Clinical-morphological characteristics and peculiarities of treatment of paraururicular fistulas in children

The aim: Determining the frequency of occurrence of paraauricular fistula in children and comparing the results of their own experience regarding their clinical manifestations, treatment principles and morphological features with existing scientific data. Materials and methods: The results of a comprehensive examination and surgical treatment of 25 children with paraauricular fistulas. Results: Most often, para-auricular fistula was observed in infants 22 – (88%). In 18 persons (72%), they were unilateral, in 10 – (40%) hereditary. In 8 – (32%), fistula was diagnosed immediately after birth. In 17 – (68%) the pathology was not clinically manifested, but was an accidental finding during the next medical examination. Morphological research has shown that congenital paraauricular fistula is a formed canal intimately associated with the epithelium and cartilage, and the presence of epithelial lining on the fistula wall with constant support of the inflammatory process makes it impossible to heal even against the background of multicomponent treatment. Conclusions: Due to the topographic-anatomical localization, features of the clinic of the born fistula, surgical treatment does not always allow to achieve the desired results, and requires repeated interventions during recurrence. It is possible to prevent recurrence by the extensive use of additional diagnostic manipu

Rapid Etiological Classification of Meningitis by NMR Spectroscopy Based on Metabolite Profiles and Host Response

Bacterial meningitis is an acute disease with high mortality that is reduced by early treatment. Identification of the causative microorganism by culture is sensitive but slow. Large volumes of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are required to maximise sensitivity and establish a provisional diagnosis. We have utilised nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to rapidly characterise the biochemical profile of CSF from normal rats and animals with pneumococcal or cryptococcal meningitis. Use of a miniaturised capillary NMR system overcame limitations caused by small CSF volumes and low metabolite concentrations. The analysis of the complex NMR spectroscopic data by a supervised statistical classification strategy included major, minor and unidentified metabolites. Reproducible spectral profiles were generated within less than three minutes, and revealed differences in the relative amounts of glucose, lactate, citrate, amino acid residues, acetate and polyols in the three groups. Contributions from microbial metabolism and inflammatory cells were evident. The computerised statistical classification strategy is based on both major metabolites and minor, partially unidentified metabolites. This data analysis proved highly specific for diagnosis (100% specificity in the final validation set), provided those with visible blood contamination were excluded from analysis; 6-8% of samples were classified as indeterminate. This proof of principle study suggests that a rapid etiologic diagnosis of meningitis is possible without prior culture. The method can be fully automated and avoids delays due to processing and selective identification of specific pathogens that are inherent in DNA-based techniques

Mitochondrial activity of cancer and normal mesenchymal stem cells in vitro cultured in medium with different deuterium content

We showed that cancer and normal mesenchymal stem/stromal (MSC) cells in vitro in a deuterated growth medium show a decrease of mitochondrial activity (MA), while in a deuterium-depleted medium an increase. This was established using mitotracker and rhodamine 123, and was also confirmed by expression of the UCP1 gene. The correlation dependence of mitochondrial activity in a medium with a changed ratio of deuterium/protium (D/H) and supramolecular structures was established, using the laser diffraction method. Density inhomogeneities in the deuterated medium are noted to be large, and in the deuterium-depleted medium small, in comparison with the control