Mediterranean Spotted Fever in Adults Aged Over 60 Years

Nowadays the distribution and course of Mediterranean spotted fever is characterized by an increasing number of severe cases and its complications worldwide. Age-dependent changes and processes of ageing influence to a different extent upon the course of the infectious diseases. The authors examined the course of the Mediterranean spotted fever in adults aged over 60 years. The study covered 90 elderly patients treated in the First Clinic of Infectious Diseases at St. Marina University Hospital of Varna during the period from 2000 till 2003. Of them, 58 were females (64,4%) and 32 males (35,6%). Their hospital stay was 8,5 0,12 days long (p<0,05) while that of 30 control persons aged between 18 and 57 years was 7 0,32 days long. Clinical patterns and biochemicalparameters were followed-up. The diagnosis was serologically confirmed in 28,8% of the patients. Some 79,2% of the elderly patients presented with accompanying diseases in contrast to 46,8% of the controls (p<0,001). Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases occurred most commonly followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumopathies, diabetes mellitus, etc. One and the same patient often presented with several accompanying diseases. Contact with dogs was reported in 64,9% but tick biting - in 22% of the cases. The etiological treatment included tetracyclines and chlornitromycin or quinolones of third generation as an alternative. Pathogenetic and symptomatic therapy was also administered along with treatment of the accompanying diseases. The authors recommended the hospitalization of the elderly patients with Mediterranean spotted fever and the antibiotic therapy with chlornitromycin or quinolones of third generation of the severe forms. General practitioners' attention should be paid on the risk in such patients with delayed diagnosis and treatment

Implementing a Web-based Application for Analysis and Evaluation of Heart Rate Variability Using Serverless Architecture

This article is devoted to the development of a web-based application for analysis and evaluation of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) using serverless architecture. Advancements in information algorithms and computing technologies have been playing an increasingly important role in cardiology, as continuous monitoring of patients’ health can be vital to their well-being.  One physiological parameter that can be easily measured and that can provide indispensable insight into the state of the human body is the HRV.  HRV analysis can assess not only the physiological state of the body but also provide the capability to monitor its dynamics and predict future diseases. As the research in the sphere of cardiology is constantly growing there is a multitude of new ways to assess the physiological state of patients and provide an early indicator to pathological conditions. Therefore, there is a need to bring these advances to a growing number of end-users (health-care professionals and patients) in the shortest possible time. To address this problem, this study proposes the development of a web-based application for analysis and evaluation of HRV by applying linear and nonlinear mathematical methods. The application is created using a serverless architectural approach, which allows for fast development time, as there is no need to manage server infrastructure, and for automatic scaling to dynamically match the number of requests. The developer can instead focus on implementing the logic for the HRV analysis algorithms and deliver new improvements at a faster rate. The proposed web application can be accessed by any device that is connected to the Internet and is optimized to handle both an intermittent and a consistent volume of requests. The algorithms implemented in the web application have been validated by examining two groups of subjects (young adults and older adults) using linear and non-linear models. The obtained results from the two groups can be compared with a set of reference values (only for the linear methods) and an assessment can be made whether each studied parameter is within the normal range or outside it (its value is too high or too low). To aid the assessment for HRV, the results obtained by the linear and nonlinear analysis are presented using a set of both graphs and tables

Relativistic Jets in the Radio Reference Frame Image Database. I. Apparent Speeds from the First 5 Years of Data

We present the results of an analysis of relativistic jet apparent speeds from VLBI images in the Radio Reference Frame Image Database (RRFID). The images are snapshot VLBI images at 8 and 2 GHz using the VLBA, plus up to 10 additional antennas that provide global VLBI coverage. We have analyzed the 8 GHz images from the first 5 years of the database (1994-1998), for all sources observed at three or more epochs during this time range. This subset comprises 966 images of 87 sources. The sources in this subset have an average of 11 epochs of observation over the years 1994-1998, with the best-observed sources having 19 epochs. About half of the sources in this RRFID kinematic survey have not been previously studied with multiepoch VLBI observations. We have measured apparent speeds for a total of 184 jet components in 77 sources, of which the best-measured 94 component speeds in 54 sources are used in the final analysis. The apparent speed distribution shows a peak at low apparent speeds (consistent with stationary components), a tail extending out to apparent speeds of about 30c, and a mean apparent speed of 3.6c. A total of 36 of the sources in this paper are also included in the 2 cm VLBA survey by Kellermann et al., with similar angular resolution, sensitivity, and time range. For those sources, we present a detailed component-by-component comparison of the apparent speeds measured by the 2 cm survey and those measured in this paper. Many of the independent apparent speed measurements agree very well, but for approximately 25% of the components we find significant differences in the apparent speeds measured by the two surveys. The leading cause of these discrepancies is differences in how the two surveys have identified jet components from epoch to epoch

PECULIARITIES OF THE EPIDEMIC PROCESS OF EPIDEMIC PAROTITIS UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF MASS IMMUNOPROPHYLAXIS

Some specific features of the mumps epidemic process under the conditions of mass immunoprevention were analyzed. Incidence rates were higher when there was a remoteness of the primary immunization by live parotitis vaccine. Certain opportunities for amending the epidemic control with this vaccine to avoid infection were emphasized

Национален консенсус за диагностика, лечение, проследяване и профилактика на хередитарната транстиретиновата амилоидоза

Амилоидозите са широк спектър от заболявания, дължащи се на промени в белтъчната структура, в резултат на което нормално разтворим тетрамерен белтък след дестабилизация на четвъртичната структура и последващ разпад до свободни мономери образува неразтворими извънклетъчни фибрилни депозити, което води до органна дисфункция. Всички видове амилоид съдържат един основен фибрилен протеин, който определя вида на амилоида, както и по-малки компоненти. Над 20 различни фибрилни протеина, асоциирани с амилоидози са описани при хора, всяка от които има различна клинична картина. Един такъв белтък, който формира човешки амилоидни фибрили, е транстиретина (Ando Y. и сътр. 2005). TTР действа като транспортен белтък за тироксин в плазма. TTР също транспортира ретинол (витамин А) чрез свързването му с ретинол-свързващия протеин. Той циркулира като тетрамер от четири идентични субединици. TTР може да бъде открит в плазмата и ликвора. Синтезира се главно в черния дроб и хориоидния плексус на мозъка и в по-малка степен - в ретината. Генът TTР е локализиран върху дългото рамо на хромозома 18 и съдържа 4 екзона и 3 интрона. Системните амилоидози се означават с главна буква А (за амилоид), следвана от съкращението за химическата същност на фибрилния протеин. Така например, TTР амилоидоза се съкращава ATTР, а амилоидоза при отлагане на леките вериги на имуноглобулините – AЛ (Saraiva M. и сътр., 1984; Connors L. и сътр., 2003; Ando Y. и сътр. 2005). Класифицирането на откритите генетични варианти е от изключително значение за молекулярно-генетичните тестове и тяхната интерпретация. Оценката на патогенността на даден генетичен вариант трябва да се извършва на базата на научни доказателства и според унифицирана номенклатура и правила. Във връзка с това, широко използваните до момента термини мутация и полиморфизъм са заменени с класификация на генетичните варианти, според която се обособяват 5 категории: патогенен, вероятно патогенен, вариант с неясно клинично значение, вероятно непатогенен и непатогенен (Richards S. и сътр., 2015; Nykamp K. И сътр., 2017)

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL, CLINICAL AND LABORATORY PECULIARITIES OF AN EPIDEMIC OF ACUTE VIRAL HEPATITIS DURING 1990-1991 IN THE REGION OF VARNA

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Antiproliferative properties against human breast, cervical and ovarian cancer cell lines, and antioxidant capacity of leaf aqueous ethanolic extract from Cotinus coggygria Scop

Cotinus coggygria Scop. leaf aqueous ethanolic extract was examined for its in vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activity. Antiproliferative effect was assessed on four human gynecological cancer cell lines: breast (MCF7, T47D), cervical (HeLa) and ovarian (A2780) and compared to the cell growth inhibitory effect on non-cancerous breast epithelial cell line MCF10A using MTT cell proliferation assay. Radical scavenging assay with DPPH was applied to evaluate antioxidant potential of the extract. The obtained results showed that the herb inhibited cell growth of all of the tested cancer cell lines and the highest was the cytostatic effect on A2780 cells with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 30.8 μg/ml. For the other cell lines the IC50 values were in the range of 55-122.7 μg/ml. Additionally, the extract exerted considerably weaker reduction in cell proliferation of the non-cancerous cell line MCF10A compared to cancer cells, which indicates for antiproliferative selectivity. C. coggygria extract showed high free radical scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 11.2 μg/ml. The obtained data provide evidence for pharmacological potential of the tested extract and future more detailed studies concerning the molecular mechanisms of the anticancer effect of the herb are needed