An overview of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment as a useful tool for the protection from cardiotoxicity of antineoplastic drugs

© 2020, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Science. All rights reserved. Unfortunately, in patients with cancer disease, clinical application of antineoplastic drug results in severe side effects of cardiotoxicity. We aim to review the research focused on elimination or reduction of antineoplastic drug-induced cardiotoxicity without affecting its anticancer efficacy by different agens. This study is based on pertinent papers that were re-trieved by a selective search using relevant keywords in PubMed and ScienceDirect. Based on mentioned purpose, various strategies were investigated and proposed, and thou-sands of compounds were screened. The literature mainly focusing on drugs, natural products and herb extracts with therapeutic efficacies as well as non-pharmacological treatment against differently induced cardiotoxicity during treatment in patients with cancers. Larger future studies are necessary to reach a point of secure cytostatic therapy, improved patient survival and qu-ality of life. Until that moment, baseline and serial cardiac evaluation is recommended to facilitate early identification and treatment of cardiotoxicity

Olanzapine-focus on the cardiometabolic side effects

In this article, we review the recent findings concerning weight gain, diabetes mellitus (DM), hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular side effects in patients receiving olanzapine. It will consider the OLZ is associated with an increase in metabolic syndrome or cardiovascular events, and knowledge of these risks is crucial for further monitoring of patients with OLZ-treatment. Although it is one of the most commonly prescribed and effective AATPs, olanzapine causes the most weight gain and metabolic impairments in humans. As not-ed with glucose abnormalities and antipsychotics, olanzap-ine has the greatest propensity for causing proatherogenic hyperlipidemia. The mechanism of dyslipidemia with OLZ is poorly understood, but OLZ has been shown to increase lipogenesis, reduce lipolysis, and enhance the antilipolytic effects of insulin in adipocytes. Olanzapine can induce car-diomyopathy in selected patients. Taken together, all mentioned data indicate that interventions aimed at the amelioration of obesity and cardiovascular illness need to be as multipronged and complex as the contrib-uting psychosocial, behavioural, and biological factors that make obesity and cardiovascular illness more likely in patients with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia

Burnout of physicians, pharmacists and nurses in the course of the covid-19 pandemic: A serbian cross-sectional questionnaire study

This research was a prospective, cross-sectional observational study of 128 health workers in the central part of the Republic of Serbia. The study surveyed health workers (physicians, pharmacists and nurses) who worked during peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Serbia in June and November 2020. The Maslach Burnout Survey for Medical Personnel addresses three scales: (a) emotional exhaustion (EE) measures feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one’s work; (b) depersonalization (DP) measures an unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one’s service, care treatment, or instruction; and (c) personal accomplishment (PA) measures feelings of competence and successful achievement in one’s work. Linear regression and the chi-square test were used to test a relationship between the input variables (x) and the single output variable (y). We can conclude that most health workers had a high degree of emotional exhaustion, but also a low degree of depersonalization and a high degree of sense of personal achievement. Nurses and physicians had similar answers on the pandemic during their work, but pharmacists had different answers

Role of Nutritional Habits during Pregnancy in the Developing of Gestational Diabetes: A Single-Center Observational Clinical Study

(1) Background and Objective: Excessive gestational weight gain is associated with serious complications such as pre-eclampsia, fetal macrosomia and a more frequent need for cesarean section. The aim of this study is to develop a simple screening model that includes maternal age, BMI and nutritive habits in the second trimester in order to predict the risk of GDM in the population of pregnant women in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. (2) Materials and Methods: This single-center, prospective and case–control study was performed in the University Clinical Center “Dr. Dragisa Misovic Dedinje”, Belgrade, Serbia and included 54 women with singleton pregnancies during the second trimester from July 2023 to November 2023. We used basic demographic and socio-epidemiological data, as well as data of the present comorbidities and previous pregnancies/births. The Serbian version of the Nutritive Status Questionnaire (NSQ) was used to estimate the nutritive habits in GDM (n = 22) and non-GDM groups (n = 32). (3) Results: We observed less frequent vegetable and fruit consumption in the GDM group in comparison with the non-GDM group; meat and chicken intake was 2–3 times per week in both groups; meat products were consumed 2–3 times per week in the GDM group and 2–3 times per month in the non-GDM group; milk products were consumed once a day in 31.8% of GDM patients and twice per day in 24.1% of non-GDM patients. Sweets (cakes, ice creams, biscuits) were consumed very often (2–3 times per week) in the GDM group (36.4%), while in the non-GDM group this habit was less frequent (26.7%). Cronbach alpha and internal consistency for this instrument were very good (Cronbach alpha = 0.87). (4) Conclusions: We have found that a non-adequate intake of fruits/vegetables, dairy and whole grain, as well as an excessive intake of sugar/artificially sweetened beverages and dairy, was associated with a higher risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (OR = 0.04; 95% CI)

Is 3 Weeks of Exercise Enough to Change Blood Pressure and Cardiac Redox State in Hypertensive Rats?

The investigation was aimed to evaluate the effects of 3-weeks swimming exercise on blood pressure and redox status in high-salt-induced hypertensive rats. Male Wistar albino rats (n=40, 6 weeks old) were divided into 4 groups: 1. hypertensive rats that swam for 3 weeks; 2. sedentary hypertensive control rats; 3. normotensive rats that swam for 3 weeks; 4. sedentary normotensive control rats. Hypertensive animals were on high concentrated sodium (8% NaCl) solution for 4 weeks (period of induction of hypertension). After sacrificing, hearts were isolated and perfused according to Langendorff technique at gradually increased coronary per-fusion pressure from 40–120 cmH2O. The oxidative stress markers were determined in coronary venous effluent: the index of lipid peroxidation (measured as TBARS), nitrites (NO2−), superoxide anion radical (O2−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Swimming did not lead to significant changes in levels of TBARS, NO2−, O2− in any of compared groups while levels of H2O2 were significantly higher in swimming hyper-tensive group comparing to swimming normotensive group at coronary perfusion pressure of 80–120 cmH2O. Our results indicate that the short-term swimming start to reduce blood pressure. In addition it seems that this type of swimming duration does not promote cardiac oxidative stress damages

Post-COVID-19 Status and Its Physical, Nutritional, Psychological, and Social Effects in Working-Age Adults—A Prospective Questionnaire Study

Background: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the evolution of physical and daily routine, dietary habits, and mental and social health in individuals with recent COVID-19 infection. Methods: A qualitative prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from 01 October 2021 to 01 March 2022, which included 80 working-age adults from the territory of Central Serbia who had PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in the previous six months. Two structured pre-coded closed-ended questionnaires were submitted to the participants: a questionnaire about post-COVID-19 status (pCOVq) and a shortened version of the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: The presence of the COVID-19 disease in the previous period of 6 months among the working-age participants significantly affected the duration of aerobic, anaerobic, and high-intensity physical activities, but also the possibility of performing certain activities such as walking, which represents basic aerobic activity and a measure of general health among middle-aged participants. In the majority of cases (78%), in the post-COVID-19 period, participants indicated a decline in educational and productive activities. Conclusion: Post-COVID status in working-aged participants consists of reduced physical activity, lower quality of life, and similar nutritional habits. Health policies should be more focused on these findings

Oxidative Stress Mediated Therapy in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis is to explore all the available literature to obtain updated data about the potential use of antioxidants in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its ability to reduce disease progression and cardiovascular risk. Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed strictly in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. English and Chinese databases were searched with a retrieval time up to March 2023. These databases included the PubMed, Embase, Medline Complete, Web of Sciences and Cochrane Collaboration, Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and VIP databases. This literature search was formulated by the two researchers independently. The search strategy consists of reading, collecting the literature, and conducting the preliminary screening. After that, they provide the final selection of the literature according to the inclusion criteria and data extraction. Also, for all studies, the risk bias was assessed to evaluate the quality of the included references. The content of the risk assessment of bias included the following criteria: random allocation method, allocation plan hiding, blind method, completeness of result data, and selectivity of reporting of results, as well as other biases. The main outcomes were clinical efficiency of antioxidant therapy (C-reactive protein, DAS28 score, HAQ, Number of tender joints, etc.) and oxidative stress indicators (catalase, superoxide dismutase, or total antioxidant capacity). Results: We observed, in most of the studies, the small or moderate effects of antioxidant treatment. The mean effect size is 0.525, and that means that moderate effects were observed in 30 selected RCTs. Also, this effect is confirmed in the 1652 patients with RA with the mean confidence interval of 0.276 (lower limit) and 0.983 (upper limit). Cohen coefficient was calculated at 0.05. Conclusion: The existing evidence is that antioxidants can reduce systemic and local oxidative stress and can reduce damage as the main agent involved in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis

Attitudes and Opinions of Biomedical Students: Digital Education Questionnaire

(1) Background: the purpose of this study was a preliminary analysis of current methods of online teaching at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Republic of Serbia, in order to define the attitudes of biomedical students about education during the COVID-19 pandemic and to validate of the education medical questionnaire (eMedQ), a new tool for the assessment of the students’ perceptions about digital education. (2) Methods: this was a qualitative cross-sectional observational study that used the originally developed 45-item questionnaire (eMedQ) as an assessment instrument conducted on biomedical students (n = 209) of all study years at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac (Republic of Serbia), during winter semester or between September 2021 and January 2022. (3) Results: In this study, a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.904 was obtained, which indicated good internal consistency; the correlation matrix revealed many coefficients greater than 0.3, denoting high correlations between the items. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.866 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p < 0.001). The PCA revealed the presence of seven components with characteristic values over one, while three factors explained the highest percentage of variance. (4) Conclusions: this research developed and validated a new tool for evaluation of biomedical student perceptions about digital education