Potassium and its effects on human health

This paper presents the results of meta-analysis of recent scientific findings on the role of potassium (K) in human health and well-being, its health benefits and unhealthy effects

Aneurysm of internal carotid artery, which simulated paratonsillary abscess (clinical case)

This article describes a rare case of paratonsillar abscess imitation among the patients with the aneurysm of ICA. The purpose of the study is to describe the methods of this disease diagnosing using the example of a clinical case, to give a general description of this nosology occurrence frequency, and to recommend a detailed approach to the differential diagnosis among this category of patient

Tolerance to uncertainty and the choice of coping strategies in the professional activities of lawyers

The article examines the personality traits characteristic of people involved in advocacy, namely the level of tolerance to uncertainty and preferred coping strategies. It was revealed that lawyers are able to accept the tension that arises in a situation of contradictions, to resist the incoherence of information, to accept the unknown. The most common coping strategies among lawyers are considered, the connection between the acceptance of situations of uncertainty and coping is revealedВ статье рассматриваются личностные особенности, характерные для людей, занимающихся адвокатской деятельностью, а именно уровень толерантности к неопределенности и предпочтительные копинг-стратегии. Выявлено, что адвокаты способны принимать напряжение, что возникает в ситуации противоречий, противостоять несвязанности информации, принимать неизвестное. Рассмотрены наиболее часто встречающиеся среди адвокатов копинг-стратегии, выявлена связь между принятием ситуаций неопределенности и копингам

Therapy of Schizoaffective Disorder and Paranoid Schizophrenia with Episodic Course

Background. The use of atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenia contributes to the reduction of psychotic, affective, negative and cognitive disorders.Aims. To evaluate the effectiveness of ziprasidone therapy in patients with schizoaffective disorder and paranoid schizophrenia with episodic course.Materials and methods. In accordance with ICD-10 there were 14 (63.6 %) people with schizoaffective disorder (F25), 8 (36.4 %) people with paranoid schizophrenia, episodic course (F20.x1). Treatment with ziprasidone lasted 42 days. The dose of ziprasidone in 6 patients (27.3 %) was 80 mg, in 10 patients (45.5 %) – 120 mg, in 6 patients (27.3 %) – 160 mg. Evaluation of the effectiveness of ziprasidone therapy was carried out using psychometric scales (PANSS, General clinical impression scale to assess the effectiveness of therapy – CGI-S, CGI-I), adverse events were registered with the UKU scale.Results. The number of respondents was 19 (86.3 %) (reduction of the total score on the PANSS scale > 20 % of the pre-treatment level). Ziprasidone was effective in patients with schizoaffective disorder with a significant decrease in total score on PANSS subscales to the 14 th day of therapy (p < 0.05), with paranoid schizophrenia with episodic course – by the 21st day (p < 0.01). According to the CGI-S scale at the end of therapy, “borderline condition” was observed in 10 patients (52.6 %), mild severity – in 3 (15.8 %), normal condition – in 6 (31.6 %). CGI-I scale showed a significant improvement in 10 patients (52.6 %), marked improvement – in 9 patients (47.4 %). Among the mild adverse events that do not require discontinuation of the drug, we noted: weakness – in 3 patients (15.8 %), drowsiness – in 3 (15.8 %), impaired concentration – in 2 (10.5 %), orthostatic dizziness – in 2 (10.5 %), galactorrhea – in 1 (5.3 %).Conclusions. Ziprasidone is an effective antipsychotic drug that has a safe tolerability profile. It can be used in patients with schizoaffective disorders and paranoid schizophrenia with episodic course

Relationship of the Content of Systemic and Endobronchial Soluble Molecules of CD25, CD38, CD8, and HLA-I-CD8 and Lung Function Parameters in COPD Patients

© 2017 Nailya Kubysheva et al. The definition of new markers of local and systemic inflammation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the priority directions in the study of pathogenesis and diagnostic methods improvement for this disease. We investigated 91 patients with COPD and 21 healthy nonsmokers. The levels of soluble CD25, CD38, CD8, and HLA-I-CD8 molecules in the blood serum and exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in moderate-to-severe COPD patients during exacerbation and stable phase were studied. An unidirectional change in the content of sCD25, sCD38, and sCD8 molecules with increasing severity of COPD was detected. The correlations between the parameters of lung function and sCD8, sCD25, and sHLA-I-CD8 levels in the blood serum and EBC were discovered in patients with severe COPD. The findings suggest a pathogenetic role of the investigated soluble molecules of the COPD development and allow considering the content of sCD8, sCD25, and sHLA-I-CD8 molecules as additional novel systemic and endobronchial markers of the progression of chronic inflammation of this disease

The significance of soluble molecules of cellular adhesion, nitric oxide metabolites, and endothelin-1 and their associations as markers of progression of inflammation in COPD

© 2017, Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy. All rights reserved. The aim of the investigation was to assess the significance of the content of metabolites of the nitric oxide, sICAM-1 and sICAM-3 in blood serum and in exhaled breath condensate, the serum level of endothelin-1 as systemic and topical markers of inflammation in patients with COPD, and their correlations with the parameters of lung ventilation function. Materials and methods. 91 patients with COPD, aged from 46 to 67, and 21 healthy, non-smoking volunteers took part in the study. The material for investigation was blood serum and exhaled breath condensate. Results. The severity of progression of COPD was linked with an increase in the serum content of sCD50, sCD54, ET-1, as well as in the concentrations of metabolites of nitric oxide in blood and in exhaled breath condensate. For the patients with COPD we determined the associations between the function of pulmonary ventilation and the levels of ET-1, sICAM-1, sICAM-3 and the value of ΣNO – 2 /NO – 3 . The resulting correlations between the concentration of soluble adhesion molecules, the values of nitrosative stress, and ET-1 level indicate that they are involved in the genesis of chronic inflammation in COPD patients

Body Height of Children with Bronchial Asthma of Various Severities

© 2017 Tatiana I. Eliseeva et al. Influence of bronchial asthma (BA) severity on physical development in children patients was evaluated in comparison with healthy population. Materials and Methods. 1042 children and adolescents (768 boys) with atopic BA were evaluated. All children underwent standard examination in a clinical setting, including anthropometry. The control group included 875 healthy children of a comparable age (423 boys). Results. The fraction of patients with the normal, lower, and increased height among the whole group of patients with BA is close to the corresponding values in the healthy population (χ 2 =3.32, p=0.65). The fraction of BA patients with the reduced physical development is increased monotonically and significantly when the BA severity increases: healthy group, 8.2% (72/875), BA intermittent, 4.2% (6/144), BA mild persistent 9% (47/520), BA moderate persistent, 11.7% (36/308), and BA severe persistent, 24.3% (17/70) (χ 2 =45.6, p=0,0009). Conclusion. The fraction of the children with the reduced height is increased monotonically and significantly in the groups of increasing BA severities. At the same time, the fraction of such children in groups of intermittent and mild persistent BA practically does not differ from the conditionally healthy peers

Relative body mass index as a new tool for nutritional status assessment in children and adolescents with bronchial asthma

© 2017, Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy. All rights reserved.The aim of the investigation was to estimate the possibilities of using relative body mass index (RBMI) for determining age- and gender-specific aspects of nutritional status in children and adolescents with bronchial asthma (BA) of different severity degrees. Materials and Methods. The study involved 887 children and adolescents with BA of different severities, aged 5–17 years (61– 215 months), of them 655 were boys. Their body mass index (BMI) was evaluated based on the Z-score criterion and nutritional status was determined as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). To unify nutritional status assessment in patients of different age and gender groups, there was introduced RBMI representing the ratio of the patient’s BMI to gender- and age-specific median BMI value presented in the WHO reference data. Results. Nutritional status and its relation to BA were studied in children and adolescents using two parameters: the standard nutritional status indicator based on BMI Z-scores as recommended by WHO, and a new parameter, RBMI, representing the ratio of the patient’s BMI to gender- and age-specific median BMI value recommended by WHO. No significant nutritional status differences were found in the studied sample of patients with various degrees of BA severity. There was revealed a tendency to a decrease in the proportion of children with normal body weight and an increase in the proportion of overweight children as BA severity increased, χ2=26.82; р=0.08. Conclusion. Using RBMI for assessment of BA patients makes it possible to significantly facilitate clinical data analysis and obtain new data unavailable when standard parameters are applied

Transcriptome profile of yeast reveals the essential role of PMA2 and uncharacterized gene YBR056W-A (MNC1) in adaptation to toxic manganese concentration

© The Royal Society of Chemistry.Adaptation of S. cerevisiae to toxic concentrations of manganese provides a physiological model of heavy metal homeostasis. Transcriptome analysis of adapted yeast cells reveals upregulation of cell wall and plasma membrane proteins including membrane transporters. The gene expression in adapted cells differs from that of cells under short-term toxic metal stress. Among the most significantly upregulated genes are PMA2, encoding an ortholog of Pma1 H+-ATPase of the plasma membrane, and YBR056W-A, encoding a putative membrane protein Mnc1 that belongs to the CYSTM family and presumably chelates manganese at the cell surface. We demonstrate that these genes are essential for the adaptation to toxic manganese concentration and propose an extended scheme of manganese detoxification in yeast

Комплексная оценка уровня контроля над бронхиальной астмой у детей на основе определения содержания метаболитов оксида азота в конденсате выдыхаемого воздуха и спирографических параметров

Summary. The aim of this study was to estimate a prognostic value of nitric oxide metabolites (NOM) in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) as a marker of asthma control level. We examined 243 patients (of them, 162 males) aged 5 to 17 yrs with atopic asthma. Some of the patients were treated with corticosteroids (CS), others had not been never treated with CS (steroid-naive patients). Asthma control was assessed using the ACQ-5 questionnaire, the EBC NOM total concentration was measured with the Griess-Ilosvay's method modified by S.Soodaeva. In patients with good asthma control, EBC NOM concentration was 6.41 Ѓ} 2.33 μmol / L compared to 8.40 Ѓ} 2.59 μmol / L in patients with partial control and 8.47 Ѓ} 2.77 μmol / L in patients with poor control (р < 0.00001 for both). The EBC NOM concentration from the steroid-naive patients was significantly higher than that from the patients treated with CS. A correlation was found between ACQ-5 score and the total EBC NOM concentration in the whole cohort of patients (r = 0.30, p < 0.00001), in steroid-naive patients (r = 0.42, p < 0.00001), and in patients treated with CS (r = 0.43; p < 0.00001). Discriminant analysis was performed in patients with well controlled asthma and in a combined group of patients with partial and poor asthma control to estimate a prognostic value of EBC NOM and FEV1 as markers of asthma control level. The EBC NOM total concentration predicted asthma control in 63 % of the whole cohort, 75 % of the steroid-naive patients and in 70 % of the patients treated with CS. FEV1 predicted asthma control in 77.3 %, 75% and 74.75% of patients, respectively. Combination of EBC NOM total concentration and FEV1 predicted asthma control in 78.92 %, 79.44 % and 82.83 % of patients, respectively. Therefore, combination of EBC NOM total concentration and FEV1 is predictive for asthma control in 80 % of children with atopic asthma