Introduction and aim: Materia Socio-Medica is one of the oldest public health journals in Europe, established in 1978, and among the most important journals for public health in South-Eastern Europe. The Journal covers all important public health professional, academic and research areas in this field. The aim of the paper is to analyze the journal articles and statistical facts in 2016 and to point out the directions for action and planned further activities for improving the quality of the published papers and visibility of the journal. Methods: Review and analysis of documentation and production of the journal, evidence of submitted and rejected manuscripts and published papers in 2016. Results: Total number of 111 articles was published in Materia Socio-Medica during 2016. The most of them were original articles (64,5%). Articles from the fields of Health promotion and prevention were predominant (82,7%), which is one of the primary scope of the journal. Authors of the published articles in 2016 are dispersed to three continents (Europe, Asia and North America) and 15 different countries. The largest number of articles was submitted by authors from the country of origin of the journal, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The acceptance rate of Materia Socioi-Medica in 2016 was 35.7%. Total number of 116 reviewers participated in the manuscript review process in 2016. Conclusion: Materia Socio-Medica will continue to improve the quality of the published papers in 2017 and beyond through education of potential authors, reviewers and Editorial Board members, quality selection of reviewers, supportive editing of articles, and clearly defining instructions and ethical standards of the journal.

Professor Mladen Petrovecki died on August 30th in 2016. He was born in Zagreb in 1960. Mladen graduated from high school in 1979 in Zagreb, Croatia, and enrolled the School of Medicine at University of Zagreb...

Education means: learning, teaching or the process of acquiring skills or behavior modification through various exercises. Traditionally, medical education meant the oral, practical and more passive transferring of knowledge and skills from the educators to students and health professionals. Today the importance of focus on educational quality, particularly in the professions operating in the services required by people is agreed by all involved. The higher educational system shoulders some critical responsibilities in the economic, social, cultural and educational development and growth in the communities. In countries that are in transition it is in charge of educating professional human workforce in every field and if the education is optimal in terms of quality, it is capable of carrying out its responsibilities. It is reason why there is the necessity behind discovering some strategies to uplift the quality of education, especially at university level.. By increasing the courses and establishing universities and higher education centers, the countries around the world have generated more opportunities for learning, especially using modern information technologies. Regarding to evaluating different educational services quality, one of the most important measures should be the way to develop programs to promote quality and also due to the shortage of resources, evaluating the services quality enables the management to allocate the limited financial resources for realization whole educational process. Advances in medicine in recent decades are in significant correlation with the advances in the new models and concepts of medical education supported by information technologies. Modern information technologies have enabled faster, more reliable and comprehensive data collection. These technologies have started to create a large number of irrelevant information, which represents a limiting factor and a real growing gap, between the medical knowledge on one hand, and the ability of students and physicians to follow its growth on the other. Furthermore, in our environment, the term technology is generally reserved for its technical component. This terminology essentially means not only the purchase of the computer and related equipment, but also the technological foresight and technological progress, which are defined as specific combination of fundamental scientific, research and development work that gives a concrete result. The quality of the teaching-learning process at the universities in former Yugoslav countries and abroad, depends mainly of infrastructure that includes an optimal teaching space, personnel and equipment, in accordance with existing standards and norms at the cantonal or entity level, which are required to implement adequately the educational curriculum for students from first to sixth year by Bologna studying concept. For all of this it is necessary to ensure adequate funding. Technologies (medical and information, including communications) have a special role and value in ensuring the quality of medical education at universities and their organizational units (faculties). “Splitska inicijativa” project, which started 6 years ago as simple intention to exchange experiences of application new model of education, based on: Bologna studying concept, and other types of under and postgraduate education, was good idea to improve also theory and practice of it within Family medicine as academic and scientific discipline. This year scope of our scientific meeting held in Sarajevo on 24th and 25th March 2017, was quality assessment of theoretical and practical education and, also, evaluation of knowledge by students exams (a-y).

Referring to the current research and expertise of the world’s leading experts in the fields of public, global, physical and social health - in both developed and underdeveloped nations, the book: GLOBAL POPULATION HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN THE 21st CENTURY; presents evidence-based review of the challenges that face the global population of the 21st century in the field of health and wellbeing. The history of modern Homo sapiens - us! –is short, although this our small and fragile planet exists and existed for billions of years, and the universe is even older and is constantly expanding. History of scientific approach for caring of the sick is precisely determined. Going back in history, it is interesting to know that just from some 70 years ago, we can treat infections by effective drugs, antibiotics...

John Anderson, MD, MA BSc, MRCP, FRCP, was professor of medicine at King’s College Hospital Medical School. He was essentially an innovator and pioneered developments in metabolic medicine, medical education and medical computing (1-3).

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the digestive tract and are generally asymptomatic. A 39-year-old female patient was hospitalized in 2012 at Clinical Department of Internal Medicine, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Center, for a focal hypodense irregular circular lesion located in segment III of the left hepatic lobe, accidentally found by ultrasonography and verified by computed tomography. The findings were also verified with nuclear magnetic resonance and esophagogastroduodenoscopy. A biopsy sample of the lesion was analyzed by histologic and immunohistochemical methods and identified as GIST. The patient underwent surgical operation (tumor excision with terminoterminal anastomosis created between the second segment of duodenum and jejunum and resection of liver segment III). The histopathologic findings matched GIST with a high probability of relapse according to the localization, size, mitotic activity and Ki-67 values. Therefore, therapy with imatinib at a dose of 400 mg/day was administered. Three years after the operation, the patient is still in remission.

Introduction: In recent years the quality of life of patients is very important in monitoring the treatment and therapeutic procedure success. It has become a significant factor in assessing the therapeutic procedure accomplishment, and for the first time the patient alone can access the success of the respective therapy. Cancer of the oral cavity is one of the most common cancers of the head and neck, and is one of the ten most common causes of death in the world. In the majority of cases, cancer of the oral cavity is detected in an advanced stage when therapeutic options are reduced, and the prognosis is much worse. Cancer of the oral cavity is 10 times more common in men. Assessment of quality of life should be an indicator of the multidisciplinary treatment success and it should point to areas in which the affected person requires support. Aim of the study: To examine the quality of life of patients with oral cavity cancer. Materials and methods: The study was conducted at the Clinic of Maxillofacial Surgery of the Clinical Center University of Sarajevo (CCUS), through a survey on patients with verified oral cavity cancer, questionnaire related to socio-demographic characteristics of the patients and the University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire (UW-QOL). The results were included in the database and statistically processed in the SPSS program, 19.0 version for Windows. Afterwards, the results were thoroughly analyzed and documented, presented in absolute numbers and statistical values using statistical indicators in simple and understandable tables and figures. Results: The study results showed that out of the total score of 100, the median value of quality of life of patients with oral cavity cancer, for the physical health component in the definition of quality was M=69.75 ±29.12 and for social-emotional health M=65.11 ± 27.47. Conclusion: This could be considered as satisfactory quality of life, in the sphere above half of the rating scale, although both values significantly deviate from the UW-QOL scale norm. Physical and socio-emotional health components are in a strong positive correlation, R2=0.750, p=0.0001.

Summary The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire – Short Form is the most often used scale for measuring the quality of life of patients with psychiatric diseases. The aim of this research was to analyze the possibilities for measuring the quality of life in clinical conditions on the sample of patients with schizophrenia by using this scale. The study was conducted on the group including 153 patients with schizophrenia at the Institution for Accommodation of Adults “Male Pčelice”, Kragujevac. The study was observational and cross-sectional. The reliability of questionnaire was examined by using Cronbach’s alpha. The two tests of factor analysis adequacy were used, Spherical Bartlett’s Test and Keiser-Meyer-Olkin test (sampling adequacy). Validation was performed by calculating the correlation (validation by criteria). The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire – Short Form was reliable (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.730) and valid. According to Catell criterion two domains were applied. This two-component solution explained the total of 37.80% variance, whereby the contribution of the first domain was 27.1% and the second 10.7%. The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire – Short Form is suitable for everyday clinical evaluation of the patients with schizophrenia.

Summary Anxiety, depression and fear in general are the most common emotional problems in people with cancer and it is necessary to recognize them. The patients’ attitude towards the side effects of chemotherapy has changed significantly in recent years and psychological effects, rather than physiological ones, are becoming increasingly important. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a reliable questionnaire that can measure cancer patients’ fear of the chemotherapy side effects (CheSeFS). A cross-sectional observational study involved 208 oncology and haematology patients at the Clinical Centre of Kragujevac, Serbia and the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Vojvodina in Sremska Kamenica. The internal reliability of the questionnaire was estimated by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient, while the external reliability was calculated by the split-half method with approximately the same number of respondents. In order to test the construct validity of the CheSeFS, all participants filled out the Scale of Depression, Anxiety and Stress-21 (DASS-21) and the Short Subjective Well-being Scale (SSWS), validated in Serbian language. Cronbach’s α coefficient reveals strong internal consistency, with a value of 0.922. The questionnaire demonstrated good structure and uniformity when randomly split into two parts. Exploratory component analysis revealed two factors with the same number of items that explain 61.691% of variance. The components are objective physiological effects of the treatment, and factor that depends on the patient’s psychological and sociological status, with approximately the same percentage of variance. The CheSeFS was positively correlated with the DASS-21 scale (ϱ = 0.595, p = 0.000). CheSeFS is a unique, reliable and valid two-factor 14-item instrument, a clinically useful tool to assess fear of the chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients.

Introduction: Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)represents hemorrhage in the space between arachnoidea and pia mater, due to aneurysm burst, spontaneously or as a consequence of trauma. It is condition that occurs more common in women than men, and its most common complications are rebleeding and vazospasm. As a result of vasospasm, develops ischemia in the portion of brain tissue that can cause additional neurological deficit. Transcranial Doppler Sonography (TCD) is a noninvasive ultrasound diagnostic method that allows monitoring of the state of intracerebral hemodynamics. Goal: The goal is to follow the occurrence of vasospasm after SAH, by the TCD method. Material and methods: We have analyzed 47 patients with SAH, by analyzing the presence of aneurysm, hypertension and smoking, and by the TCD method monitor the state of intracerebral hemodynamics during the first four days, then in the second and third week. Results: SAH was more common in women (61.7%) than men (38.3%), and in the age range from 22 to 64 years. Aneurism was demonstrated in 61.7% of patients, more common in women, with hypertension 68.1% also more common in women and smoking in 87.2% of patients, also more common in women. By TCD method are recorded milder, elevated blood flow velocities at a quarter of patients in the first measurement, during the second measurement at all and it had significantly greater value, and the third measurement also more increased in about a quarter of patients, so that there is a statistically significant difference in the first and second, second and third measurement for each vessel separately, but not between the first and third measurement. Conclusion: Predilection factors for SAH are aneurysms, hypertension and smoking. By using TCD method were recorded milder elevated blood flow velocity in the first days of SAH, with about a quarter of patients, significantly greater increase in blood flow velocity during the second week in all patients and also milder increase blood flow velocity in the third week of the start of SAH is a quarter of patients. TCD is the method of choice in the evaluation and management of vasospasm after SAH, which allows the prevention of delayed cerebral ischemia.

Aim: The aim of this study is to prove the advantages of combined use of T2 weighted three dimensional (T2 W 3D) and T1 weighted three dimensional contrast medium enhanced (T1 W 3D CE) magnetic resonance (MR) urography in displaying urinary tract in child population. Material and methods: Total of 120 patients were included in the study, 71 (59%) male patients and 49 (41%) female patients. The study was conducted on the Radiology clinic, University of Sarajevo Clinical Center, during the period from February to November 2016. Patients were examined on the 1.5T and 3T MRI, with standard protocol which includes T2 W 3D and T1 W 3D contrast medium enhanced MR urography. In the post procesing quantitative measurement of signal intensity and evaluation of the display quality in the area of renal pelvis, middle of ureter and the mouth of the ureter were done. Measurement was concluded on Syngo software B13. Results: Analyzing the acquired data and statistically processing them we got results which have shown higher signal intensity of measured structures on T1 W 3D contrast medium enhanced MR urography on the level p<0.01 and p<0.05 compared to T2 W 3D MR urography in patients that had normal dynamics of contrast medium secretion. However, in kidneys with decreased function, T2 W 3D MR urography provided higher signal intensity and better display compared to T1 W 3D contrast medium enhanced MR urography on the level p<0.05 and p<0.01. Conclusion: T2 W3D MR urography is useful in imaging nonfunctional kidney as well as in patients prone to allergic reactions, where as T1 W3D CE MR urography is at an advantage over T2 W 3D MR urography in imaging the kidney functionality, kidney dynamics measurement, it provides higher MRI signal intensity required for clear 3D reconstructions.