PURPOSE Hematotoxicity following anti-cancer treatment is known to be related to treatment efficacy in several malignancies. The purpose of this study was to examine the hematologic parameters related to the tumor response and survival in patients treated with curative surgery following preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for rectal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Four hundred eighteen patient...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive pulmonary disease characterized by systemic inflammation. The aim of this study was to correlate the parameters of systemic inflammation, C-reactive protein (CPR) and total leukocyte count, with clinical indicators of the disease. Our study included 157 COPD patients, both outpatients and those hospitalized at the Knez Selo Departmen...

Many risk factors for atherosclerosis have been proposed to identify high risk individuals. We conducted a retrospective study to determine the risk factors for development of carotid stenosis (CS) in Koreans. Database of 2,805 subjects who underwent a check up of carotid artery for health examination were analyzed. Stenosis (%) of common carotid artery or proximal internal carotid artery was e...

BACKGROUND Since delayed diagnosis and treatment of bacterial meningitis worsens patient prognosis, clinicians have a low threshold to perform a lumbar puncture or to start empiric antibiotic treatment in patients suspected of having meningitis. OBJECTIVE To develop a decision rule, including cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices and clinical characteristics, to determine whether empiric antibiot...

PURPOSE To investigate the prognostic value of leukocyte and neutrophil count as biomarkers in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) undergoing exclusive chemoradiation. RESULTS A total of 126 patients were identified. Respectively, 33% and 35% displayed baseline leukocytosis and neutrophilia. Estimated 3-year OS and PFS from chemoradiation completion were 31...

OBJECTIVES Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common indication for emergency abdominal surgery, although it remains difficult to diagnose. In this study, we investigated the the clinical utility of mean platelet volume in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. METHODS The medical records of 241 patients who had undergone appendectomy between June 2013 and March 2014 were investigated retrospe...

BACKGROUND Priapism was associated with certain hematological parameters in sickle cell anemia (SCA) patients in one report but not in another. We studied differences in haematological parameters between SCA patients with and without priapism. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighteen patients with SCA who presented with acute priapism during the years 2001-2004 were compared with age- and sex-matched SC...

BACKGROUND In the hypertensive small vessel disease (HSVD), it remains unclear why some patients develop lacunar infarcts (LIs) whilst others develop deep intracerebral hemorrhages (dICHs). Inflammation might be related to LI, and leukocyte and monocyte counts are regarded as an inflammatory marker of ischemic stroke. OBJECTIVE We investigated the relationship between leukocyte and monocyte c...

To the Editor: hypocellular marrow. Detailed information on the mode of death, disease status at death, and principal and contributory causes of death was extracted from a prospective database to ensure the In a study of considerable practical relevance, Offner et al have exclusion of patients dying of infections or hemorrhage secondary shown that from 15 days after autologous or allogeneic bon...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Acute leukocytosis is a well-established response to intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Leukocytes, because of their interaction with platelets and coagulation factors, may in turn play a role in hemostasis. We investigated whether admission leukocytosis was associated with reduced bleeding after acute ICH. METHODS Consecutive patients with primary ICH were prospectively c...