Design of deep excavations according to Eurocode 7

The paper presents the procedure of introducing Eurocode 7 into the design practice in Poland. Within the paper, currently used design methods have been compared to new ones, which will be soon used together with the introduction of Eurocodes. In order to make the comparison, numerical analysis has been performed on two simple example cases presented by the committee ERTC-10 „Evaluation of Eurocode 7”. That gave authors an opportunity to assess and compare properly different design approaches – up-to-date and new, now being introduced. Final conclusions and issues open for further discussion have been presented in the end of the paper

Breakfast and other meal consumption in adolescents from Southern Poland

The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of breakfast and other meal consumption by adolescents and to assess the relationship between the first and the last meal consumption and sex, body mass index (BMI), and middle school and high school students’ education level. The study was conducted in 2013–2014 among 3009 students (1658 girls and 1351 boys) from middle s and high schools in Krakow and Silesia (Poland). The data was obtained from questionnaires that were analyzed with a logistic regression model for measurable and dichotomous variables. Breakfast consumers were seen to eat other meals (second breakfast, lunch, dessert, supper) significantly more often than breakfast skippers. The main meal consumption habits depend on sex and change as adolescents age. Being a girl and a high school student predisposed participants to skip breakfast and supper more often. The BMI of breakfast consumers does not differ significantly from the BMI of breakfast skippers, so BMI might thus not be a sufficient marker of breakfast consumption regularity and dietary habits in an adolescent group. The importance of regularly eaten meals, especially breakfast, together with adequate daily dietary energy intake are beneficial for physical and psychological development and cannot be overestimated in nutritional education and it is necessary to promote healthy eating behavior for well-being in later adult life

Hand function improving in patients with cerebral palsy

The hand is an organ of our body that fulfills a lot of different functions. Through efficiently functioning upper limbs, we experience and learn, communicate with the world, and gain independence. In the cerebral palsy, the role of the therapist is to properly plan the hand therapy process, it requires him to have a good knowledge of what MPD is, which is associated with movement symptoms and coexisting disorders that affect the child's abnormal development. The physiotherapist must properly assess the child's functional level, anticipate and plan therapy so that the child reaches its maximum development potential. This is not an easy task because virtually every child with cerebral palsy is different, other are its movement limitations, accompanying symptoms and the environment in which he is brought up

Physiotherapy treatement of patients with perinatal brachial plexus injury

Perinatal brachial plexus injury are usually a consequence of shoulder dystocia during childbirth, after the birth of the head there are difficulties with the birth of the shoulders. In this situation, childbirth is stopped and the shoulders of the fetus are not born spontaneously. The development of medicine provides patients with access to many methods of treating this injury. An interdisciplinary team of specialists is needed to minimize the negative effects of damage that are perceived by the patient, sometimes throughout life. Knowledge about physiotherapy in perinatal damage of the shoulder plexus is of great importance for the future of a child who suffered perinatal trauma to the shoulder plexus. Therefore, this topic should be constantly developed and re-examined so that in the future we can provide patients with multi-specialist care

Altered functional brain imaging in migraine patients: BOLD preliminary study in migraine with and without aura

Design. Migraine is regarded as a complex brain dysfunction of sensory and modulatory networks with the secondary sensitisation of the trigeminal system as well as the affected brain area’s activities. The particular role of the hippocampus and the brainstem in the first phase of the attack, the disrupted cognitive network, and the activation of the limbic and visual systems, are the main discoveries in the field of migraine imaging that have been achieved using functional techniques. Thus advanced neuroimaging has been widely employed to study the pathogenesis of migraine. Objective. The evaluation of fMRI BOLD images of migraine patients with or without aura, with particular attention to the interictal phase. Subjects and Methods. The aim of this study was to compare brain activity during visual stimuli by fMRI BOLD in the interictal phase (black and white checkerboard tests, static or flickering) of 16 migraine patients, eight with aura and eight without. Results. We demonstrated differences in the right part of the brainstem, the left part of the cerebellum, and in the right middle temporal gyrus. However, the bilateral brain activation in the occipital and frontal lobe remained similar. Conclusions. Results of our preliminary study suggest that migraine with aura and migraine without aura might be separate disorders, and this requires further investigation

Exogenous lipoid pneumonia induced by nasal instillation of paraffin oil

Lipoid pneumonia is a rare pulmonary disease, classified in terms of the source of lipid exposure into two variants: exogenous and endogenous. We present a patient with exogenous lipoid pneumonia, acquired after chronic exposure to paraffin oil-containing nasal drops. The diagnosis was established by demonstration of lipid-laden macrophages in bronchoalveolar lavage, chest computed tomography results and a history of lipid exposure

Evaluation of monocyte-derived dendritic cells, T regulatory and Th17 cells in chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Immunotherapy with dendritic cells (DC) may constitute a new and advantageous option for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) who respond to therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), but do not reach complete cytogenetic or molecular remission. In this study, we evaluated the immunophenotype of DC generated from monocytes (Mo-DC) of patients with CML and the influence of TKI therapy on the results of CML-DC generation. We also measured the percentages of T regulatory cells (Tregs) as well as Th17 cells in 19 untreated patients suffering from CML, and in 28 CML patients treated with TKI. We found that DC can be reliably generated from the peripheral blood CD14+ cells of untreated CML patients. But we observed a persistent expression of CD14 monocyte marker on DC from CML patients, together with lower percentages of Mo-DC with expression of CD1a (p = 0.002), CD80 (p = 0.0005), CD83 (p = 0.0004), and CD209 (p = 0.02) compared to healthy donors. There was an adverse correlation between WBC count and the percentage of Mo-DC with co-expression of CD80 and CD86 (R = –0.63; p = 0.03). In patients treated with TKI, we observed higher efficacy of DC generation in seven-day cultures, compared to untreated patients. Expression of CD209 on DC was higher in patients treated with TKI (0.02). The duration of TKI therapy correlated adversely with MFI for CD1a (R = –0.49; p = 0.006) and positively with MFI for CD83 (R = 0.63; p = 0.01). Percentages of CD4+CD25highFoxP3+ cells (p = 0.0002) and Th17 cells (p = 0.02) were significantly higher in untreated CML patients compared to healthy controls. There was a significant correlation between the percentage of Treg cells and the percentage of peripheral blood basophiles (R = 0.821; p = 0.02). There were no changes in Tregs or Th17 cell percentages in CML patients after six months of TKI therapy. However, the expression of intracellular IL-17 in Th17 cells correlated negatively with the time of TKI therapy in the whole group of treated patients (R = –0.516; p = 0.04). We noted a correlation between IL-6 serum level and peripheral blood WBC count (R = 0.492; p = 0.04). There was also an inverse correlation between the serum level of IL-6 and the duration of TKI therapy (R = –0.66; p = 0.03). Taken together, our data shows that mature DC can be generated from CML patients treated with TKI, and that the yield of Mo-DC is higher in patients treated with TKI than in patients with active disease. This should encourage further trials with DC immunotherapy in patients with cytogenetic response after TKI therapy. We also found increased frequencies of T regulatory and Th17 cells in CML patients, which might suggest their potential role in immunity against this disease. Further studies are needed to determine if manipulation of these cell populations might improve the results of DC immunotherapy. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 153–160

Diet in the prevention and treatment of depression - systematic review

Depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. It affects, according to WHO, nearly 300 million people worldwide, a number close to 3,8 % of the world’s population. Depression is not exclusively a mental disorder limited to psychiatry, nowadays it is present in all medical fields. It has a significant association with many comorbidities, as an example cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders. Additionally, depression often is manifested with psychosomatic symptoms. Both aspects lead clinicians to major diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Each one of dietary element: omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, selenium, iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, folate, creatine was found to correspond with mental health in patients and the level of mentioned diet components is negatively correlated with depression risk of individuals. Each of the dietary aspect considered in the article has a significant correlation with depression disorder and might support the new multidisciplinary attitude toward it in mental health.&nbsp