[Possibility for studying the life expectancy of patients with Balkan endemic nephropathy by dispensary observation]. / Vuzmozhnost za prouchvane produlzhitelnostta na zhiveene na bolnite ot balkanska endemichna nefropatiia chrez dispanserno nabliudenie.

The follow-up cards of 1100 patients that died of Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) within the period 1962-1981 were studied with a view to establishing the incidence of the disease in Vratza district, affection of sex and age and chiefly--the duration of the disease. The authors established that the disease was found in 47 settlements of Vratza district, that the females were more often affected as compared with the males and that the subjects aged from 30 to 70 were most frequently affected. More that the half of the patients with BEN was established by the authors, to die with--in the first 5 years since the onset of the disease, whereas the rest--live longer, in single cases, over 20 years.

Geographic correlation between the occurrence of endemic nephropathy and urinary tract tumours in vratza district, Bulgaria.

Data on the occurrence of endemic nephropathy (EN) and urinary tract and other cancers in an endemic region of Vratza district, Bulgaria, for the years 1965-1974, are presented. In endemic villages a high incidence of urinary tract tumours, affecting in particular the renal pelvis and ureter, closely correlated with the EN incidence and mortality rates. In the villages with high and moderate EN incidences urinary tract tumours are the most common neoplasms. They account for 25% of all tumour sites in males and 30% in females. In hyperendemic villages age-adjusted incidences in EN and urinary tract tumours were 506/10(5) and 104/10(5) in females, and 315/10(5) and 89/10(5) in males respectively. EN mortality in these villages accounted for over 40% of all deaths in females and about 30% in males. Both diseases displayed peculiar geographic clustering. Females and middle-aged persons were most often affected. Urinary tract neoplasms were often multiple and nearly 90% of them originated in the uro-epithelium. In endemic and non-endemic villages of the region studied, the frequency and pattern of non-urinary tract cancers were rather similar, with statistical values close to those of the rural population of Vratza District and Bulgaria as a whole.

[Study of the distribution of kidney calculi in Vrastsa District]. / Prouchvane vurkhu razprostranenieto na bubrechnokamennata bolest vuv Vrachanski okrug

The authors have studied the RCD spread in Vratza district according to the material of the therapeutic departments in the district for the period 1969--1973 and according to the material of the out-patient department -- polyclinical--1971--1973. During that period 16,294 patients with diseases of the urinary system were registered, 6311 out of them with RCD, i. e. 38.7 per cent. The region of Mezdra was established to be the highest affected by RCD in the district (60,8%), followed by Belaslatina region (43.4%), Vratza (40%), Kneza (37.9%) and Orejahovo the last--(22.4%). Females were established to suffer more frequently (56.7%) as compared with males (43.3%) and the peasants 51.8%) insignificantly more often in comparison with the the townsmen (48.7%). All ages are affected by the disease but most frequently the individuals aged 31--50 (49.5%). Workers (36.4%) are those that most frquently suffer of RCD in the district of Vratza, followed by employees (23.4%), cooperative farmers (21.6%), etc. The authors have established that renal calculosis affects most frequently the right kidney (56.6%) as compared with the left (40.4%) and very rarely both kidneys (2.94).