Chronic hyponatremia in the elderly: association with geriatric syndromes (review of literature).

Hyponatremia is more common in the elderly. A number of studies suggest that even mild chronic hyponatremia is a serious danger, increasing the risks of developing geriatric syndromes, falls, low bone density, fractures, cognitive impairment, and death of all causes. Although the mechanism for the development of such complications is currently not completely clear. Questions remain about the need and methods for correcting this condition, although there is some evidence that the correction of hyponatremia improves cognitive functions, postural balance, minimizing the risk of falls and fractures. These issues are addressed in this review of the literature.

[The efficacy of specific plasma in the therapy of newborn infants with a Pseudomonas aeruginosa surgical infection]. / Effektivnost' spetsificheskoi plazmy v terapii novorozhdennykh s sinegnoinoi khirurgicheskoi infektsiei.

141 newborn with purulent surgical infection were under observation. In 73 the inflammatory process was not induced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 68 the infection was caused by the blue pus bacillus. Bacteriological and immunological examination was conducted, including that with the use of enzyme immunoassay, to monitor the optical density of anti-pyocyanea antibodies during the course of the disease. It was found that the serum of a healthy newborn baby contains antibodies to Pseudomonas pyocyanea and did no differ from that of healthy older children in the level of anti-pyocyanea antibodies. The increase of the level of anti-pyocyanea antibodies in response to infection with Pseudomonas pyocyanea is twice less in newborns than older children with this infection. The use of specific plasma is much more effective than the administration of nonhyperimmune plasma. The efficacy of treatment with anti-pyocyanea plasma is determined by the level of anti-pyocyanea antibodies produced in the patient as a result of plasmatherapy rather than the volume of the dose given for the course.

The effect of using T-activin in the therapy of the newborn with suppurative surgical infection.

A total of 156 newborn infants with suppurative surgical infection (SSI) were observed; 73 of them had sepsis and 83 a severe localized process. In 47 patients with sepsis and 34 with localized infection, T-activin was included in complex therapy while the other infants formed the control group. It has been established that T-activin leads to an increase in the quantity of the active population of T-lymphocytes in the peripheral blood and to enhanced functional activity of T-lymphocytes in the newborn with SSI independent of generalization of the process. Bactericidal activity of circulating phagocytes is improved. The clinical course of SSI is less severe with more pronounced positive changes in the symptoms, hospital stay of the children is shortened, lethality is reduced. The effect of T-activin on the dynamic of the indices of the immune state is more marked in a septic process.

[Comparative study of the virulence of the Shigella isolated from bacterial carriers and from acute dysentery patients]. / Sravnitel'noe izuchenie virulentnosti shigell, vydelennykh ot bakterionositelei i bol'nykh ostroi dizenteriei.

The authors present the results of study of the virulence of shigellae isolated from carriers and patients suffering from acute dysentery, on a continuous culture of E1 and Hep-2 cells. The virulence of shigellae isolated from carriers displayed no significant difference from the virulence of shigellae isolated from patients with a mild and moderately severe forms of dysentery. In the patient's organism shigellae were capable of retaining the initial virulence for a long time, despite the treatment and the influence of the macroorganism's protective factors. The authors believe that this was connected with the capacity of Shigellae to parasitic life in the cells of human intestinal epithelium, and, apparently, played a definite role in the formation of carrier state.

[Intraepithelial shigellae invasion of the intestinal mucosa in patients suffering from acute Sonne dysentery]. / O vnutriépitelial'noi invazii shigell v slizistoi obolochke kishechnika u bol'nykh ostroi dizenteriei Zonne

Data are presented on detection of intraepithelial localization of shigellae in the biopsy materials of the large and small intestine mucosa of the patients with various forms of acute Sonne dysentery, in comparison with the clinico-morphological picture of the disease. Biopsy specimens (60 of the large and 7 of the small intestine) were stained with thionine and examined bacterioscopically; an intracellular distribution of the microbes was revealed in 58 cases; in 53 of them a subsequent identification of the microbes by the fluorescent antibody method was carried out; in 47 cases (88.7%) invasion of Sh. sonnei into the cells of the epithelium of the mucosa of the large and the small intestine was confirmed. There proved to be a direct relationship between the severity of the course of the disease, the level of shigellae localization and the extent of contamination by them of the cells of the large intestinal mucosa. The role of the penetrating capacity of shigellae in the development of the pathological process in dysentery is discussed.