Economic Justification Analysis of Minimally Invasive versus Conventional Aortic Valve Replacement.

There is no definitive consensus about the cost-effectiveness of minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (AVR) (MI-AVR) compared to conventional AVR (C-AVR). The aim of this study was to compare the rate of postoperative complications and total hospital costs of MI-AVR versus C-AVR overall and by the type of aortic prosthesis (biological or mechanical). Our single-center retrospective study included 324 patients over 18 years old who underwent elective isolated primary AVR with standard stented AV prosthesis at the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases "Dedinje" between January 2019 and December 2019. Reintervention, emergencies, combined surgical interventions, and patients with sutureless valves were excluded. In both MI-AVR and C-AVR, mechanical valve implantation contributed to overall reduction of hospital costs with equal efficacy. The cost-effectiveness ratio indicated that C-AVR is cheaper and yielded a better clinical outcome with mechanical valve implantation (67.17 vs. 69.5). In biological valve implantation, MI-AVR was superior. MI-AVR patients had statistically significantly higher LVEF and a lower Euro SCORE than C-AVR patients (Mann-Whitney U-test, p = 0.002 and p = 0.002, respectively). There is a slight advantage to MI-AVR vs. C-AVR, since it costs EUR 9.44 more to address complications that may arise. Complications (mortality, early reoperation, cerebrovascular insult, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation, AV block, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, wound infection) were less frequent in the MI-AVR, making MI-AVR more economically justified than C-AVR (18% vs. 22.1%).

Clinicopathological Analysis of 907 Major and Minor Salivary Gland Tumors.

PURPOSE: The frequency and types of salivary gland tumors show significant geographical variations. The most common are primary epithelial tumors, with pleomorphic adenoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma being the most frequent. This study aims to analyze the clinicopathological data of patients with major and minor salivary gland (MiSG) tumors. METHODS: The retrospective study included all patients with major and MiSG tumors diagnosed and treated between January 2000 and January 2019. Files of 907 patients were reviewed and investigated for clinicopathologic features of major and MiSG tumors in Serbia. RESULTS: The majority of tumors were of epithelial origin. Pleomorphic adenoma was the predominant type of tumor, with 35.1% among all tumors on all sites. Adenoid cystic carcinoma and mucoepider-moid carcinoma (with 7.1% and 2.7%, respectively) were the most common malignant ones. The most common localization was the parotid gland. Minor salivary gland tumors comprised 16.43% of all salivary gland tumors in our series, the most common localization being the oral cavity. The results of our study are mostly consistent with the results of other previously published studies. CONCLUSIONS: The most important finding, worth emphasizing, is that the most common malignant major and MiSG tumor in our population is adenoid cystic carcinoma, rather than mucoepidermoid carcinoma, in all investigated localizations. In addition, the nasal cavity is the most common localization among malignant MiSG tumors.

The Role of Strategic Emotional Intelligence in Predicting Adolescents' Academic Achievement: Possible Interplays with Verbal Intelligence and Personality.

As recent meta-analyses confirmed that emotional intelligence (EI), particularly strategic EI, adjoins intelligence and personality in predicting academic achievement, we explored possible arrangements in which these predictors affect the given outcome in adolescents. Three models, with versions including either overall strategic EI or its branches, were considered: (a) a mediation model, whereby strategic EI partially mediates the effects of verbal intelligence (VI) and personality on achievement; the branch-level version assumed that emotion understanding affects achievement in a cascade via emotion management; (b) a direct effects model, with strategic EI/branches placed alongside VI and personality as another independent predictor of achievement; and (c) a moderation model, whereby personality moderates the effects of VI and strategic EI/branches on achievement. We tested these models in a sample of 227 students (M = 16.50 years) and found that both the mediation and the direct effects model with overall strategic EI fit the data; there was no support for a cascade within strategic EI, nor for the assumption that personality merely moderates the effects of abilities on achievement. Principally, strategic EI both mediated the effects of VI and openness, and independently predicted academic achievement, and it did so through emotion understanding directly, "skipping" emotion management.

How accurate are citations of frequently cited papers in biomedical literature?

Citations are an important, but often overlooked, part of every scientific paper. They allow the reader to trace the flow of evidence, serving as a gateway to relevant literature. Most scientists are aware of citations' errors, but few appreciate the prevalence of these problems. The purpose of the present study was to examine how often frequently cited papers in biomedical scientific literature are cited inaccurately. The study included an active participation of the first authors of included papers; to first-hand verify the citations accuracy. Findings from feasibility study, where we reviewed 1540 articles containing 2526 citations of 14 most cited articles in which the authors were affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade, were further evaluated for external confirmation in an independent verification set of articles. Verification set included 4912 citations identified in 2995 articles that cited 13 most cited articles published by authors affiliated with the Mayo Clinic Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. A citation was defined as being accurate if the cited article supported or was in accordance with the statement by citing authors. At least one inaccurate citation was found in 11 and 15% of articles in the feasibility study and verification set, respectively, suggesting that inaccurate citations are common in biomedical literature. The most common problem was the citation of nonexistent findings (38.4%), followed by an incorrect interpretation of findings (15.4%). One-fifth of inaccurate citations were due to chains of inaccurate citations. Based on these findings, several actions to reduce citation inaccuracies have been proposed.

The Mentalization Scale (MentS): A Self-Report Measure for the Assessment of Mentalizing Capacity.

The psychometric properties of a new 28-item self-report measure of mentalization, the Mentalization Scale (MentS), were examined in 2 studies: with a sample of employed adults and university students (N1 = 288 + 278) and with a sample of persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and matched controls (N2 = 62 + 62). Besides the MentS, both studies employed measures of attachment and the Big Five; Study 1 also included assessments of empathy and emotional intelligence. MentS whole-scale internal consistency was good in the community and acceptable in the clinical sample (α = .84 and .75, respectively). A principal components analysis of Study 1 data yielded 3 interpretable factors, or subscales: Self-Related Mentalization (MentS-S), Other-Related Mentalization (MentS-O), and Motivation to Mentalize (MentS-M). These showed acceptable reliabilities (α = .74-.79), except for MentS-M in the clinical sample (α = .60). MentS scores further exhibited a coherent pattern of correlations with cognate constructs and the Big Five, relating positively to empathy, trait and ability emotional intelligence, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness, and negatively to attachment avoidance and anxiety, and neuroticism. Persons with BPD scored significantly lower on MentS total and MentS-S. The proposed scale is thus deemed suitable for quick, yet meaningful, assessments of mentalization in both individual differences research and clinical contexts.

Analysis of reconstructive methods in surgical treatment of nasal skin defects.

Background/Aim: Surgeons often face with the problem when selecting a reconstructive method for nasal skin defects. The aim of this study was to determine functional and aesthetic character-istics of different reconstructive methods used for skin defects in different regions of the nose. Methods: The study involved 44 patients with basocellular carcinoma in nasal area. The nasal skin was divided into four subunits: the tip, the alar lobules, the side-walls and the dorsum. The average skin defect size was 10 mm in diameter. Local flaps and full thickness skin grafts were used in the study. We analyzed the functional and esthetic results of dif-ferent reconstructive methods used for nasal defects in different regions of the nose 12 months after the surgery. Results: The study shows that different reconstructive methods produce dif-ferent functional and esthetic results in the same nasal subunits and that the same reconstructive method produces different re-sults in different nasal subunits. Conclusions: Estimation the postoperative functional and esthetic characteristics of different reconstructive methods is one of the basic preconditions of suc-cessful reconstruction.