Faculty of Medicine

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Author: search.filters.author.Nikolic, JadrankaHas files: No

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    Item type:Publication,
    Visceral Leishmaniasis in the Republic of North Macedonia: A Retrospective Cohort Study
    (Galenos Yayinevi, 2025-11-11)
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    Khezzani, Bachir
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    Cana, Fadil
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    Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a systemic protozoan vector-borne disease and represents the most severe clinical form of leishmaniasis, with fatal outcomes if left untreated. This study aimed to evaluate the key epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings, treatment options, and outcomes in patients with VL. Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 84 patients diagnosed and treated for VL at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia (RNM), between 2001 and 2023. Results The median age of patients was 47 years (range 1-74), with 77.4% being male. Contact with dogs was reported in 41.7% of cases. Seven percent of patients were immunosuppressed, and all were Human Immunodeficiency Virus-negative. The median time from symptom onset to diagnosis was 30 days (range 4-330 days). The predominant clinical manifestations were splenomegaly (97.6%), fever (96.4%), hepatomegaly (90.5%), and weight loss (54.8%). On admission, anemia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and hypergammaglobulinemia were detected in 75%, 73.8%, 70.2%, and 63.1% of patients, respectively. A favorable outcome was achieved in 91.7% of cases; therapeutic failure occurred in 1.2%, and 7.1% of patients died. Conclusion VL should be considered a crucial differential diagnosis in patients from the RNM presenting with prolonged unexplained fever, splenomegaly, cytopenia, and hypergammaglobulinemia.
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    Hybrid peer-reviewed journals and publishing model: Bias or impartiality in editorial policy
    (Pensoft Publishers, 2025-03-24)
    Khezzani, Bachir
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    Nikolic, Jadranka
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    Tsachev, Ilia
    In recent years, there has been a significant increase in scientific productivity—an increased number of published original articles, reviews, short communications, case reports, and letters to the editor. In this regard, there is a large number of peer-reviewed journals in all fields of scientific knowledge, including in the field of biomedical sciences. Many studies indicate the existence of so-called journal editorial board bias and acknowledge the difficulty of eliminating it. We present our brief opinion on an important topic such as how publishing policy in some peer-reviewed journals leads to feelings of bias and inequality among authors and how to address this.