Pain in cancer and psychological methods of its correction.

Physical pain can be a major component of cancer patient's suffering but suffering itself covers much more different sides of a human being than physical manifestations and often happens in the absence of physical pain. Suffering or total pain include physical pain, social pain, psychological pain and spiritual pain, which have a mutual influence on each other. The efficacy of treatment of total pain in cancer patients may be increased by additional use of psychological methods of its correction.

[The age peculiarities of metabolism and structure of the brain tumors and its clinical significance].

Retrospective analysis of the treatment results in 476 patients, suffering the brain glioma (BG), was conducted. Peculiarities of diagnosis, clinical course and morphological features of the BG in elderly patients were noted. Morphological criteria of meta- bolic paraneoplastic signs were established. The role of structural signs of hypoxia in elderly patients was estimated for prognostication of the disease course.

[Differentiated approach for determination of the patients treatment tactics in focal affection of brain, using stereotaxic methods].

There were analyzed the results of stereotaxic biopsy in 338 patients, using CRW stereotaxic system (Radionics, U.S.A.), performed with the objective for differential diagnosis and treatment conduction in the focal affection of brain (of tumoral and nontumoral etiology). In the recurrent cystic affection of brain there were determined diagnostic informativity and trustworthiness of the cysts stereotaxic aspirationance, the abscesses drainage and the Ommaya reservoir implantation. There was proved the important significance of stereotaxic methods in differential diagnosis and treatment of the brain focal affection.

Processes and outcomes of training on rapid assessment and response methods on injecting drug use and related HIV infection in the Russian Federation.

In September 1997, Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland (MSF-H) began a project to provide training and support for HIV/AIDS prevention among injecting drug users (IDUs) in the Russian Federation, focusing on the use of the World Health Organization Rapid Assessment and Response Guide on Injecting Drug Use, and the European Peer Support Manual. As part of the training, participants are asked to carry out a rapid situation assessment (RSA) in their city or region as a major step towards designing and implementing an effective program to prevent HIV transmission among IDUs. This paper focuses on the first four training cycles of the programme (from January 1998 to January 1999), in which 89 health professionals and others from 32 Russian cities took part. A total of 28 rapid situation assessments were completed or almost completed by participants during these four cycles. The paper provides an overview of the methods used and major problems faced by participants undertaking these assessments, as well as summarising the 14 harm reduction programmes which resulted.

[Immunological monitoring of patients with disseminated colorectal cancer under thermochemotherapy]. / Immunologicheskii monitoring bol'nykh s disseminirovannym kolorektal'nym rakom pri termokhimioterapii.

The basic immunological indexes were investigated in patients with disseminated colorectal cancer after conduction of magnetothermia and chemotherapy using fluorouracil. Control group consisted of 11 patients, to whom monotherapy with fluorouracil was prescribed. The modifying action of magnetothermia alleviates significantly the immunodepressive effect of cytostatic drugs.

[The efficacy of sirdalud in the drug therapy of pain in the spine]. / Effektivnost' sirdaluda pri lekarstvennoi terapii boli v spine.

The activity of myorelaxant sirdalud (tizanidine) was studied in 36 patients aged 20-79 with pain syndrome (reflex muscular-tonic, myofascial, acute compression radiculopathy). The condition of the patients was evaluated according to the visual analog scale where the scores were assigned to the intensity of muscular spasm, pain at rest, exercise and at altitude tension and functional decline. Pain symptoms diminished as early as the treatment day 3. The same was true for muscular spasms. The highest effect of sirdalud occurred in acute phases of the diseases. Pain relief was so material that 20 patients were able to discontinue analgetics and tranquilizers. For 12 patients the doses of nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs were noticeably reduced. Side effects of sirdalud were minimal: slight sleepiness and xerostomia.

[Magnetic resonance tomography in late sequelae of spinal and spinal cord injuries]. / Magnitno-rezonansnaia tomografiia pri otdalennykh posledstviiakh pozvonochno-spinnomozgovoi travmy.

Magnetic-resonance tomography (MRT) helped obtain a high-resolution image characterized by high sensitivity in respect of soft tissue contrast visualization and providing direct imaging of the spinal cord and its radicles. This method is useful in the diagnosis of injuries to the spine and cord. A total of 64 patients of both sexes aged 6 to 67 were examined. The primary diagnosis of traumatic changes in the spine and cord was confirmed by MRT in only 62% of cases. Two groups of patients were singled out: with acute and chronic injuries, subdivided into subgroups with and without spinal cord dysfunction. The detected changes were divided into extramedullary (traumatic disk hernias, compression of the cord or radicles with a dislocated bone fragment, epidural hematoma) and intramedullary (edema, hemorrhages, spinal cord disruption); MRT diagnosis of intramedullary changes is particularly important, more so in the absence of bone injuries. In remote periods after the trauma the clinical picture was determined by spinal canal stenosis, cicatricial atrophic and adhesive changes eventually blocking the liquor space. Intramedullary changes presented as spinal cord cysts or syringomyelia. A classification of the detected changes by the types of injuries and their aftereffects is presented in the paper. The authors emphasize the desirability of MRT in spinal injuries with signs of cord dysfunction.

[The Arnold-Chiari anomaly: magnetic resonance tomographic data and the clinical manifestations]. / Anomaliia Arnol'da--Kiari: dannye magnitno-rezonansnoi tomografii i klinicheskie proiavleniia.

Magnetic resonance tomographic findings and clinical symptoms were compared by using the results of 596 studies. The clinical diagnoses and types of Arnold-Chiari's anomaly, which were revealed by magnetic resonance tomography as groups I, II, and III were also evaluated. A contribution of fluid dynamic disorders, including intracranial hypertension and hydrocephalus, was assessed. No relationship was found between the clinical manifestations and the ascending degree of cerebellar tonsils. The combination of Arnold-Chiari's anomaly with syringomyelia and osteochondrosis and a role of magnetic resonance tomography in the identification of the anomaly for correct choice of therapy in spinal pathology were shown. It was concluded that magnetic resonance tomography should be used in all cases of spinal diseases or suspected diseases of the craniospinal transition.

[The possibility of the restoration of interferon formation by biologically active thymus factors in experimentally induced immunodepression]. / Vozmozhnost' vosstanovleniia interferonoobrazovaniia biologicheski aktivnymi faktorami timusa v usloviiakh éksperimental'no vyzvannoi immunodepressii.

Interferon production was investigated in mice of CBA line with experimentally induced immunosuppression. With all types of treatment (irradiation, administration of hydrocortisone, cyclophosphane, ALS) the capacity of host cells for interferon production was shown to be reduced. Administration of biologically active thymus factor, thymostimulin, to experimental animals resulted in significant restoration of alpha/beta and gamma interferon production.

[Intensive preoperative gamma teletherapy combined with endogenous interferon induction in the treatment of stomach cancer]. / Intensivnaia predoperatsionnaia telegammaterapiia v sochetanii s induktsiei éndogennogo interferona pri lechenii raka zheludka.

The authors analyze results of combined treatment of 72 patients using preoperative intensive gamma teletherapy. Increase of 4-year survival was observed only in patients showing no regional metastases and equalled 18.7%. The authors worked out a method of preoperative radiation treatment against the background of induction of endogenous interferon by curantyl. The course of radiation therapy was carried out in association with a 2-3 times increase of the interferon levels in the blood and was accompanied by a reduction of the immunodepressive effect of gamma teletherapy on the body.

[Mast cell-affinity lymphocytes as indicator cells of the forms of hemoblastoses]. / Mastotsitaffinnye limfotsity kak indikatornye kletki nekotorykh form gemoblastozov.

The formation of mastolymphocyte rosettes was used to determine that in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and bovine leukemia, unlike healthy people and animals as well as patients with solid tumours of different localization and Hodgkin's disease, a large amount of cells appear among peripheral blood lymphocytes having membrane affinity for mast cells. This may be used as an additional criterion in laboratory diagnosis of these diseases.

[Induction of substances with thymosin-like activity and the potentiation of interferonogenesis in the mechanism of prodigiozan inhibition of 3-methylcholanthrene-induced blastomogenesis]. / Induktsiia veshchestv s timozinopodobnoi altivnost'iu i potentsirovanie interferonogeneza v mekhanizme tormozheniia prodigiozanom blastomogeneza, indutsirovannogo 3-metilkholantrenom.

It is shown that prodigiosan is an inductor of synthesis of the substances with the thymosin-like activity. The suggestion about inhibition of 3-methylcholanthrene-induced blastomogenesis by prodigiosan which is mediated by the substances with the thymosin-like activity and interferon is discussed. We present the hypothetical diagram of the development of the above mentioned mechanism. The significance of the obtained findings for elaboration of the immunotherapy is discussed.

[Quenching of singlet oxygen with chlorophylls and porphyrins]. / Tushenie singletnogo kisloroda khlorofillami i porfirinami.

The rate constants (kox) of irreversible oxidation of chlorophylls and porphyrins by 1 delta g state of oxygen (1O2) have been determined. It has been shown that kox values are 1-5 orders of magnitude lower than the values of rate constants of quenching 1O2 (kq) with the same pigments. The correlation between kox and kq has been found. Its analysis allowed to conclude that oxidation proceeds via intermediate formation of a charge transfer complex between the pigments and 1O2. A kinetic scheme of the processes leading to physical and chemical quenching 1O2 with chlorophylls and porphyrins is proposed, its mathematical analysis is carried out. The results of this analysis can be used for a search of substances capable of effective quenching 1O2 without destruction of the quenchers. It is concluded that chlorophylls protect photosynthetic membranes from the destruction by 1O2, and some synthetic metal-porphyrins can be used as good protectors of different systems against photooxidation.

[Contact interaction of mast cells and lymphocytes during ontogenetic antigen-induced differentiation and malignant transformation of lymphoid cells]. / Kontaktnoe vzaimodeistvie masto- i limfotsitov pri ontogeneticheskoi, antigen indutsirovannoi differentsirovke i zlokachestvennoi transformatsii limfoidnykh kletok.

Mastocytes of newborn rats as well as those of adult ones are capable of rosette-formation, whereas the ability of lymphocytes to from rosettes increases with age. The thymocytes of 3-month-old mice lose the ability to mastolymphocytic rosette-formation (MLR) after priming for one hour at 45 degrees C. The ability of thymocytes and splenocytes to MLR-formation is closely related to the time course of immunization of the animals and the method of immunization. The thymocytes and splenocytes of mice with leukemia show a decreased and increased ability to MLR-formation, respectively.