RELATION BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL ABILITY OF LINOTYPISTS AND SOME PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THEIR ORGANISMS

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ELEVATED ARTERIAL BLOOD PRESSURE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN ADOLESCENCE

Physical activity (PhA) in adolescence and its influence on the arterial blood pressure (ABP) is investigated in 964 adolescents, aged 15 to 17 years. Screening of ABP is carried out and interview with the students for determining the PhA in their free time, the frequency of the physical activities and the time for active physical exercises. The results show that every second girl and third boy is not going for sport in its free time and the level of PhA in adolescents with elevated ABP is significantly lower. It is found that the level of PhA in girls with normal or elevated ABP is 2 times lower compared to that of boys. Models of PhA with high cardioprotective effect are created for the adolescent age

ABOUT ELEVATED ARTERIAL BLOOD PRESSURE AND THE PREDICTIVE ROLE OF SOME RISK FACTORS IN ADOLESCENCE

Screening of arterial blood pressure is carried out in 964 students (423 boys and 541 girls) aged 14 to 18 years from randomly selected schools in Sofia and Varna. The predictors of arterial hypertension in adolescence such as positive family history, increased body mass, nutrition patterns, hypokinesia and stress are studied by means of questionnaire interview. The results show that 57,4% of the adolescents with elevated systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressure have positive family history. In girls, a positive family history is found out by 2,3 times more often (p <0,001). In 19,1% of the adolescents an increased body mass combined with hypokinesia (in 61,4% of the boys and in 72,8% of the girls) and non-balanced nutrition is established. Every second girl and every third boy are under distress conditions. Data of the present study show that prevention of arterial hypertension in adolescence must be carried out individually according to the predictor significance of medico-biological and behavioural risk factors

Asperger’s Syndrome in a Clinical Sample: Reasons for Referral and Comorbidity

Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is an autism spectrum disorder without mental retardation and language delay. AS often remains unrecognized until these children fail to adapt to school or kindergarten. The comorbid psychiatric disorders, achieving clinical significance, were considered as another pathway to diagnosis. This study is aimed to elucidate the reasons for referral, the frequency and the kinds of comorbidities in a clinical sample of consecutive cases of children and adolescents with AS. To this objective, clinical records of children and adolescents, who have received a DSM-IV diagnosis of AS after multidisciplinary assessment in a given time period were reviewed. After excluding 3 cases due to insufficient information, 24 cases of children and adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome (23 boys and one girl) were identified. The mean age at the time of assessment and receiving diagnosis was 9.6 yrs. (age range 4 to 17 years). In twenty-one (87%) of the cases the reason for referral was an episode of disorganized behavior following an attempt to enrollthe child at school or kindergarten, and more rare referral occurred within the significant school transition period. In the remaining 3 cases, the reason for referral was a comorbid condition. Comorbid conditions identified at the moment of assessment include: ADHD documented in 4 cases, tics in 3 cases, obsessive-compulsive behaviors in 4 cases, Stereotypic Movement Disorder or Trichotilomania in 4 of the cases. Within the clinical sample, a priori expected to include relatively severe cases, a higher frequency of comorbidity was found as compared to the rates in the general population. Adjustment reactions and comorbidities occasioned the refer

Oral ferroportin inhibitor vamifeport for improving iron homeostasis and erythropoiesis in β-thalassemia: current evidence and future clinical development

Introduction: In β-thalassemia, imbalanced globin synthesis causes reduced red blood cell survival and ineffective erythropoiesis. Suppressed hepcidin levels increase ferroportin-mediated iron transport in enterocytes, causing increased iron absorption and potentially iron overload. Low hepcidin also stimulates ferroportin-mediated iron release from macrophages, increasing transferrin saturation (TSAT), potentially forming non-transferrin-bound iron, which can be toxic. Modulating the hepcidin–ferroportin axis is an attractive strategy to improve ineffective erythropoiesis and limit the potential tissue damage resulting from iron overload. There are no oral β-thalassemia treatments that consistently ameliorate anemia and prevent iron overload. / Areas covered: The preclinical and clinical development of vamifeport (VIT-2763), a novel ferroportin inhibitor, was reviewed. PubMed, EMBASE and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched using the search term ‘VIT-2763ʹ. / Expert opinion: Vamifeport is the first oral ferroportin inhibitor in clinical development. In healthy volunteers, vamifeport had comparable safety to placebo, was well tolerated and rapidly decreased iron levels and reduced TSAT, consistent with observations in preclinical models. Data from ongoing/planned Phase II studies are critical to define its potential in β-thalassemia and other conditions associated with iron overabsorption and/or ineffective erythropoiesis. If vamifeport potentially increases hemoglobin and reduces iron-related parameters, it could be a suitable treatment for non-transfusion-dependent and transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia

Bulgarian sport policy 1945-1989: A strategic relation perspective

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have stimulated discussions about the success of different sport systems and the Chinese model in particular. Revisiting explanations of sport in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War seems timely, as the current Chinese model of sport was largely designed after the Soviet example established in this period. This paper examines Bulgarian sport policy between 1945 and 1989. It employs a Strategic Relation approach (Jessop, 1990) to analyse sport policy making as a strategic relation closely linked to the dominant state project of building a new stateness. It goes beyond ideological interpretations and argues that the state represents a strategic terrain where these relations have to be established in struggles, the outcomes of which are always uncertain. Furthermore, past and present struggles and their outcomes create various socio-political environments that presuppose the forms of state selectivity and intervention in sport. The process of constructing sport policy was influenced by two main categories of strategic relations: intra-state, including political, organisational and personal relations between the Party, state apparatus and various sport and non-sport organisations and their managers, and transnational, concerning ideological, political, economic and organisational relations with both communist and western countries and international sport organisations

Cholinergic Deficit Induced by Central Administration of 192IgG-Saporin Is Associated With Activation of Microglia and Cell Loss in the Dorsal Hippocampus of Rats

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with degeneration of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain. Administration of the immunotoxin 192IgG-saporin to rats, an animal model of AD, leads to degeneration of cholinergic neurons in the medial septal area. In the present study, cholinergic cell death was induced by intracerebroventricular administration of 192IgG-saporin. One and a half months after injection, we studied the histopathology of the hippocampus and the responses of microglia and astrocytes using immunohistochemistry and neuroglial gene expression. We found that treatment with 192IgG-saporin resulted in neuronal loss in the CA3 field of the hippocampus. Microglial proliferation was observed in the dentate gyrus of the dorsal hippocampus and white matter. Massive proliferation and activation of microglia in the white matter was associated with strong activation of astrocytes. However, the expression of microglial marker genes significantly increased only in the dorsal hippocampus, not the ventral hippocampus. These effects were not related to non-specific action of 192IgG-saporin because of the absence of the Nerve growth factor receptor in the hippocampus. Additionally, 192IgG-saporin treatment also induced a decrease in the expression of genes that are associated with transport functions of brain vascular cells (Slc22a8, Ptprb, Sdpr), again in the dorsal hippocampus but not in the ventral hippocampus. Taken together, our data suggest that cholinergic degeneration in the medial septal area induced by intracerebroventricular administration of 192IgG-saporin results in an increase in the number of microglial cells and neuron degeneration in the dorsal hippocampus