Browsing by Author "Jovanović, Milena (58093120000)"

Background/Aim. Heart transplantation is the most effective way to treat patients in the terminal stage of heart failure. Endomyocardial biopsy has proven to be a safe and appropriate technique, with little sampling error, and remains, to this day, one of the most commonly used methods for diagnosing acute rejection. In 1990, the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation defined a standardized system for grading the severity of acute transplant rejection regarding endomyocardial sampling histopathological analysis. The aim of the study was to assess the morphological, immunohistochemical, and immunofluorescent markers of cell- and antibody-mediated rejection of heart transplants in patients monitored during 2020. Methods. From 31 patients transplanted at the Clinic for Cardiac Surgery of the University Clinical Center of Serbia, endomyocardial biopsy material was obtained, then processed and analyzed at the Institute of Pathology of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade. Results. The average Transplant Rejection Score (TRS) value was 0.42. The Spearman's correlation test did not show a statistically significant relationship between the TRS value and the difference between the ejection fraction values three and twelve months after transplantation. Conclusion. The mean TRS value obtained in this study suggests dominant cell-mediated graft rejection. © 2022 Inst. Sci. inf., Univ. Defence in Belgrade. All rights reserved.

Introduction Without a comprehensive postmortem investigation it is impossible to determine the cause of death among the SARS-CoV-2-suspected and-positive patients. We present two cases to discuss the postmortem detectability of SARS-CoV-2 virus and RNA stability in biological samples. Outline of cases Case No. 1: a 40-year-old man on whom the autopsy was performed four days after death. The body was stored at 4°C. Bilateral pneumonia was confirmed grossly and histopathologicaly. Molecular testing was positive for IgM antibodies, but negative for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Case No. 2: a 28-year-old profes-sional basketball player who suffered from SARS-CoV-2 about a month earlier. The autopsy was performed two days after death. The body was stored at 15°C. Gross autopsy findings revealed advanced putrefactive changes and an enlarged heart, with visible fibrotic focuses. The histopathological finding corresponded to the sudden cardiovascular death due to the cardiac dysrhythmia most probably formed in one of the fibrotic focuses. Tests for SARS-CoV-2 RNA and antibodies (IgM, IgG) were positive in the analyzed samples. Conclusion This report suggests that SARS-CoV-2 virus can be isolated in the biological samples even after a long post-mortem prolongation of molecular analyses. We emphasize the necessity of wider studies that will define the infectiveness and biological stability of the virus in postmortem tissues. © 2023, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved.

Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (ACAD) is a major cause of global morbidity and mortality, characterized as an inflammatory process due to damage to blood vessel walls by risk factors like aging, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes. Infectious agents, including Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Helicobacter pylori (HP), have been implicated in ACAD’s pathophysiology. A study with 56 subjects undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) aimed to detect Cpn, CMV, and HP DNA in unaffected artery segments and explore associations with disease progression and inflammation markers. The study found infectious agents’ DNA in 21.4% of samples, HP in eight samples, and CMV and Cpn in four samples each. Significant correlations were observed between HP and overweight or obese subjects, as well as between the presence of infectious agents and inflammation marker values. An association between HP and renal function was also noted. The findings reaffirm previous discoveries of infectious agents in non-clinically affected arteries used as CABG grafts. Correlations identified between the presence of HP, CMV, and Cpn DNA in grafts and several biomarkers of inflammation and obesity emphasize the potential role of these infectious agents in ACAD pathogenesis. © 2024 by the authors.

Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (ACAD) is a major cause of global morbidity and mortality, characterized as an inflammatory process due to damage to blood vessel walls by risk factors like aging, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes. Infectious agents, including Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Helicobacter pylori (HP), have been implicated in ACAD’s pathophysiology. A study with 56 subjects undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) aimed to detect Cpn, CMV, and HP DNA in unaffected artery segments and explore associations with disease progression and inflammation markers. The study found infectious agents’ DNA in 21.4% of samples, HP in eight samples, and CMV and Cpn in four samples each. Significant correlations were observed between HP and overweight or obese subjects, as well as between the presence of infectious agents and inflammation marker values. An association between HP and renal function was also noted. The findings reaffirm previous discoveries of infectious agents in non-clinically affected arteries used as CABG grafts. Correlations identified between the presence of HP, CMV, and Cpn DNA in grafts and several biomarkers of inflammation and obesity emphasize the potential role of these infectious agents in ACAD pathogenesis. © 2024 by the authors.