Efficacy of adding systemic glucocorticosteroids to standard therapy in adolescents with severe acne: a randomized controlled trial

Introduction. Isotretinoin is the first-choice drug in the treatment of severe forms of acne vulgaris. The combination of systemic retinoids with durant corticosteroids helps to reduce the likelihood of developing “retinoic” dermatitis and exacerbation of acne in the initial stages of isotretinoin therapy.Purpose of the study. Determination of the effectiveness of the combined use of isotretinoin and a durant corticosteroid in the treatment of severe forms of acne vulgaris.Materials and methods. Twenty six patients with “severe” or “very severe” grade on the IGA scale were included in this randomised, controlled comparative study. Thirteen patients (group A) were treated with isotretinoin 0.5 mg/kg/day (cumulative dose from 120 to 150 mg/kg) for 8 months and 2 injections of betamethasone dipropionate + betamethasone sodium phosphate at dose 1 ml (2 mg + 5 mg/1 ml) at first month (1 injection per two weeks) and thirteen patients (group B) were treated with combined therapy with isotretinoin at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg/day (cumulative dose from 120 to 150 mg/kg) for 8 months and assessment was based on the IGA scale, counting the number of inflammatory and non-inflammatory elements, indicators DIA (dermatological index of acne) and DLQI and was done at baseline, 1, 4 and 8 months of treatment.Results. At month 8, compared to group B, group A showed more significant decrease in IGA score and 76% patients achieved “clear” or “almost clear skin” degree (76% vs. 30%). The reduction in the number of inflammatory and non-inflammatory elements showed a marked clinical improvement in group A (89.2% vs 22.3 % for nodules). The decrease in DIA was 88.3% in group A and 71.3% in group B. Exacerbations of acne were recorded in 0% (group A) vs 38.0% (group B) of patients. We also found a relationship between the achievement of a 2-point reduction in the degree on the IGA scale after 8 months and the presence of exacerbations while taking isotretinoin (p = 0.012). Analyzing the DLQI between the two, we were unable to identify statistically significant differences.Conclusions. Combines use of long acting steroid with isotretinoin provides synergic effect while minimizing the side effect of isotretinoin (decreases the number of exacerbations), demonstrates a visible effect to patients within a month, thereby increasing compliance, improving the quality of life and reducing the risk of scarring

ASSESSMENT RESULTS OF SAINFOIL CULTIVARS IN THE ROSTOV REGION

The production needs sainfoil varieties adapted to different and changing weather-climatic conditions of the region with high productivity of green mass, dry matter, seeds and good quality of fodder. The demands of the production can be significantly satisfied with new sainfoil cultivars of I.G. Kalinenko ARRIGC. The sainfoil varieties studied in three cycles of sowing are characterized with early germination in the spring (on 24-25 of March). The period lasts 58-59 days from the beginning of the germination till harvesting maturity of green mass and it lasts 90-91 days till full maturity of seeds. The amount of leaves of the cultivars ‘Atamansky’, ‘Sudar’ and ‘Veles’ is of 44%, 43% and 42% respectively. The studied varieties formed a higher productivity of green mass and seeds than the standard variety during the years and cycles of growing. The variety ‘Atamansky’ produced 28,3 t/ha of green mass, ‘Sudar’ - 27,8 t/ha, ‘Veles’ - 27,4 t/ha, that is on 3,0 t/ha, 2,5 t/ha and 2,1 t/ha more than of the standard variety. As for the seed productivity they produced 0,71 t/ha, 0,68 t/ha and 0,69 t/ha respectively, that is on 0,08 t/ha, 0,05 t/ha and 0,06 t/ha more than of the standard variety. The studied varieties formed a higher productivity of dry matter than the standard variety. The varieties ‘Atamansky’ and ‘Sudar’ produced 7,9 t/ha, ‘Veles’ – 7,8 t/ha. The varieties ‘Atamansky’ and ‘Sudar’ are characterized with the largest harvest of fodder units per hectare (4,11 th/ha). The variety ‘Veles’ produced 4,06 th/ha, and the standard variety produced 3,69 th/ha. The variety ‘Sudar’ gave the largest amount of raw protein (1,05 t/ha). The varieties ‘Veles’ and ‘Atamansky’ produced only 1,03 t/ha and 0,99 t/ha of raw protein. As for the amount of digestible protein per fodder unit the varieties ‘Sudar’ and ‘Veles’ showed the largest indexes (255 g/f.u. and 253 g/f.u. respectively)

FODDER PRODUCTIVITY OF NEW VARIETIES OF PERENNIAL LEGUMINOUS GRASSES IN THE ROSTOV REGION

Fodder production determines not only the state of animal husbandry, but greatly influences on development of plant-growing; solves the agricultural concerns and nature use; increases stability of agro systems; promotes restoring of soil fertility. That’s why perennial leguminous grasses are of great importance and significance. The plants are valuable for biologization of agriculture and farming. A vast number of concerns in plant-growing, agriculture and animal husbandry could be solved due to development of new productive and valuable fodder from the varieties of alfalfa and sainfoil. The article discusses productivity and quality of fodder of alfalfa varieties ‘Lyutsiya’(2010), ‘Selyanka’(2013) and sainfoil varieties ‘Veles’(2010), ‘Sudar’(2015), introduced into the State Register. The long-term researches determined that the alfalfa and sainfoil varieties, selected and approved for use, possess better productivity of green mass and dry matter of than of the standard varieties. The studied alfalfa and sainfoil varieties produced fodder units on 8,6%-10,2% more than the standard ones in the first harvesting and on 14,4%-20,3% more in the second harvesting. As for the digestible protein the alfalfa and sainfoil varieties produced it on 8,0% – 9,8%  more than the standard ones in the first harvesting and on 12,5% – 18,8 % more in the second harvesting. The new alfalfa and sainfoil varieties possess the same amount of digestible protein per fodder unit as the standard variety. The amount of fodder units of sainfoil varieties exceeded the standard ones on 10,0% – 11,3%, the amount of digestible protein exceeded the standard ones on 14,4% – 19,6%, but the amount of digestible protein per fodder unit was the same as of the standard variety

Sainfoin varieties adapted to the conditions of the south of Russia

The article considers the study results of the sainfoin variety ‘Sudar’, introduced into the State List of Breeding Achievements and approved to use in the North-Caucasus region and the sainfoin variety ‘Shuravi’, sent to the State Variety Testing in the same year. The productivity of both new sainfoin varieties largely depended on the conditions in the period of sowing. During the first cycle of sowing the variety ‘Sudar’ produced 27.4 t/ha of green chop, the variety ‘Shuravi’ produced 29.4 t/ha, that exceeded the standard on 7.8% and 15.7% respectively. On average during two cycles of sowing the standard variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’ produced 27.9 t/ha of green chop, the variety ‘Sudar’ 30.8 t/ha and ‘Shuravi’ produced 31.5 t/ha. On average during two cycles of sowing the variety ‘Sudar’ produced 7.68 t/ha of dry matter and the variety ‘Shuravi’ produced 8.32 t/ha that is on 14% and 23% higher than of the standard variety. The variety ‘Sudar’’s productivity of seeds was 0.75 t/ha, that is on 27% higher than of the standard variety. The variety ‘Shuravi’’s productivity of seeds was 0.80 t/ha, that is on 36% higher than of the standard variety. The comparison of biochemical composition of vegetative mass of sainfoin varieties showed that the largest significant differences among new sainfoin varieties and the standard variety occurred in the content of protein and ash. The study of forage value of the sainfoin varieties established that these varieties exceed the standard variety in the amount of fodder units per hectare, amount of raw and digestible protein and ash. The variety ‘Shuravi’ surpasses the variety ‘Sudar’ in all these traits and in the amount of gross exchangeable energy as well. The leaching of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium differed through the cycles among the varieties. The standard variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’ leached 174.5-212.1 kg/ha of nitrogen, 39.5-47.7 kg/ha of phosphorus and 100.3-123.3 kg/ha of potassium. The varieties ‘Sudar’ and ‘Shuravi’ exceed the standard on 15-30% in nitrogen leaching, on 14-27% in phosphorus leaching and on 15-28% in potassium leaching. The variety ‘Shuravi’ showed the largest leaching of the elements. The use of vegetative mass of sainfoin varieties as green fertilizer mixed with a ton of dry matter can supply the soil with 28.7-32.9 g/ha of nitrogen, 6.5-7.2 kg/ha of phosphorus and 16.5-18.7 kg/ha of potassium

The productivity and energetic efficiency of cultivation of sainfoin varieties

The decision of the problem of the development of the stable forage production without increasing of the areas with legumes is considered impossible. The creation of a stable fodder base for animal husbandry in the most soil-climatic zones of the country significantly depends on field grass growing. Sainfoin is the most essential crop for field grass growing, that is of great importance for fodder production, biologization of agriculture, energy saving and ecology. The article considers the two-cycled study of forage productivity and bioenergetics efficiency of the sainfoin varieties (developed in ARC ‘Donskoy’) cultivated under heavy shortage of moisture and high average summer temperatures in the south of the Rostov region. The objects of the study were the varieties ‘Manycheskaya’, ‘Rostovskaya 60’, ‘Rostovskaya 90’, ‘Lyutsiya’ and ‘Selyanka’ used for hay. The studied cultivars of sainfoin produced the average yields of green mass of 45.2-50.6 t/ah, 12.0-13.3 t/ha of dry matter, 10.17-11.13 t/ha of fodder units and 2.40-2.65 t/ha of raw protein. The variety ‘Selyanka’ produces the largest yields of green mass - 50.6 t/ha, with 11.13 t/ha of fodder units, 2.65 t/ha of raw protein and 179 g of digestible protein per fodder unit. The variety ‘Lyutsiya’ showed the largest yield of dry matter (13.3 t/ha), 11.9 t/ha of fodder units, 2.63 t/ha of raw protein and 183 g of digestible protein per fodder unit. The assessment of bioenergetics efficiency of sainfoin cultivation showed that the variety ‘Lyutsiya’ possessed the largest content of energy in the yield (143.64 GJ/ha), the net energy income was 112.12 GJ/ha, the least energy capacity of the product was 2.36 GJ/ha and the largest coefficient of energetic efficiency was 4.6. Such indexes of productivity, content of exchangeable energy and digestible protein in dry matter, amount of digestible protein per fodder unit show that the cultivation of each sainfoin variety allows obtaining high-qualitative fodder with 3.8-4.6 coefficient of energetic efficiency

Хозяйственно-биологическая оценка разных видов эспарцета на юге России

Economic and biological estimation of various species of sainfoin in the south of Russia Thirty three samples of three sainfoin species ( Onobrychis viciifolia, Onobrychis montana, Onobrychis arenaria and hybrid of the local breeding ) were studied in the collection seed plot in 2014. The soil of the plot was blackearth (chernozem obyknovenny). During the vegetation meteorological conditions were characterized by the insufficient humidity with high dayly temperatures. The study determined that there were no differences in the phenological phases between samples of sainfoin and the standard variety ‘Zernogradsky’. The length of the period from spring sprouting till flowering was 58-59 days, till seed maturity was 94-95 days. The standard variety surpasses such samples of the local breeding as ‘S 3/05’, ‘Sin 12’ and ‘GIA 2’ in plant height. The samples of the sainfoin Onobrychis viciifolia ‘к-42089’, ‘к-29014’ and the local breeding material ‘S 4/05’, ‘Sin’ 12, ‘GIA 2’, ‘GIA 5’ showed more than 50% of leaf amount. Only the samples of the local breeding ‘S 2/05’, ‘S 4/05’, ‘S 6/05’, ‘Sin 12’, ‘GIA 1’ produced the largest amount of green chop compared with the standard variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’. 33% of samples surpassed the standard variety in seed productivity. The largest amount has been produced by the following samples: ‘к-29014’ (340.5 g/m2), ‘к-47782’ (308.0 g/m2), ‘к-32788’ (303.0 g/m2), ‘к-26770’ (300.0 g/m2), ‘Sin 12’ (300.0 g/m2), ‘GIA 5’ (305.5 g/m2), ‘С 3/05’ (320.5 g/m2) and ‘GIA 2’ (345.0 g/m2). The content of raw protein in the samples of collection ranged from 15.59% to 19.99% that testifies the possibility of sainfoin breeding for its increased content of dry matter. There are 60% of samples in the collection with 18% of raw protein, and more than 27% of samples have more than 19% of raw protein. The samples ‘к-28630’, ‘к-29084’, ‘к-29014’, ‘S 2/05’, ‘S 3/05’, ‘S 4/05’, ‘Sin 12’, ‘GIA 5’ and ‘GIA 11’ are of the greatest interest for breeding of qualitative sainfoin. A number of the studied samples having a set of economic-valuable traits are going to be used in the future breeding work

THE EFFECT OF THE CUTTING TIME OF GREEN CHOP OF ALFALFA ON ITS PRODUCTIVITY AND ITS FODDER VALUE

The production of food for people and fodder for animals, their quality and quantity must be guaranteed in any economic situation as it provides security of the country. In the south ofRussiathe efficient fodder production becomes impossible without a versatile use and increase of the arable lands for the main fodder crop alfalfa. In the field trials of ARRIGC after I.G. Kalinenko we carried out study of green chop, dry matter and fodder value of the alfalfa hay variety ‘Rostovskaya90’according to the time of cutting. The variety ‘Rostovskaya90’was introduced into the State List of the breeding achievements and accepted to the State Variety Testing as a standard variety in the North-Caucasus region. In the experiment the time of cutting were connected with the main vegetation phases of alfalfa, i.e. stem formation, bud formation and blooming. The alfalfa plants of the variety ‘Rostovskaya90’which were cut in different time differed a lot in a plant height, leaf formation, productivity of green chop and dry matter, contents of raw protein, fiber, fodder units and exchangeable energy in dry matter, the amount of nutrients per hectare. The productivity of green chop and dry matter in the period of cutting and at the early stages of stem and bud formation had a slight difference. The largest differences in the productivity increase were seen during the cutting at the beginning of blooming. The productivity of ‘Rostovskaya90’naturally increased in the period from stem formation to the beginning of blooming and on average produced 15.2, 22.6, 27.1 and 27.3 t/ha of green chop during the first cutting and 9.8, 12.5, 14.1 and 13.8 t/ha during the second cutting. The productivity of dry matter was 2.1, 3.5, 6.8 and 6.2 t/ha during the first cutting and 1.3, 2.4, 3.4 and 3.1 t/ha during the second cutting. The largest productivity of green mass and dry matter was obtained at the beginning of blooming. On average during the years of study the amount of raw protein in the plant was the largest in the period of stem formation both during the first cutting (25.24%) and during the second one (24.11%). In the period of full blooming the index significantly reduced and was 16.3% during the first cutting and 17.09% during the second one. The similar regularity was seen with exchangeable energy and fodder units per kg of dry matter. During the stem formation there was 0.94f.u. in one kg of dry matter during the first cutting and 0.91f.u. during the second one. The content of exchangeable energy was 10.76 and 10.51 MJ respectively. During the full blooming the content of exchangeable energy in dry matter and fodder units was 8.63 MJ and 0.56f.u. during the first cutting; and 8.21 MJ and0.52 f.u. during the second one. The decrease of fodder value is caused by the increase of fiber contents in the plants. During the full blooming it significantly surpassed the quantity required for cattle. The fodder amount of alfalfa, cut during the period of stem and bud formation, allows yielding the fodder with 0.84 –0.94 f.u. and 10.05 – 10.76 MJ in one kg of dry matter. The largest yield of fodder units (5304 and 2846), raw protein (1457 and792 kg) and exchangeable energy (64260 and 30838 MJ) per one hectare was noticed at the beginning of blooming both during the first cutting of green mass of alfalfa and during the second one

Productivity of different varieties of alfalfa in the south of the Rostov region

The work presents the assessment of productivity of such alfalfa varieties as ‘Rostovskaya 60’, ‘Rostovskaya 90’, ‘Lyutsiya’ and ‘Manycheskaya’ (of haymaking use) and ‘Kubanskaya zheltaya’ (of haymaking and grazing use). The varieties of haymaking use had a shorter period from the beginning of spring sprouting to the first mowing and seed ripening. In the first year the density of the alfalfa varieties was 300-340 plants per 1m2. At the end of the second year the density was 226-331 plants per 1m2 or 66.2% of the sown germinated seeds. At the end of the third year it was 171-248 plants per 1m2 or 38.0-49.6% of the sown germinated seeds. In the first year of use the density of the stand was significantly lower (912-1038 plants per 1m2) than in the second year (1116-1375 plants per 1m2). The density of the stand of the variety ‘Kubanskaya zheltaya’ was larger than that of the blue-hybrid varieties of alfalfa. During the second mowing the density of the stand was 221-331 plants per 1m2 and there was not any definite regularity in the amount of the stand of the blue-hybrid varieties of alfalfa. The density of the stand was determined by the productivity of green chop and dry matter. During the first mowing the productivity of the varieties was larger than during the second one. The alfalfa varieties showed high productivity during the second year of growing as well. The more productive blue-hybrid variety ‘Lyutsiya’ gave 24.1-27.4 t/ha of green chop and 5.2-8.4 t/ha of dry matter during the first mowing in the first year. During the second year its green chop productivity was 25.9-34.1 t/ha and its dry matter productivity was 6.4-8.6 t/ha. During all years the variety ‘Lyutsiya’ produced 28.5 t/ha of green chop and 7.4 t/ha of dry matter on average. It surpassed the variety ‘Rostovskaya 90’ on 0.8 t/ha of green chop and on 0.2 t/ha of dry matter, the variety ‘Rostovskaya 60’ on 1.5 t/ha of green chop and on 0.5 t/ha of dry matter, the variety ‘Manycheskaya’ on 3.1 t/ha of green chop and on 0.8 t/ha of dry matter. The variety ‘Kubanskaya zheltaya’ gave a larger yield (29.7 t/ha of green chop and 7.6 t/ha of dry matter) than the blue-hybrid varieties in one mowing. In sum, two mowings of the haymaking varieties gave a larger yield of green chop (41.8-45.7 t/ha) and dry matter (11.1-12.1 t/ha) than the variety ‘Kubanskaya zheltay

The productivity and bioenergetic efficiency of the new variety of sainfoin ‘Shuravi’

The article presents the results of three cycles of study of productivity and quality of sainfoin variety ‘Shuravi’. The purpose of the study is to establish the advantages of economic-biological characteristics of sainfoin ‘Shuravi’ over the standard variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’. The experiments were conducted by Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” in 2012-2016. The soil of the experimental fields is heavy loamy, carbonaceous black earth (chernozem) with a deep layer of humus (120 cm) and high content of carbon. The reaction of soil solution is nearly neutral (pH 7.0-7.1). The content of easily hydrolyzable nitrogen is of 60-110 mg/kg of soil; the content of movable phosphorus is 18.5 mg/kg of soil; the content of changeable potassium is of 342 mg/kg of soil. On average the productivity of sainfoin green mass during three cycles was 31.9 t/ha that is on 3.2 t/ha or 11.1% more than that of the standard variety. The productivity of dry matter of the variety ‘Shuravi’ was 8.06 t/ha on average during the studied period, that was on 1.16t/ha or 16.8% more than that of the variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’. The sainfoin variety ‘Shuravi’ showed a better productivity of kernels than the standard variety during all years of study. The grain productivity of ‘Shuravi’ was 0.84t/ha, that is on 0.22t/ha or 35.5% more than that of the variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’. The variety ‘Shuravi’ surpasses the standard variety in such traits as early maturity, fast and strong germination, tillering and leaf formation. The yield of forage units of the variety ‘Shuravi’ is on 11.2% more than that of the variety ‘Zernogradsky 2’. The amount of digestible protein in ‘Shuravi’ is on 12.5% more than that of ‘Zernogradsky 2’. The yield energy of ‘Shuravi’ was on 15.9% more than that of ‘Zernogradsky 2’ at a higher coefficient of energetic efficiency and a smaller index of energy capacity of product

The promising variety of alfalfa (<i>Medicago polymorpha) </i>“Golubka”

The promising variety of alfalfa ( Medicago polymorpha) “Golubka” The article considers the study of a new alfalfa variety “Golubka” and gives its morpho-biological description. Today, the variety is the main source for the production of saturated feed energy, the carrier of certain economically valuable traits. For each region it’s necessary to have the varieties that are able to realize soil-climatic conditions of the area and possess resistance to different stress factors. Taking into consideration this fact and the variability of soil-climatic conditions of the Rostov region, the work is directed on developing of the varieties, capable to use bioclimatic resources of the region more efficiently. The main direction of selection fulfilled by the laboratory of perennial grasses is to develop the varieties for hay and pasture use with good productivity of forage mass, seeds, resistance to principle diseases and unfavourable environmental factors. The study was carried out by the method of developing of hybrid populations on the basis of biotypes, obtained by multiple selections due to forage and seed productivity. The alfalfa variety “Golubka” produced 31.0 t/ha of green chop, 9.3 t/ha of dry matter and 0.22 t/ha of seed productivity. The alfalfa variety “Golubka” exceeded the standard variety “Rostovskaya 90” in green mass productivity on 7.6%, in dry matter yield on 6.9%, in seed productivity on 11%. The green mass contains 21.0-21.8% of raw protein and 30-32% of fiber. The new alfalfa variety “Golubka” has a greater yield of fodder units (on 7.6%) and raw protein (on 9.0%) per 1 hectare. One kg of dry matter of the variety “Golubka” contains a larger amount of changeable energy (10.4 MJ/kg) and digestible protein (153 g/kg), its fodder unit is better supplied with digestible protein (187 g/f.u.)