[Bronchiectasis: a method of obtaining bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and studying its cytological characteristics]. / Bronkhoéktaticheskaia bolezn': sposob polucheniia bronkho-al'veoliarnykh smyvov i ikh tsitologicheskaia kharakteristika.

The bronchoalveolar fluid (BAF) cytology of 63 patients with bronchiectasis has been studied. BAF from 8 subjects without pulmonary pathology served as control. BAF samples were obtained after preliminary cleaning of the bronchial tree from the purulent contents. BAF cytosis was found significantly increased in bronchiectasis as compared to the control being observed even at minimal inflammatory activity in the lungs and due to elevated neutrophil count. Alveolar macrophage numbers reduced only in advanced inflammation. Lymphocyte count remained unchanged. BAF cytologic evidence objectively reflects the degree of the bronchoalveolar inflammation.

[Various aspects of the chronic course of Reiter's disease]. / Nekotorye aspekty khronicheskogo techeniia bolezni Reitera.

A comparative clinicolaboratory study of followed-up patients with a chronic (38 patients), acute and lingering (137 patients) course of Reiter's disease was conducted. The role of a persisting focus of infection in the genitourinary organs and genetic predisposition (HLA-B27 was detected in 100% of the cases) in the formation of a chronic variant of disease was shown. Sacroileitis, amyotrophy, bursitis and enthesitis developed more frequently in a chronic than in an acute variant; erosion in the joints was detected in over 40% of the patients. Morphological investigation of the synovial bioptates revealed a picture of chronic synovitis with superficial localization of an inflammatory process.

[Ultrastructure of skeletal muscles in children with dermatomyositis]. / Ul'trastruktura skeletnykh myshts pri dermatomiozite u detei.

The ultrastructure of skeletal muscles was studied on 6 bioptates collected from children with the idiopathic form of dermatomyositis. The main type of the affection of muscle fibers was myolysis the intensity of which correlated with the degree of activity of the disease. In focal myolysis, signs of intracellular regeneration were found in fibers. Diffuse myolysis was characterized by retained hypertrophic nuclei and basal membranes of sarcolemma against the background of complete degeneration of myofibrillae and a sharp decrease in the fiber diameter. Considerable hyperplastic changes in myosatellitocytes were found, but with no regenerating fibers, however. The permanent features included hypertrophic and dystrophic changes in the vascular endothelium and pericytes. In the maximally active disease, destruction of capillaries and a decrease in their numbers were found. Microtubular structures and nuclear bodies were found in the endothelium, pericytes, and less frequently in other cells.