Social determinants of infectious diseases in diverse age groups in Varna region, Bulgaria

During the first years as a member to the European Union the healthcare system of Republic of Bulgaria faced many challenges: declining demographic tendencies, poverty with notice ably expressed age dimensions and limited resources for health care. The aim of this study is to reveal some social determinants and risk factors in the vulnerable groups of elderly people and breast-fed infants with communicable diseases. Specially designed questionnaires were used to study the socioeconomic and other risk factors in patients over 60 years and mothers accompanying their infants with infectious diseases. Analyses of the demographic indicators of Varna region and disease incidence correspond to the trends of the national level. Infectious diseases most commonly observed among the aged population are shigelloses, salmonelloses and other gastroenterites, mediterranean spotted fever, lymeborreliosis, acute viral hepatitis and neuroinfections. Gastroenteritesin breast-fed infants are the most common cause for hospitalization.The risk factors influencing patients of 60+ suffering from infectious diseases are poverty, unhealthy and inadequate nutrition, smoking, alcohol consumption, insuf icient physical activity and high levels of stress. Socially significant in communicable diseases are the common terrain on which the infectious process takes place. Risk factors influencing infants with infectious diseases are similar and sometimes derived from the factors influencing the adult population. More detailed and wider span studies of the social determinants of comunicable diseases in Bulgaria are needed to estimate the situation in other risk groups.Scripta Scientifica Medica 2010;42(2):115-12

POSSIBILITIES FOR EXPANDING THE INDICATIONS FOR CHEMOTHERAPY OF UTERINE CANCER

Incidence rate of myocardial dysfunction in females operated on the occasion of uterine cancer and with manifestations of symptomatic chronic iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) of moderate or severe degree was studied. A diagnostic test for early diagnosis and dynamic monitoring of the left-ventricular dysfunction aiming at enlarging the chemotherapeutic indications was suggested. The left ventricular dysfunction registered according to echocardiographic criteria in 56 patients with uterine cancer and IDA required correction of the chronic anemic hypoxia prior to chemotherapy. Echocardiographically, there was a reversibility of left ventricular volume loading in 82 per cent of the cases (p < 0,001) after anemia correction. Chemotherapy administration was enabled after achieving the definite values of left ventricular dimension using a dynamic echocardiographic control. The early diagnosis of the myocardial dysfunction and its timely correction allowed not only the optimization of the chemotherapy but also the expansion of its indications

CHARACTERISTICS OF DIVERSIONS OF IMMUNOLOGIC INDEXES IN LUNG CANCER PATIENTS UNDERGOING COMPLEX TREATMENT

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Hemodynamic assessment in transcatheter fenestration closure in patients after Fontan operation

The fenestration in Fontan operation consists in creation of a communication between venous circulation and the pulmonary venous atrium, allowing direct passage of blood from the venous to the systemic circulation (right-to-left shunt). There is no general agreement concerning the mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) level above which fenestration is indicated. There are no strict guidelines for the indications for fenestration closure as well. Here we present our data about invasive hemodynamic assessment before and after temporary closure of the fenestration in patients after Fontan operation. Our recommendations regarding comprehensive evaluation of patients with fenestrations after Fontan surgery are also presented

Instability in a non-ohmic/ohmic fluid interface under a perpendicular electric field and unipolar injection

We set the equations for the linear electrohydrodynamic instability of an interface between two fluids, subjected to a perpendicular field and a unipolar charge injection. One of the fluids is modeled as being in non-ohmic regime (insulating), whereas the other is ohmic. A new interfacial instability mechanism is described, which may account for the Rose-window instability. The equations are analytically solved in the limit of long wavelength and neglecting the fluid motion. We show that this limit applies well to the case of an air-ohmic liquid interface. The applicability to a liquid-liquid interface is also analyzed

Mobile Medicine and General Trends in Medical Informatics

New challenges in medicine gained systemic character along with the accumulation of new data on links between functional units in human body; most of them, starting from the genetic level, are able to impact different disciplines at some earlier unimaginable stages of their development. That is why a counterpart activity, which is purposed to vanquish them, must also have a systemic character. With this respect, medical informatics (MI) is the first line reserve among others. From MI we get the most explicit response to urgent demands in health care via constructive multidisciplinary dialogue]. MI contributes to all medical disciplines; its development led to newest concepts such as personalized medicine, m-health, evidence-based medicine, etc

Evaluation of bottom-up and top-down strategies for aggregated forecasts: state space models and arima applications

Abstract. In this research, we consider monthly series from the M4 competition to study the relative performance of top-down and bottom-up strategies by means of implementing forecast automation of state space and ARIMA models. For the bottomup strategy, the forecast for each series is developed individually and then these are combined to produce a cumulative forecast of the aggregated series. For the top-down strategy, the series or components values are first combined and then a single forecast is determined for the aggregated series. Based on our implementation, state space models showed a higher forecast performance when a top-down strategy is applied. ARIMA models had a higher forecast performance for the bottom-up strategy. For state space models the top-down strategy reduced the overall error significantly. ARIMA models showed to be more accurate when forecasts are first determined individually. As part of the development we also proposed an approach to improve the forecasting procedure of aggregation strategies

Method of distant morphometry using digital smartphone phothoes with the brecket – system aexporation as an example

Целью работы было наблюдение пациентов, которым осуществляли с помощью брекет-систем ортодонтическую коррекцию зубных рядов, с целью динамического измерения расстояния между краями зубов по цифровым фотографиям, снятым с помощью смартфона Sony Xperia S. Измерение расстояния между краями зубов в течение первых 10 суток с момента установки брекетов проводилось с применинием авто-масштабируемой линейки, калибровка которой осуществлялась по стандартным размерам компонентов брекет-системы. Приложение для андроида написано на Java. Установлено, что развитие выраженного болевого синдрома отмечалось при скорости изменения расстояния между краями зубов в 0,051+ 0,004 мм/сутки. Ожидается повышение эффективности предложенного метода при использовании стандартов освещения в период съемки, а также применение метода для морфометрии структур лапароскопического изображения, получаемого при проведении операций на органах брюшной полости.Метою дослідження було спостереження пацієнтів, яким здійснювали ортодонтичну корекцію зубних рядів за допомогою брекет – систем, з метою динамічного вимірювання відстані між краями зубів за цифровими фотографіями, які було отримано за допомогою смартфону Sony Xperia S. Вимірювання відстані між сусідніми зубами протягом перших десяти діб з моменту установки брекетів здійснювалось з використанням авто масштабованої лінійки, калібровка якої проводилась за стандартними розмірами компонентів брекет-системи. Програма - додаток «віртуальна лінійка» для андроїда написана на мові Java. Встанволено, що розвиток виразного болового синдрома спостерігався у пацієнтів, коли швидкість змін відстані між реперними точками сусідніх зубів складала 0,051+ 0,004 мм/добу. Передбачається підвищення ефективності застосування розробленого методу морфометрії при використанні його за умов стандартного освітлення, а також для оцінки структур лапароскопічного зображення при виконанні втручань на органах черевної порожнини.The objective: to observe the patients underwent orthodontic tooth alignment correction with dental brackets, for the purpose of early detection of white spots (early satge of caries) and dynamic measurement of distance between teeth edges based on the digital photographs taken with a smartphone Sony Xperia S. The measurement of the distance between teeth edges during the first 10 days following the brackets installation was carried out using a self-scalable ruler that was calibrated according to the standard sizes of the dental brackets systems components. The Android application of self-scalable ruler was developed using Java. The development of a pronounced pain syndrome was observed when the velocity of distance changes between teeth edges was rather high – 0,051+ 0,004 mm/day. The improvement of efficiency of the suggested method is expected due to application of illumination standards during the shooting period as well as the usage of the method for morphometry laparoscopic structures visualized in the course of surgical intervention in abdomen cavity