[Ulcer disease in schizophrenic patients as a model for the estimation of neurogenic factors predisposing to a somatic disease].

The objective of the present study was to elucidate specific clinical features of ulcer disease (UD), diseases associated with Helicobacter pylori infection, and motor disturbances in the upper portion of the gastrointestinal tract in the patients presenting with schizophrenia (n = 35). Their observation was based at a psychiatric hospital and a psychiatric dispensary, The control group was comprised of 80 psychically healthy subjects suffering ulcer disease. The program of examination included endoscopic and histological studies in conjunction with pathologoanatomic expertise. It was shown that ulcer disease in the patients with schizophrenia was characterized by the prevalence of gastric and combined forms of pathology (p = 0.001), the development of rare forms of ulcers of duodenal localization (p = 0.009), and motor disturbances in the upper portion of the gastrointestinal tract (p = 0.001) in conjunction with the impaired activity of Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis (p < 0.05) when the development of the somatic disease preceded the onset of psychosis that, in its turn, was not precipitated by chronic alcoholism. Both the primary manifestation and the relapse of UD occurred either in the absence of a marked personality defect in the psychically ill patient or in the presence of chronic alcoholism concomitant with schizophrenia.

[The role of dynamic perfusion scyntiography of myocardium at rest and during exercise in the assessment of the clinical course of chronic cardiac failure and angina of effort in patients with stable forms of coronary heart disease].

The ever-growing morbidity, disablement, and mortality from coronary heart disease, chronic cardiac failure dictate the necessity of the search for new methods to verify, and evaluate prognosis of the clinical course of these diseases. Currently, myocardial perfusion scintiography is most widely used for the purpose.

[Erythrone system in aged patients with chronic cardiac insufficiency].

Basic mechanisms underlying the development of chronic cardiac insufficiency (CCI) in aged subjects were investigated in a randomized study of 30 patients with I-IV functional class CCI and preserved left ventricular systolic function. CCI affected the left side of the heart in 23 patients due to concurrent hypertensive disease and the right side in 7 patients with concomitant chronic broncho-pulmonary pathology. Mean age of the patients was 65 years. Control group comprised 8 practically healthy middle-age subjects. Erythrone system condition was evaluated from erythrocyte morphological characteristics and chemical composition studied by scanning electron microscopy on a FEI quanta 2003D apparatus in the Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials Centre, Belgorod State University. Pathological changes in the erythrone system of CCI patients included changes of erythrocyte shape and chemical composition especially well apparent in cases with chronic pulmonary heart. As CCI progressed, erythrocytes in the form of bi-convex disks turned to spheres with the papillose surface. The sphere to disk ratio in the compensation, sub- and decompensation stages was 1:7, 1:4, and 9:1 respectively compared with 1:60 in controls. Spherocytes contained less nitrogen than normal diskocytes. Protein degradation was more apparent in aged CCI patients. Their erythrocytes contained 4.5-5, 2, 3 and 4 times more calcium, magnesium, aluminium, and silicon respectively than the cells of healthy subjects. It suggests development of calcium paradox, abnormal membrane permeability and gradual cell death (hemolysis). Anemia in aged CCI patients appears be of haemolytic nature. It occurred in 6.7-11.5% of the cases of left ventricular CCI and in 33.3% of the aged patients with chronic pulmonary heart, the lethality rate being 0.93 and 28.6% respectively. It is concluded that changes in the erythrone system in the form of erythrocyte spherulation, accumulation of calcium and other chemical elements suggest a poor prognosis of CCI in elderly patients.

[Population models in the study of neurogenic domnants of arterial hypertension. Report 2. The peculiarities of arterial hypertension matched with personal motivational priorities].

The peculiarities of primary arterial hypertension in persons with opposite types of motivational priorities were studied. The features and prevalence of the disease in two populations were analyzed. Group 1 consisted of 141 subjects whose profession and working conditions required maximum realization of the market-oriented motivational dominant ("socially active persons"); Group 2 consisted of 147 "altruistic" type subjects who lacked the first group's motivational dominant. The study found a higher prevalence of the disease and a lower level of psychological health as part of quality of life in Group 1 (p = 0.018); the disease in this group was more intensive and significant structural and functional left ventricular transformation was typical. The absence of pernicious habits and healthy life-style should not be considered primary factors of a more favorable clinical course of the disease in the "altruistic" group.

[Population models in the study of the neurogenic determinants of arterial hypertension. Report I. Peculiarities of arterial hypertension in schizophrenia].

In order to clarify the role of the central nervous system in the genesis of arterial hypertension (AH) a population analysis of somatic pathology in schizophrenia was performed. Using clinical and postmortem data, the study found lower frequency of AH among mental patients vs. somatic ones; primary AH was benign independently of the psychotropic therapy regimen. II to III stage AH in psychosis was associated with primary or secondary renal pathology or magistral vessel atherosclerosis. Severe schizophrenia and a pronounced personality defect were associated with low intensity of the primary form of somatic nosology.

[Arterial hypertension in schizophrenia as a model of benign transformation of somatic pathology].

AIM: To detect characteristics of arterial hypertension in schizophrenia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The course of arterial hypertension and structural-functional alterations of the left ventricle were studied in the group of hypertensive schizophrenics and hypertensive patients without schizophrenia. RESULTS: Arterial hypertension in schizophrenics occurs less frequently, is not so high, is associated with insignificant structural-functional rearrangement of the left ventricle. This is true for cases when arterial hypertension onset precedes onset of psychosis when somatic disease does not combine with atherosclerosis. Incidence rate of hypertension diagnosis, mean levels of pressure and structural-functional indices of the left ventricle (for the first degree of arterial hypertension) for patients given and not given vasoactive psychotropic drugs do not differ significantly. CONCLUSION: Arterial hypertension in schizophrenia is characterized by benign transformation as seen from less prevalence and severity of the disease in mild structural-functional alterations of the left ventricle than in population of somatic patients.

[Gastric ulcer accompanying schizophrenia: variants of combination and particulars of development].

Using clinical and pathologicoanatomic data, particular features of gastric ulcer accompanying schizophrenia have been studied. It was determined that the disease is characterized by the specific ulcer localization of the concomitant Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis and motor disorders of upper gastro-intestinal tract in combination with psychiatric pathology unlike the somatic group. The propagation of the nosology under examination at schizophrenia is inverse to the severity index of psychosis development.

[Coping with the disease phenomenon and peculiarities of the course of bronchial asthma].

The aim of the study was to evaluate coping stratages (the degree of coping with the disease, CD) in 239 patients with moderate or severe bronchial asthma (BA). A method making it possible to calculate coping with the disease index (CDI) and thus to divide the patients into groups with a high (1) or low (2) degree of CD, was used. In addition, the levels of sputum eosinophilia, bronchial permeability, and pulmonary hemodynamics, were studied in both groups by two control examinations (after 6 and 10 to 12 months). The absence of severe cases of BA, stable results achieved during the first stage of treatment, stable remission on a smaller dose of inhaled glucocorticosteroids after 6 months with a significant growth of the number of well-controled BA and a decrease in pulmonary hypertension by the end of follow-up period, were typical of patients with a high CD. Evaluation of CDI allows for differentiation of BA patients into the groups with prognostically favorable and unfavourable BA, rationalizing therapeutic strategy, and lowering the probability of pulmonary hypertension progression.

[Ulcer disease in schizophrenia: variants of combination and particular features of the course].

Using clinical and pathologoanatomic data, particular features of gastric ulcer at schizophrenia were studied. It was determined that in combination with psychiatric pathology the disease (unlike the somatic group) is characterized by specific localization of ulcer, Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis and motor disorders of the upper gastrointestinal tract. The spreading of the nosology under study is inverse to the index of severity of the psychosis course.