[The specificity of moral aspects of activity of medical workers in Health Care of Russia].

The transformation of values and dissemination of consumerism ideology, associated with active implementation of market mechanisms of functioning in the Russian health care system, significantly affected processes of implementing moral aspects of activities of medical workers. The transition of physician and patient to buying and selling relationships initiated the situation when the life and health maintenance is considered not as an ultimate purpose of medical profession, but as a service supplied for particular fee. Moreover, quality of medical care supplied is considered as directly proportional to its cost. This fact results, from one hand, in corruption in health care system initiated by patients themselves because unofficial fee is significantly lower than the established one. From the other hand, it results in the fact that service supplied to patient for free in state polyclinics is provided untimely and not always is has needed quality due to lacking of necessary resources. As a result, the moral purpose of medical profession becomes minor, yielding to commercial relationships. However, these occurrences do not disprove the fact that the patient, in case of visiting physician, remains completely dependent on one's professionalism and responsibility, despite the abundance of private medical institutions and the formal freedom of choosing type of medical service and medical specialist providing it. The high moral culture was and continue to be an obligatory characteristic of successfulness and professionalism of physician. In the new economic conditions, it can become a competitive advantage, since every patient wishes to see in physician not only competent specialist, but also a person capable to empathize and responsibly treat with responsibility another life that was trusted to him.

Application of gold nanoparticles produced by laser ablation for immunochromatographic assay labeling.

Nanodispersed gold is widely used as a marker in different analytical systems. For such purposes, it is usually obtained by the reduction of salts. This work studied the potential analytical applications of nanodispersed gold obtained by laser ablation because gold produced with this method has no chemical coating. The nanoparticles produced were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and spectrophotometry. The average size of the particles was 24.5 nm. Concentration dependences of antibody immobilization on ablative gold were obtained. With the use of antibody-conjugated nanoparticles, an immunochromatographic system was constructed for the detection of zearalenone mycotoxin. This immunoassay was characterized by a detection limit of 0.1 ng/ml antigen with an assay duration of only 15 min, which is on par with current test systems comprising nanodispersed gold obtained by chemical reduction. The simplicity of ablative dispersing makes this a prospective method for the labeling of various antibodies for analytical use.

[Immunochromatographic Test System for the Detection of T-2 Toxin].

An immunochromatographic test system was developed for the detection of T-2 toxin (T2T), which is one of priority contaminants of cereals. The detection is based on the competition between T2T in the sample and the T2T-protein conjugate immobilized on the test strip for the binding to the complexes of anti-T2T antibodies with gold nanoparticles serving as the marker. The results of the competition are recorded as the coloration in the test zone of the test strip produced by the marker. The optimum dilution of the sample for the reliable high-sensitivity analysis corresponds to the final methanol concentration equal to 20%. The deceleration of the movement of reactants along the test strip due to the use of additional membranes impregnated with 10% BSA resulted in the decrease in the detection limit of T2T. The test system was examined for the detection of T2T in water-methanol extracts of maize grains. The disappearance of the color in the test zone, which attests to the presence of mycotoxin, was observed for grain samples containing T2T at a concentration of 53 µg/kg or more (the final T2T concentration in the immunochromatorgaphic assay is 3 ng/mL). The video-digital detection limit of T2T is 16 µg/kg (0.9 ng/mL). The duration of the assay is 15 min. The results of the present study suggest that the developed test system is suitable for the control of the maximum allowable T2T content.

Dietary guidelines in the Czech Republic III.: Challenge for the 3rd millennium.

In developed countries, dietary guidelines are more and more often used as a source of binding information not only in public health, food production, nutrition and agricultural policy, but in ecology and economy as well. In view of that, it is imperative to formulate such guidelines that would be supported by relevant population studies and correspond to the European model of WHO/CINDI guidelines. At the turn of the millennium, the Czech guidelines were updated in order that serving sizes of 5 basic food groups were brought closer to contemporary trends emphasizing lower protein intakes and at the same time, by setting limit ranges, they were able to meet specific need of people of different age group, sex, physiological status, physical activity, etc. The conversion of recommended servings to nutrients was compared with the results of the actual food basket of the Czech population and specific recommendations for amendments in proportions of individual food items in food groups and subgroups were given. On the basis of diet guidelines, conclusions describing tasks for the beginning of the third millennium were made. Besides them the most important are: production or health information systems with special emphasis to food intake and nutritional status report, policies to increase the access to vegetables and fruit for vulnerable groups, legislation to curb advertising high-fat energy-dense foods to children, policy to strengthen the operational targets of Innocenti Declaration and to increase the number of Baby Friendly Hospitals, legislation regarding food control systems based on international standards, sustainable campaigns to promote safe healthy diet, policies to ensure sustainable food production.

[Optimization of hydrolysis of protein substrates by yeast proteases from Saccharomyces carlsbergenis]. / Optimizatsiia protsessa gidroliza belkovykh substratov drozhzhevymi proteazami Saccharomyces carlsbergenis.

Optimum conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis of bovine blood in the presence of brewer's yeast Saccharomyces carlsbergensis were studied. In addition to the amount of blood, yeast, sodium citrate, and ethanol in the mixture, the optimum process duration and temperature were determined. The yield of the major end product (blood hydrolysate) increased from 11 to 55%, and the amino acid composition of the end product was brought to a balanced level as a result of hydrolysis optimization and addition of pancreatin to the reaction mixture.

[Hydrolyzing ability of yeast proteases in relation to protein substrates]. / Gidrolizuiushchaia sposobnost' drozhzhevykh proteaz po otnosheniiu k bolkovym substratam.

The possibility of use of brewer's yeast as multienzymatic preparations for hydrolyzing of animal blood proteins was demonstrated. The kinetic characteristics of hydrolysis of blood proteins by activated brewer's yeast mass and neutral proteinase from Bacillus subtilis 102 and the activation energies were estimated. Brewer's yeast biomass may be used as a source of enzymes of broad substrate specificity and noncontiguous amino acids, in particular, isoleucine, to increase the biological efficiency of blood proteins by 15-30%.

Occupations of parents of children with retinoblastoma: a report from the Children's Cancer Study Group.

A matched case-control study was conducted by the Children's Cancer Study Group to investigate the role of parental occupation in the etiology of sporadic heritable and nonheritable retinoblastoma. Eligible cases were those patients with retinoblastoma diagnosed in 1982-1985 at any of the Children's Cancer Study Group member hospitals. Telephone interviews of 201 parents of cases and their pair-matched controls selected by random digit dialing were completed. Of the 201 cases, 19 were familial, 67 were sporadic heritable, and 115 were nonheritable. The 19 familial cases were excluded from the analysis. Paternal employment in the military [odds ratio (OR) 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-8.8, P = 0.04] and in the metal industry (OR infinity, 95% CI 1.4-infinity, P = 0.02) was associated with sporadic heritable retinoblastoma (N = 67). For nonheritable retinoblastoma (N = 115), a significant association was observed for a job cluster consisting mostly of welders and machinists (OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.1-22.1, P = 0.04). Occupations of maternal grandparents were also studied and an association was observed with farming and nonheritable retinoblastoma (OR 10.0, 95% CI 1.4-433, P = 0.02). Many comparisons were made and the number of significant findings did not exceed that expected by chance. Thus, the results need to be interpreted very cautiously. However, the findings related to metal exposure corroborate observations on other childhood cancers.

The importance of blast cell DNA content for prognosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The prognostic value of cellular DNA content measured by static cytophotometry was evaluated in 69 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) using the pretreatment distribution of the DNA content in blast cells of bone marrow and peripheral blood. The median follow-up of the whole group of patients was 45 months. Aneuploidy was detected in 71% of children, most of them showing a hyperdiploid content (DNA index greater than 1.05). The duration of complete remission was significantly longer in patients with distinct hyperdiploid DNA content (DNA index greater than 1.16) than in those with less hyperdiploid and diploid DNA content (DNA index less than 1.16). The results achieved by static cytophotometry were compared with flow cytometry analysis and with cytogenetic investigations of chromosomal abnormalities in leukemic cells. Higher correlation was found between flow cytometry and cytogenetics. Flow cytometry proved to be a more convenient method for detection of the DNA content in leukemic cells than static cytophotometry.

Correlations of clinical and laboratory data for prognosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Correlation of 24 different clinical and laboratory measures was performed for a calculation of the prognosis in 65 children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The hematologic as well as genetic parameters were studied at the time of diagnosis. It was shown that the initial blast count in peripheral blood is the most important risk factor for the prognosis of ALL. Cytogenetic, DNA cytometric, and pedigree data correlate with blast count and also seem to be very important determinants for ALL prognosis. The statistically significant increase in the incidence of neoplasms in ALL families is reported.

[Volatile N-nitrosamines in sausage products]. / Letuchie N-nitrozaminy v kolbasnykh izdeliiakh.

The authors studied the content of volatile N-nitrosamines (NA) in the most common sausage products. It was established that the total content of NA in sausage products is not high and ranges from trace amounts up to 10 micrograms/kg product. The allowable doses of nitrite in the sausage manufacture being low, no relationship was discovered between the content of NA and residual nitrite in meat products.