Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice and its prevalence increases with age. Patients who develop AF also have cardiovascular risk factors, structural heart disease, and comorbidities, all of which can increase mortality. AF causes a significant economic burden with the increasing trend in AF prevalence and hospitalizations. Research Objectives: The objective of our study is to evaluate the impact of the most common known risk factors on the incidence of atrial fibrillation as an important precursor of cardiac and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality among our patients in Bosnia and Herzegovina during median follow up period (September 2006 - September 2016). The other objective is to estimate the CHA2DS2-VASc score among our patients based on clinical parameters. Patients and methods: This study includes 2352 ambulant and hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation. All patients underwent clinical evaluation which includes thorough assessment for potential risk factors and concomitant conditions in order to determine which of them represent the most common among examinees with atrial fibrillation. Results: The results show that male gender has slightly more incidence of AF. Obesity and overweight with BMI ≥ 27, cigarettes smoking and sedentary life style are almost present in patients with AF. Arterial hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic renal dysfunction, structural and valvular heart disease and peripheral vascular disease are the most common comorbidities among our patients. The mean CHA2DS2-VASc score was 3.2±1.4 and the mean HAS-BLED score was 2.1±1.2. Conclusion: Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac rhythm disorder. The study shows that obesity, alcohol consumption, smoking cigarettes and dyslipidemia can be considered as triggers and predisposing factors for appearance of AF. Arterial hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, Peripheral vascular disease and chronic kidney disease are playing important role in developing of AF.

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation represents the most common cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice. By year 2030, 14–17 million AF patients are anticipated in the European Union. Atrial fibrillation remains one of the major causes of stroke, heart failure, sudden death all over the world. Research Objectives: The objective of our study is to determine the cardiac and cerebrovascular events (myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, sudden cardiac death) and their cumulative incidence during 11 years follow up period. Patients and methods: This study includes 2352 ambulant and hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who were enrolled during the follow up period. All patients underwent clinical evaluation in order to determine cardiac and cerebrovascular events (myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, sudden cardiac death) and their cumulative incidence. Results: The results of cumulative incidence for sudden cardiac death was 1.71%, for stroke 2.56%, for myocardial infarction 1.20% and for heart failure was 5.73%. In our study the age-adjusted incidence and prevalence of AF are slightly lower in women. The study shows that the risk of death is higher in females than in males with AF. Conclusion: Despite good progress in the management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), this arrhythmia remains one of the major causes of stroke, heart failure, sudden death. Effective treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation includes not only rate control, rhythm control, and prevention of stroke, but also management of cardiovascular risk factors and concomitant diseases.

Background and aim: Hormonal and immunological aspects of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are in the past decade in focus of interest of researchers. We investigated concentrations of insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), growth hormone (GH), insulin and markers of insulin resistance as like as inflammatory markers in order to find out their role and relationship in AMI. Material and methods: A prospective study was performed at University Clinical Center Tuzla from January to October 2010. Study group was consisted of 75 patients with AMI. There were 30 healthy controls. Blood samples were taken within first 24 hours of admission and analyzed for GH, IGF-1 and insulin at the Department of Nuclear Medicine. Glucose, glycolised hemoglobin HbA1c, C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen etc. were analyzed by standard methods at Biochemistry unit. Results: Median of GH in the study group (0,96) was higher than in controls (0,26); p <0.001. Difference in median’s concentrations of IGF-1 between AMI and controls was also significant (123 vs. 132 respectively; p< 0,05) as like as IGF-1/GH ratio (p <0.001). Concentration of insulin was higher in study (9,5) than in control group (7,1), but without statistical significance. Despite this, we found out significant difference between concentrations of glucose, HOMA-IR and HbA1C among groups. Levels of CRP and fibrinogen were significantly higher in AMI. Simple linear correlation analysis showed positive correlation between GH and CRP (R 0,350255, p< 0,005). Conclusions: GH resistance in AMI (Low IGF-1/GH) is probably result of inflammatory/immunological response and therefore could be prognostic marker.

In the last two decades, visual computing provided comprehensive interpretation and visualization of cardiac images, including visualizations of the relevant anatomical and pathological structures, and enabling a faithful segmentations and representation of the area around the pathologies. Visualizations based on presegmented structures from medical images are mandatory for medical treatment in many fields. Open source and freely available applications are widespread in the research community, and by using these specialized applications, different method of Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) prototypes can be built up quickly. In this article we described the principles of CAD applications and methods by means of overview of commercial and open source software, and implementation of proposed methods for cardiac image segmentation. By using different analysis software of cardiac images, CAD prototypes can be used in clinical routines and it aims to provide a computer output as a second reader in order to assist physicians in the detection of abnormalities, quantification of disease progression and differential diagnosis of lesions. The use of CAD applications and methods, in conjunction with the physician, can reduce interpretation time and improve diagnostic specificity.