Oral health and systemic inflammatory, cardiac and nitroxid biomarkers in hemodialysis patients

Periodontal diseases have systemic inflammatory effects and have been adversely associated with cardiovascular diseases, which are also the most frequent cause of death in the end-stage renal disease. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the oral health and serum biomarkers among the hemodialysis (HD) patients in Slovenia. 111 HD patients were periodontally examined and their sera were assayed for C reactive protein (CRP), cardiac troponin T (TnT), nitrite/nitrate (NOx) and antibody levels to A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis. The association of oral health with systemic response was analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis test, Fisher?s exact test and multivariate linear regression. Bleeding on probing without periodontal pockets was present in 5.2%, calculus without periodontal pockets in 42.1%, shallow periodontal pockets in 39.5% and deep periodontal pockets in 13.2% of dentate patients. There were 28.8% edentulous participants. 63.1% of the patients had CRP levels higher than 3 mg/L and 34.2% higher than 10 mg/L. TnT was detectable in all participants, with 25.2% exhibiting levels higher than 100 ng/L. The median level of NOx was 43.1 µmol/L. Participants with higher CRP were more likely to be edentulous and have higher TnT levels. A direct association of oral health with TnT or NOx was not detected. HD patients in Slovenia have compromised oral health and increased serum inflammatory and cardiac biomarkers. Edentulousness was an independent predictor for the increased CRP, indicating a need for improved dental care to retain the teeth as long as possible

Internationalization and cluster potentials with special emphasis on wood-processing sector in

Abstract: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in all national economies are generators of growth and development. This statement is confirmed by the fact that SMEs in the European Union (EU) account for 90% of the total number of companies, and that more than 23 million of these companies employ over 67% of the workforce in the private sector. European law on small and medium enterprises creates favorable regulatory conditions for their further growth. However, adequate attention has not yet been paid to this sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Economic growth in pre-war Yugoslavia was based on a system of large company networks from complementary industries which were deliberately designed. War and disintegration of Yugoslavia have disrupted this concept and sparked a series of dilemmas in terms of re-directing and developing the national economy. Many economists have advocated for the restoration of pre-war business giants. Nevertheless, war, institutional destruction and loss of educated and skilled labor, as well as technological obsolescence, loss of previous markets and industries created the opinion that SMEs should first be developed and then connected through networking and clustering. This would eventually lead to the creation of large and powerful production systems. This paper examines how far BiH has progressed in this regard and how consistent is its economic policy. Moreover, this work provides a review of business practices and the potential of clustering, and finally business internationalization of SMEs