[Photoacoustic spectroscopy evaluation of the impact of smoking on the composition of exhaled air in patients with bronchopulmonary diseases]. / Otsenka vliyaniya kureniya na sostav vydykhaemogo vozdukha patsientov s bronkholegochnymi zabolevaniyami s primeneniem optiko-akusticheskii spektroskopii.

AIM: To investigate the impact of smoking on the air exhaled by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthmatics, by applying photoacoustic spectroscopy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The exhaled air absorption spectra (EAAS) were analyzed in healthy volunteers and patients with COPD and asthmatics, by applying an ILPA-1 CO2 laser photoacoustic gas analyzer. The procedure based on the calculation of an integrated estimate (IE) of the state of the object was used to assess the findings. RESULTS: Comparison of the IE of EAAS in COPD patients and non-smoking healthy individuals showed that spectra of the compounds, the formation of which was associated with smoking, were recorded in the range of wavelengths corresponding to the 10R branch of CO2 laser generation. This also provided evidence indicating that the exhaled air of asthmatics differed from that of both smoking and non-smoking healthy individuals. The calculations yielded the threshold values of EAAS IE in the range of wavelengths corresponding to the 10P branche of CO2 laser generation, which made it possible to distinguish non-smoking healthy individuals from asthmatics and COPD patients in 94 and 89% of cases, respectively. CONCLUSION: The investigation has confirmed that smoking substantially impacts the composition of the air exhaled by healthy individuals. It has been shown that the use of reference groups formed from non-smoking healthy individuals can improve the accuracy of photoacoustic spectroscopy in detecting COPD and asthma. A further development in this direction will open up new prospects for a new method to diagnose COPD and asthma.

[Chronic glomerulonephritis and pregnancy]. / Khronicheskii glomerulonefrit i beremennost'.

AIM: To clarify factors of risk for unfavourable variants of gestational chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) and poor pregnancy outcomes in CGN; to determine prognostic implications of changes in some renal and uteroplacental indices. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Variants of CGN gestational course and pregnancy outcomes have been analysed for 156 CGN patients. The women were examined before pregnancy, in the course of pregnancy and 3-24 months after the delivery. Measurements were made of 24 h proteinuria, glomerular filtration rate, blood transaminases activity, functional renal reserve (FRR), uricemia, blood level of alpha-phetoprotein. Placentas were studied morphologically, uterine and umbilical artery circulation was assessed by dopplerometry. RESULTS: The following abnormalities were registered: high proteinuria (34.6%), progression of hypertension (29.5%), renal function deterioration (15.4%), fetal and neonatal losses (15.4%), fetal underdevelopment (25%), preterm delivery (17.3%), preeclampsia (7.7%), preterm placental detachment (1.9%). There is morphological, dopplerometric and biochemical evidence for placental insufficiency in CGN pregnant women. CONCLUSION: Activity of CGN (nephritic or acute nephritic syndromes), hypertension, renal failure, disorders of renal hemodynamics are factors of risk for unfavourable gestational course of CGN and pregnancy complications. Placental insufficiency deteriorates pregnancy outcomes in CGN, but changes in uterine and umbilical circulation as well as blood levels of alpha-fetoprotein are not prognostically significant.

[Morphological characteristics of chorion in spontaneous abortions of chromosomic etiology]. / Morfologicheskaia kharakteristika khoriona pri spontannykh abortakh khromosomnoi étiologii.

Morphological investigation of spontaneous abortions (SA) with normal and abnormal karyotype (220 specimens of the first trimester SA) was carried out. It included a histological pattern, apoptosis and proliferative activity. Estimation of apoptotic index (AI) was carried out in 7 cases of SA with normal karyotype and 7 cases of SA with pathological karyotype using the ApopTag Peroxidase Kits (Biotech, USA). The material of 4 therapeutic abortions was taken as the control group. The proliferative activity (PA) was determined as the rate of Ki-67-positive cytotrophoblast cells. PA was examined in SA groups with normal (15 cases) and pathological (15 cases) karyotypes and 20 cases of control group. Identical morphological signs of the development retardation of the villi were diagnosed among abortuses with normal karyotype and with aneuploidies. The diameter of the villi was bigger in aneuploid SA than in SA with normal karyotype (p > 0.05). The partial moles were diagnosed in triploidy, as it was expected. High level of AI and PA in the control group was revealed. In SA with pathological karyotype a high rate of AI accompanied a low level of PA. The AI and PA were low in SA with normal karyotype. However, the largest uncorrelation between AI and PA in extravillous trophoblast cells of SA with chromosomal anomalies were observed: the level of AI was higher than the level of PA. We suppose that the last one leads to the abruption of the ovum.

A conserved bulged adenosine in a peripheral duplex of the antigenomic HDV self-cleaving RNA reduceskinetic trapping of inactive conformations.

In the ribozyme of hepatitis delta virus antigenomic RNA, two short duplexes, P2 and P2a, stabilize the active self-cleaving structure. However, P2a also promotes kinetic trapping of non-native structures. A bulged adenosine (A14) separates P2a and P2; this bulged A is conserved in clinical isolates of HDV but is unlikely to be physically close to the cleavage site phosphate in the ribozyme structure. Removing the bulge did not significantly slow the rate of cleavage but slowed the conversion of inactive to active conformations. In the absence of the bulged A, inactive conformations required higher urea concentrations or higher temperatures to be activated. Thus, the bulged-nucleotide in the P2-P2a duplex did not provide an essential kink or hinge between P2 and P2a that was required for cleavage activity but, rather, increased the rate of refolding from an inactive to an active ribozyme structure. These data also suggest a model in which P2 and P2a form a coaxial stacked helix of 9 bp, the most likely arrangement being one in which P2-P2a is roughly parallel to P1.

[Alternative biocontrol as a psychophysiological mechanism of functional adaptive self-regulation]. / Al'ternativnoe bioupravlenie kak psikhofiziologicheskii mekhanizm adaptivnoi samoreguliatsii funktsii.

Study of voluntary autoregulation of the heart rate (HR) by means of artificial biofeedback (BFB) using a display, has revealed the possibility of changing the HR voluntarily within a wide range of (from 50 to 140 beats per minute). Respective fluctuations occurred in the arterial pressure. A decrease in the HR and reactive alarm, increase in the self-assessment of physical state, activity, mood and work level occurred in result of the HR-BFB training.

[Acetylsalicylic acid and kurantil in the prevention of pregnancy complications in glomerulonephritis and hypertension]. / Atsetilsalitsilovaia kislota i kurantil v profilaktike oslozhnenii beremennosti pri glomerulonefrite i gipertonicheskoi bolezni.

A controlled clinical trial included 64 pregnant females suffering from chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) and hypertension: 31 patients received acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in a dose 125 mg/day and curantyl (150-225 mg/day) from gestation week 12-19 till delivery, 33 control females were not given the drugs. Prenatal care and labour management were similar. Total number of the complications (fetal and natal deaths, preterm labour, intrauterine fetal retardation, late toxicosis, premature detachment of normally located placenta) as well as the number of pregnancies with complications were less in the test group. The same was true for the second pregnancies versus the first ones when ASA and curantyl were not given. It is suggested that low-dose ASA plus curantyl improve placental circulation eventually resulting in less frequent occurrence of pregnancy complications and in better pregnancy outcomes in CGN and hypertensive women.

[A program of prevention of hereditary lysosomal diseases in the USSR]. / Programma profilaktiki nasledstvennykh lizosomnykh boleznei v SSSR.

The organization of genetic counselling for the families of patients with lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) was based on the interaction of the genetic counselling units of this country with a laboratory of inherited metabolic diseases of the National Research Center of Medical Genetics, USSR AMS. All the patients from 705 families at risk were examined using biochemical techniques and methods of somatic cell genetics. In total the loci differentiation was performed for 309 patients with mucopolysaccharidoses, glycoproteinoses, mucolipidoses, sphingolipidoses and other LSD. 53 families at risk (of 277) were prenatally diagnosed. 66 fetuses were diagnosed for mucopolysaccharidoses, type I, II, III, A and B, VI, Tay-Sachs disease, Sandhoff's disease, GM1-gangliosidosis, metachromatic leukodystrophy, mannosidosis, and multiple sulfatidosis. In total 18 affected fetuses were diagnosed and aborted. All the prenatal diagnoses were verified. The prevalence of mucopolysaccharidoses in two Central Asian republics was evaluated as 1:15,000. An Uneven ethnic distribution of different mucopolysaccharides in the USSR has also been shown.