[The prevalence of asthma-related symptoms among children in three Ukrainian cities with environmental problems (preliminary results)].

In 2002 authors initiated a US-Ukraine collaborative study on bronchial asthma among 2177 6-8 year old children who resided in Kyiv, Dniprodzerzhinsk and Mariupol, Ukraine in 2002 and who were participants in the Family and Children of Ukraine Longitudinal Cohort Study. The overall goal of the study is to investigate the epidemiology and risk factors for asthma and asthma--related symptoms among these children. The study design comprises of three phases. During the first phase Questionnaires including the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) core module on wheeze, as well as questions about other respiratory symptoms (including night cough and phlegm) were given to parents of 2177 children aged 6-8 years. The authors examined the prevalence of wheezing and dry cough at night not associated with colds during the past year among the surveyed children. The parent-reported prevalence of wheezing was significantly different among these three Ukrainian cities: 14.4% in Kyiv, 19% in Mariupol and 5.7% in Dniprodzerzhinsk. The prevalence of dry cough at night not associated with colds was also different in Kyiv, Mariupol and Dniprodzerzhinsk and was 11.4%, 6.9% and 6.9% respectively). The authors conclude that the prevalence of wheezing illness and dry cough at night not associated with colds during the past year varies among Ukrainian cities with the highest prevalence in kyiv, the most "westernized" of these cities.

[Osteocalcin in infants with rickets]. / Osteokal'tsin pri rakhite u detei rannego vozrasta.

Infants afflicted with rickets demonstrate a reduction in the blood content of vitamin K-dependent protein, osteocalcin, most pronounced in disease of medium gravity, in its calcipenic and phosphopenic varieties. It has been established that there is an inverse correlation between osteocalcin content and the level of parathyroid hormone and a direct correlation between osteocalcin content and the concentration of total and ionized calcium and calcitonin in the blood. It is suggested that measurement of blood osteocalcin in children may serve a diagnostic marker of metabolic disorders and mineralization of osseous tissue.

[Cyclic nucleotide content of the rat kidney cortex in vitamin D deficiency]. / Soderzhanie tsiklicheskikh nukleotidov v korkovom veshchestve pochek krys pri defitsite vitamina D.

The development of experimental vitamin D deficiency in rats was accompanied by changes in cyclic nucleotides metabolism in the cortical part of kidneys, namely the increase in cyclic AMP synthesis and the decrease in cyclic GMP. The above changes appear in combination with marked deviations in calcium/phosphorus metabolism.