Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Elbow in Overhead Athletes: A Comprehensive Narrative Review.

Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the elbow mainly occurs in overhead athletes (OHAs). This narrative review aimed to comprehensively analyze the epidemiological data, etiological factors, clinical and imaging features, treatment options, and outcomes of OHAs with the diagnosis of elbow OCD. A literature search was performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Individuals with elbow OCD were usually 10-17 years of age with incidence and prevalence varying between studies, depending on the sport activity of the patients. The etiology of OCD lesions is multifactorial, and the main causes are believed to be repetitive trauma, the biomechanical disproportion of the articular surfaces, poor capitellar vascular supply, and inflammatory and genetic factors. Athletes usually presented with elbow pain and mechanical symptoms. The mainstay for the diagnosis of elbow OCD is MRI. The treatment of elbow OCD lesions should be conservative in cases of stable lesions, while various types of surgical treatment are suggested in unstable lesions, depending mainly on the size and localization of the lesion. The awareness of medical practitioners and the timely diagnosis of OCD lesions in OHAs are key to favorable outcomes.

Fragility spinal fractures among cirrhotic liver transplant candidates in Croatia.

INTRODUCTION: Existing data on fragility spinal fractures prevalence in liver transplant candidates are scarce and inconsistent. This may be due to other comorbidities, besides hepatic osteodystrophy (HO), that contribute to bone loss and fragility fracture prevalence in chronic liver disease (CLD). OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of spinal thoracic and lumbar fragility fractures among cirrhotic, non-chronic kidney disease (CKD), non-diabetic liver transplant candidates and to explore their relationship with clinical characteristics, laboratory markers and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) results. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted at Merkur University Hospital, Croatia, between February 2019 and May 2023. Adult patients with liver cirrhosis referred for liver transplantation were included. Patients with acute infection, CKD, diabetes mellitus, malignancies, inflammatory bone diseases and those on corticosteroid or antiresorptive therapy were excluded. Clinical, laboratory and radiological assessment was carried out and patients were accordingly allocated into non-fractured and fractured group for the purpose of statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 90 patients were included in the study. There was 123 fractures, 87 (70.7 %) in the thoracic and 36 (29.3 %) in the lumbar region. Eighty-nine (72.4 %) fractures were grade 1, 31 (25.2 %) were grade 2 and 3 (2.4 %) were grade 3. Patients in the fractured group were significantly older (p < 0.001). No significant differences between fractured and non-fractured group according to laboratory and DXA parameters were noted. Subgroup with lumbar fractures had significantly lower bone mineral density values at L1-L4 region. Statistically significant negative correlation between bone specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP) and hip total BMD (rho = -0.414, p < 0.001) and spine total BMD (rho = -0.258, p = 0.014) values was found. CONCLUSION: Present study confirmed detrimental impact of CLD and HO on bone strength. DXA measurement correlated with the presence of lumbar fragility fractures. A combination of standard X-ray imaging and DXA is needed for adequate bone evaluation in pretransplant period and BALP could be useful for detecting HO in CLD. Searching for other risk factors and implementing bone turnover markers and additional imaging techniques for bone loss evaluation in liver transplant candidates is needed.

Urothelial carcinoma in a urinary bladder diverticulum: A case report and review of the literature.

Bladder diverticula are defined as an outpouching of the mucosa into the muscle layer of the bladder wall. There is a well-known link between urinary bladder diverticula and tumors arising within the diverticula. They are rare with an incidence rate of 0.8%-10%. We report an intradiverticular urothelial carcinoma in a 72-year-old man with a known history of multiple episodes of acute urinary retention and urinary tract infections, followed by transurethral resection of the benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Prognostic factors for in-hospital mortality of patients hospitalized for acutely decompensated heart failure.

Objectives Despite improved treatment during last 20 years, prognosis for patients hospitalized for acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF) is poor and mortality rates reported for these patients are high. Laboratory results can assist clinicians in evaluation and triaging of patients on hospital admission, and are important for the medical decision-making and prognosis assessments. Recently, new guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic HF patients were published introducing a new group of patients with mid-range left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Methods In order to explore the prognostic value for the in-hospital mortality of ADHF patients we analyzed laboratory test results for 165 emergency hospitalized patients regarding the survival and LVEF. Results In-hospital mortality was 16%. Patients who died were older than survivals (p = 0.003). There were no differences in LVEF between survivals and non-survivals. Patients who survived had significantly lower N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), uric acid, urea, creatinine, and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) than patients who died (p < 0.001). All these tests had a good discrimination power between survivals and non-survivals (p < 0.001), but their incremental addition to NT-proBNP didn't improve its overall prognostic value. There was only a very weak correlation between NT-proBNP concentrations and LVEF. Groups with different LVEF status showed significant difference in number of erythrocytes, RDW and hemoglobin concentrations. Conclusions NT-proBNP had the best discriminatory power between survivals and non-survivals. Some routine laboratory test results, like RDW, uric acid, urea, and creatinine, have potentially significant value.