Personality, coping and sperm count.

Previous research has suggested an association between personality traits and coping, as well as between coping and sperm concentration. In the present study, both domains of research were combined, leading to the formulation of specific hypotheses. A total of 54 healthy volunteers were given questionnaires twice to assess personality traits and coping behaviour. Participants also produced up to three semen specimens. As hypothesized, active coping was correlated negatively with neuroticism (r = -0.59) and positively with conscientiousness (r = 0.56), whereas sperm concentration was correlated negatively with both active coping (r = -0.28) and conscientiousness (r = -0.37). The relationship between conscientiousness and sperm concentration did not appear to be mediated by active coping. Although the correlations were small, evidence is mounting that psychological aspects and male sperm parameters are not independent. The present findings, however, should not lead to the conclusion that conscientiousness and active forms of coping are characteristics of infertile patients.

[A case of Babesia microti imported into the Czech Republic from the USA]. / Prípad infekce Babesia microti importované do Ceské republiky z USA.

Human babesiosis is a zoonotic tick-borne protozoan infection caused by several species of the genus Babesia. It is a rare disease in Europe. Until recently, 31 cases have been described. Most of them were severe infections caused by a cattle parasite Babesia divergens in splenectomized patients. In contrast, a rodent species Babesia microti was responsible for hundreds of cases of human babesiosis in the U.S.A. In this report we describe the first case of human babesiosis in the Czech Republic. To our knowledge, it is also the first case of symptomatic B. microti infection imported to Europe from the United States.

Dengue fever in the Czech Republic.

BACKGROUND: Dengue fever has become, in Western Europe, the second most frequently imported disease after viral hepatitis A. OBJECTIVES: Dengue fever was diagnosed at the Department of Infectious Disease, University Hospital in Brno, so the authors decided to make local physicians aware of the possibility of the disease being contracted by Czech travelers. METHODS: The first two cases of dengue fever, with the patients hospitalized at the Department of Infectious Disease, University Hospital in Brno, Czech Republic, are described. RESULTS: A young couple contracted this infection in a region usually visited by tourists in Thailand. The disease broke out 12 hours after their return home. The clinical and laboratory pictures of the disease and the kinetics of serological responses are described in detail. CONCLUSION: The chief diagnostic clue with this disease, beside a visit to a high-risk area, can be considered a sudden onset of fever accompanied by marked fatigue, myalgia, and arthralgia. Laboratory tests showed characteristic thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and pathological values of AST and ALT. The clinical picture is characterized by symptoms of persisting fatigue and exhaustion, even after the fever has subsided.

[Reactive arthritis in infectious diarrhea]. / Reaktivní artritidy u infekcních prujmu.

The authors made a ten-year analysis of the incidence of these complications. They describe a total of 16 cases of arthralgia at the onset of diarrhoea and nine cases of reactive arthritis. The paper deals with some clinical and laboratory aspects of the disease.