency can increase the risk for foetal, uterine, and placental haemorrhage. Sufficient serum ascorbic acid levels can positively impact foetal growth in mid-pregnancy, neurodevelopmental epigenetics, foetal immunity and foetal programming. The authors highlighted the fact that sufficient maternal serum ascorbic acid levels may influence foetal outcome and may have far-reaching impact on foetal health.

Abdominal ultrasonography can detect secondary signs of isoattenuating pancreatic tumours with high sensitivity (88%) and has the potential to directly visualise these tumours in 21%. In this study, endoscopic ultrasonography detected a dilated pancreatic duct in isoattenuating pancreatic cancers significantly more often than abdominal ultrasonography.

The surgical treatment of borderline thyroid tumours (BTT) is necessarily individual and influenced by preoperative clinical, ultrasonographic, cytological, molecular genetic findings and other comorbidities.

Summary of the evolution of the use of insulin and non-insulin therapy in people with heart failure and diabetes mellitus. A positive trend in the use of new oral antidiabetic drugs is evident. Some of these are becoming an integral part of heart failure therapy.

Predicting sepsis outcomes remains a challenge. In this retrospective study of two separate cohorts, we sought to determine the relationship between BUN levels on admission and 28-day mortality in sepsis. We provide new high-level information for intensivists to adopt blood urea nitrogen (BUN) as an easily available prognostic marker in sepsis.

Mepolizumab treatment has shown improved asthma control and lung function in randomized controlled trials. Real-world data are important to validate these results, may significantly expand the clinical view of the use of mepolizumab and highlight some aspects that cannot be drawn from clinical trials. Data on mepolizumab from the Slovak clinical environment were requested by health insurance payers for successful patient access to the drug, but such data were never published. The presented data from a non-interventional study provide the first clinical evidence in Slovakia of the efficacy of mepolizumab in a real sample of patients with severe asthma when it is administered in routine care.

OSA is the most common of sleep-related breathing disorders in males. It adversely affects not only the patient's sleep quality, but their overall QoL as well. Even though CPAP therapy represents the standard treatment for moderate to severe OSA, rehabilitation should be considered as an additional therapy to further alleviate OSA symptoms. In this case report we show significant improvement of severe OSA in a male patient after the completion of the novel 12-week, comprehensive tele-RHB program. Our findings suggest that this tele-RHB program may be a novel home-based treatment to be used in conjunction with CPAP therapy.

Antimetabolites remdesivir and favipiravir were repurposed as treatment options for Covid-19. Both drugs possess antiviral properties by mimicking purine RNA constituents but the detailed processes of their antimetabolite actions differ, making these molecules unique in their mechanisms of anti-Covid-19 action. This article compares the chemical and pharmacological proprieties of these drugs in addition to their role as anti-Covid 19 agents based on data obtained from clinical trials.

This article reviews the latest published papers related to the microbiota in patients with depressive disorders and the influence of probiotic treatment upon these patients. The authors consider that the modulation of microbiota using probiotics, besides classical treatment could improve the results of treatment. Due to this positive effect of probiotics and their high tolerability and safety, no recommendation against their routine use in depressed patients can be made.

As clinical examination is inadequate in functional defecation disorders, and many multiparous women are at risk for outlet obstruction constipation, our diagnostic approach emphasizes the importance of correlating dynamic MRI-defecography, anorectal manometry and psychiatric disorders. Hypertonic anal sphincter and lack of defecation reflex at anorectal manometry correlated with anismus in all patients at MRI-defecography. Many cases with terminal constipation and anismus had a good correlation between defecation dysfunction and MRI-defecography pattern and it was also often associated with anxiety-depressive disorders.

These data analyses are the first for cabozantinib-treated patients in the Czech Republic. The evaluation of treatment outcomes and tolerance in an initial group of treated patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma provides important evidence for informing future treatment decisions.

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HPV16 status in oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is an important prognostic factor. As its determination, based on immunistochemical analysis of p16 oncoprotein requires invasive biopsy, determining oral HPV16 status may be a promising alternative. With an average sensitivity and specificity of 74% and 91% resp. oral sampling appears to be valuable in monitoring treatment response, enabling early detection of persistent or relapsing carcinoma sufficiently long before its clinical and/or radiological manifestation. It may also contribute to identification of the primary tumour in cases of metastases of unknown origin. The screening could identify individuals who are at increased risk of developing OPC.

Cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament light chain (cNfL) and CXCL13 concentrations were measured in 44 patients with clinically isolated syndrome or early multiple sclerosis. Neither cNfL nor CXCL13 did influence the risk of the second relapse or development of MRI activity. After adjustment for age, sex and treatment, higher cNfL levels were weakly associated with earlier worsening of neurological status.

This evaluation clearly shows the connection between type of bone invasion, tumour differentiation and MDV and this can be used in the diagnosis of tumours of the oral cavity and oropharynx and in determining the radicality of the oncological therapy.

Study of the tear and ocular tissue metabolome may help us understand the metabolism of normal ocular tissues and mechanisms in disease, to discover inter-individual variations within the ocular environment and, thus improve diagnosis and prognosis. Metabolomic profiling of tear, aqueous humor and vitreous samples is useful for identifying biomarkers for more precise diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.