[Sepsis biomarkers dynamics as an indicator of intensive care effectiveness]. / Dinamika biomarkerov sepsisa kak pokazatel' éffektivnosti intensivnoi terapii.

AIM: To evaluate dynamics of presepsin, procalcitonin and C-reactive protein in survived and dead patients with sepsis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: There were 41 patients with diagnosis of 'sepsis' ('Sepsis-3' concept) who were divided into 2 groups: survived patients with sepsis (21 people) - group 1, dead patients with sepsis (20 people) - group 2. All patients underwent generally accepted intensive therapy for sepsis. Besides conventional laboratory and instrumental examination, dynamics of presepsin, procalcitonin and C-reactive protein was assessed. RESULTS: Mean level of presepsin was 1718.00 and 3266.50 pg/ml in groups 1 and group 2, respectively. Half of the values was within (Me (25; 75) 1021.00-3231.00 pg/ml and 1618.50-7469.00 pg/ml in both groups, respectively. Mean level of procalcitonin was 0.995 and 4.465 ng/ml, respectively. Median (25; 75) was 0.49-4.44 ng/ml and 1,625-19.30 ng/ml, respectively. Mean level of C-reactive protein was 95.5 and 215.0 mg/L, respectively, median (25; 75) - 64.00-155.00 mg/L and 155.00-264.00 mg/L, respectively. Significant differences were determined for all variables (p-value 0.000008, 0.000242, 0.0000001 for presepsin, procalcitonin and C-reactive protein, respectively). CONCLUSION: The levels of C-reactive protein, procalcitonin and presepsin were significantly different in patients with sepsis followed by favorable and unfavorable clinical outcome. Unfavorable outcome was associated with increased levels of all biomarkers. Comprehensive assessment of all biological markers of sepsis is useful to assess an effectiveness of intensive therapy and to predict clinical outcome.

Effect of iron oxidation state on the electrical conductivity of the Earth's lower mantle.

Iron can adopt different spin states in the lower mantle. Previous studies indicate that the dominant lower-mantle phase, magnesium silicate perovskite (which contains at least half of its iron as Fe(3+)), undergoes a Fe(3+) high-spin to low-spin transition that has been suggested to cause seismic velocity anomalies and a drop in laboratory-measured electrical conductivity. Here we apply a new synchrotron-based method of Mössbauer spectroscopy and show that Fe(3+) remains in the high-spin state in lower-mantle perovskite at conditions throughout the lower mantle. Electrical conductivity measurements show no conductivity drop in samples with high Fe(3+), suggesting that the conductivity drop observed previously on samples with high Fe(2+) is due to a transition of Fe(2+) to the intermediate-spin state. Correlation of transport and elastic properties of lower-mantle perovskite with electromagnetic and seismic data may provide a new probe of heterogeneity in the lower mantle.

[Temporal characteristics of the movement of the cut-off elements of artificial heart valves in a pulsing flow]. / Issledovanie vremennýkh kharakteristik dvizheniia zapiraiushchikh élementov iskusstvennykh klapanov serdtsa v pul'siruiushchem potoke.

A comparative investigation of time characteristics of the movement of artificial heart valves with spherical, hemispherical and lentil-shaped obturative elements under non-stationary conditions was carried out. It has been found that it is practically impossible to avoid the delay in the valve closing and opening, as well as the regurgitation phenomena, on the valve prothesis, due to the inertia of obturative elements and attached masses. A searching for new models of the heart valves should go on.

[Comparative hydrodynamic study of artificial heart valves in pulsating flow]. / Sravnitel'noe gidrodinamicheskoe issledovanie iskusstvennykh klapanov serdtsa v pul'siruiushchem potoke.

A comparative hydrodynamic study of artificial heart valves with spherical, hemispherical and lentil-shaped obturative elements has been carried out under the non-stationary conditions. The valves resistance coefficient is higher in the lentil-shaped valves. With the increase of pulse rate the stroke volume of the valves of all the types drops, and the regurgitation increases.