THE USE OF PACEMAKER DIAGNOSTICS FOR SUPPORTING THE ANTICOAGULATION TREATMENT MANAGEMENT

In this work, the analysis of data on atrial fibrillation (AF) burden from dual chamber pacemakers is used for supporting the anticoagulation treatment management. The aim is to evaluate the benefit of basic diagnostic functions to support oral anticoagulation therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation. These patients have increased risk of thromboembolism. If patients have an implanted pacemaker, the device’s diagnostic features monitor the frequency and duration of atrial fibrillation episodes. This data can then be used for further decisions. Statistical data processing was performed on a group of 117 patients with an implanted dual chamber pacemaker. From these results, we evaluated the benefits of the algorithms. In the whole group, a trend was observed in increase of the AF burden between the two monitored periods. The increase of AF burden occurred in 17 patients, while the decrease occurred in 6 patients only. Using simple logic functions, the numbers of patients with different binary values of the presence of AF, the presence of oral anticoagulation therapy, the risk CHA2DS2-VASc score and the values of AF burden were determined. Thus, in the whole group of patients, the diagnostic functions of the implanted devices contributed to the change in oral anticoagulation therapy for 24% of patients

Detection of cytokeratins in healthy cornea and conjunctiva

Purpose: The aim of this work was to characterize the spectrum of cytokeratin 1 - 20 expression in healthy cornea, limbus and conjunctiva. The next aim was to determine whether the expression of cytokeratin 7 can be a marker of limbal stem cell deficiency. Materials and methods: The spectrum of cytokeratins was studied using immunofluorescent staining of cryosections from healthy cornea, limbus and conjunctiva. The expression of cytokeratin 7 was detected by immunofluorescent staining on Millicell membranes. The epithelium of healthy cornea and conjunctiva and the epithelium of the cornea and conjunctiva of patients suffering from limbal stem cell deficiency were assessed. Results: The typical corneal cytokeratin 3/12 was present in the corneal epithelium. Cytokeratins characteristic of simple epithelium (cytokeratins 8, 18, 19), stratified epithelium (cytokeratins 4, 5, 13, 14) and hyperproliferation (cytokeratin 16) were also present in the human cornea. The limbal epithelium was positive for cytokeratins characteristic of simple epithelium (cytokeratins 8, 18, 19), stratified epithelium (cytokeratins 4, 5, 13, 14, 15) and the cornea-specific cytokeratin 3/12. The conjunctival epithelium showed immunostaining for cytokeratins characteristic of simple epithelium (cytokeratins 7, 8, 18, 19), stratified..