The search for new anticancer agents with improved efficacy and reduced toxicity has intensified interest in metal-based compounds. In this study, two novel palladium(II) complexes, synthesized from Schiff base ligands derived from 5-chloro-salicylaldehyde and p-hydroxybenzylamine or tyramine, were chemically characterized and biologically evaluated. Both complexes exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line in a dose- and time-dependent manner, with Pd2 showing slightly higher potency. Morphological analysis of treated cells indicated that apoptosis is the predominant mechanism of cell death. To gain deeper insight into the potential mechanisms underlying the observed anticancer activity, several biologically relevant targets were investigated. Enzyme kinetics revealed that the complexes act as uncompetitive inhibitors of liver catalase, suggesting a possible role in the induction of oxidative stress. Fluorescence studies demonstrated that Pd2 interacts with CT-DNA through combined intercalative and minor groove binding modes and exhibits significant binding affinity toward human serum albumin, predominantly at Sudlow’s site I. Molecular docking analysis further supported favorable interactions with catalase, estrogen receptor α, and B-form DNA, providing structural insight into the experimentally observed biological effects. Overall, the study explores multiple potential mechanisms of anticancer action, underscoring the promising therapeutic potential of these palladium(II) complexes, while antitumor activity has been initially assessed using a MCF-7 cell line as a preliminary model.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) continues to pose one of the most significant challenges in maternal health, affecting nearly 40% of pregnant women worldwide according to the World Health Organization (2023).  Despite advances in obstetric screening, conventional diagnostic methods such as complete blood count (CBC) tests often fail to detect early or latent stages of anemia due to physiological changes associated with pregnancy.  This study introduces a robust machine learning framework integrating Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Conditional Tabular Generative Adversarial Networks (CTGAN) for the early detection of IDA in pregnant women. Our approach addresses the class imbalance inherent in clinical datasets and incorporates trimester-specific hematological adaptations.  Using 3,944 anonymized clinical records from ASA Hospital Sarajevo (January–July 2025), we evaluated model performance across hematological features commonly used in obstetric care. The optimized model achieved a precision of 100%, recall of 65.2%, specificity of 100%, and an AUC-ROC of 0.8686. Comparative analysis against conventional CBC screening, which reached only 40.5% sensitivity, demonstrated significant improvement in detection reliability. These findings demonstrate the potential of AI-enhanced diagnostics to support early detection of IDA in pregnant women, reduce missed diagnoses, and strengthen clinical decision-making. Further multi-center validation and integration of additional biomarkers are recommended to confirm generalizability.

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Objective: Expenditures for drugs are increasingly burdening already insufficient funds for health protection. This is especially evident in less developed European countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. The question is whether such analyses can help save funds for financing treatment for diseases, with an emphasis on a more rational choice of drug for appropriate indication, whereby clinical complications of hypertension would be prevented and patients would have quality of their lives improved. Aim: Focus of research has been set on analysis of use of antihypertensive drugs in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the time-period January 2013–March 2015. Use of all drugs for treatment of hypertension in that time-period in the country has been shown in an unbiased manner. Methods: The study is designed as retrospective-prospective comparative research of use of antihypertensive drugs in BiH in a certain time-period. Data are collected from relevant drug utilisation database which has been established in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2013. Results: We have calculated financial expenditure for prescribed antihypertensives in the time- period of 2013, 2014 and Q1 2015. Use of antihypertensives at the country level for this time-period is BAM 200,242,218. At the country level, physicians are most often opting for combination therapy: ACE inhibitors + diuretics (20.2%) and ACE inhibitors + Ca channel antagonists (18.0%). Conclusion: In this research, it has been shown that modern drugs are used for treatment of hypertension in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These drugs are used in the same order as they are prescribed in developed countries.

Objective: to determine ascites and serum sodium significance in short term mortality prediction in patients with advanced liver cirrhosis. Methods: a cohort of 115 cirrhotic patients referred to our Department were followed up for 6 months in non-transplant settings. The c index equivalent to the area under the receiver operating curve (ROC) was calculated and compared to estimate the short-term prognostic accuracy of the following parameters: ascites, serum sodium and MELD score. Results: in patients with a MELD score less than 21, ascites and low serum sodium (c index 0,687, p<0 0,001 and 0,748, p<0,001 respectively) showed better prognostic accuracy and were independent predictors of mortality. For MELD scores above 21, only MELD was an independent mortality prognostic factor (c index 0,710, p<0,001). Conclusion: in our study, sample ascites and low serum sodium help identify patients with advanced liver disease who are at high risk of mortality despite low MELD scores. These parameters should be considered as additional prognostic parameters that could improve available treatment options and outcomes in this group of patients.

Immunoregulatory cytokines influence the persistence of hepatitis C virus chronic infection and the extent of liver damage. Interleukin-1 plays an important role in the inflammatory process. Some studies have demonstrated that IL-1 production was impaired in patients with chronic infections of hepatitis C virus, implying that IL-1 may play a role in viral clearance. In this study, along with routine laboratory tests, has been performed the analysis of serum levels of proinflammatory cytokine IL-1α in order of better understanding and monitoring of chronic hepatitis C. The aim of study was to analyze the usefulness of laboratory tests, which are routinely used in the assessment of liver disease with specified immunological parameters, in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Total of 60 subjects were divided into two groups: HCV-PCR positive and negative group. The control group of 30 healthy participans was included. Apart from standard laboratory tests, the analysis included serum levels of cytokine IL-1α. IL-1α had the highest mean concentration in group of viral hepatitis C, with PCR positive test (5.73 pg/mL), and then in of chronic viral hepatitis C, PCR negative test (5.39 pg/mL). ANOVA test proves that IL-1α in the healthy group was different from other groups as follows: in relation to HCV-RNA-PCR positive patients statistical significance level was p < 0.001 (F = 32,755); in relation to HCV-RNA-PCR negative was also statistically significant at p < 0.001 (F = 182,361); Cytokine IL-1 was statistically analyzed separately and compared by group 1 and 2 using Student t-test for independent samples. Statistical significance was observed at p = 0.026. IL-1α was positively correlated with the duration of the illness (p < 0.01) and with serum ALT activity (p < 0.01) and serum AST activity (p < 0.01). Using multivariate analysis model "Factor Analysis", was made significant stratification predic- tive parameters in relation to the cytokine IL-1α, stratified significance is indicated as follows: 1. Age, 2. history of receiv- ing transfusions, 3. ALT 4. AST, 5. MELD score (negative), 6. Child-Pugh score (negative). IL-1α was significantly ele- vated in inflammatory conditions of pronounced activity (PCR positive hepatitis). IL-1α may have important role as marker of both inflammation and hepatic injury, particularly in the course of hepatitis C. Results suggest that inflammatory and immune parameters, analyzed together can significantly contribute to the understanding and predicting of chronic liver damage.

Chronic pancreatitis is defined as a continuous inflammatory pancreatic disease, one characterized by irreversible morphological changes, often associates with pain and sometimes with the loss of endocrine and exocrine function. As a histological confirmation of chronic pancreatitis is often unavailable, the diagnosis is traditionally based on imaging methods such as computerized tomography (CT) or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and recently magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) as a noninvasive alternative to ERCP. Developments in the classification system of CP include the Marseille classification of 1963 which offered histopathologic criteria for CP, the Cambridge classification of 1984 which introduced imaging features of computed tomography (CT), transabdominal ultrasound (TUS) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for classification of CP as well as Rosemont classification system of 2007 which presented the endoscopic ultrasonography diagnosis of CP. Endoscopic ultra-sonography (EUS) was first introduced as a diagnostic method for evaluation of pancreatic disease in 1986. It has experienced significant improvements since then and allowed for an alternative approach in diagnosing patients with pancreatic diseases. In patients with suspected pancreatic masses EUS-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is the best method for obtaining tissue diagnosis and differentiating CP from pancreatic carcinoma. The recent studies indicate that EUS is the method of choice when compared with other imaging methods such as ERCP because it frequently provides more accurate diagnostics. The aim of this review is to discuss the findings in endoscopic diagnostics up to the present moment and to indicate advantages, limitations and possible complications along with the current recommendations in CP diagnostics.

Background: Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is considered to be the most precise method for locoregional staging, was commonly used for differentiating mucosal lesions from submucosal lesions. By contrast, computed tomography (CT) was used to detect the presence of distant metastasis. Both are valuable tools for the pre-operative evaluation of gastric cancer. With the introduction of new therapeutic options and the recent improvements in CT technology, further evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of EUS and multidetector CT (MDCT) is needed. Aim: The present study was conducted to compare the staging accuracy of EUS with that of MDCT in series of patients and to evaluate their usefulness in association with the clinicopathological factors. Patients and Methods: In total, 277 patients with gastric lesions who underwent EUS and CT, hospitalized at Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Clinical Center, University of Sarajevo. The results from the pre-operative EUS and MDCT were compared with the post-operative pathological findings. Results: Among the 277 patients, the overall accuracy of EUS and MDCT for T staging was 74.7% and 76.9%, respectively. Among the 141 patients with visualized primary lesions on MDCT, the overall accuracy of EUS and MDCT for T staging was 61.7% and 63.8%, respectively. The overall accuracy for N staging was 66% and 62.8%, respectively. The performance of EUS and MDCT for large lesions and lesions at the cardia and angle had significantly lower accuracy than that of other groups. For EUS, the early gastric cancer lesions with ulcerative changes had significantly lower accuracy than those without ulcerative changes. Conclusions: For the pre-operative assessment of individual T and N staging in patients with gastric cancer, the accuracy of MDCT was close to that of EUS. Both EUS and MDCT are useful complementary modalities for the locoregional staging of gastric cancer.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of death from cancer. Only complete resection of all gross disease with negative microscopic margins (R0 resection) provides a long-term survival benefit, and the overall 5-year relative survival rate is approximately 20%. To improve survival and quality of life, new therapeutic approaches have been introduced. Material and methods: A total of 277 patients (171 men, 106 women) were included in this analysis. The results from the preoperative EUS and MDCT were compared to the postoperative pathological findings. A radial scanning ultrasonic endoscope was used. In patients with early gastric cancer, especially in cases confined to mucosa, endoscopic resection is performed to avoid unnecessary surgical procedures. To achieve R0 resection for locally-advanced gastric cancer, neoadjuvant treatments have been investigated. Results and discussion: Laparoscopic surgery has been shown to improve quality of life for both early and locally advanced gastric cancer. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), which is considered to be the most precise method for locoregional staging, was commonly used for differentiating mucosal lesions from submucosal lesions. By contrast, computed tomography (CT) was used to detect the presence of distant metastasis. The difference in accuracy between the ≤20-mm group and other groups was statistically significant for both EUS and MDCT (P = 0.026 and P = 0.044, respectively). Conclusion: However, recent technological advances with the helical and multi-detector scanners have provided better CT performance.