[The health self-assessment among medical personnel of first-aid care service].

The characteristics of factors impacting health of medical personnel of first-aid care service are considered. The data of their health self-assessment and assessment of medical check-ups on the ambulance stations are explained. The medical social characteristic of patients with psychic disorders addressed to medical institutions with various forms of property.

[The organizational approaches to the quality management in the laboratorial examinations].

The results of the quality investigation of laboratory services operations of the city of Saratov and Saratov Oblast are presented. The issue of organization and quality of carrying out the laboratorial examinations is analyzed. The suggestions related to the clinical laboratorial examinations quality management are exposed.

[Distribution of resources for rendering medical care to cancer patients in hospices]. / Raspredelenie resursov dlia okazaniia meditsinskoi pomoshchi onkologicheskim bol'nym v khospise.

Creation of a system of palliative care in the Russian Federation is a pressing problem of public health, which at present is going through the first stage of development. According to WHO estimations, at least 75% cancer patients need palliative care. The system of medical care to cancer patients functioning in countries with well-developed economy (United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia) intends equal distribution of resources between radical treatment and palliative care (including analgesia) and reflects the actual requirements of patients. The scope of care should be extended from symptomatic treatment to comprehensive (medical, psychological, social, and spiritual) care of patients and their families.

[Analysis of the demographic situation in the Saratov region]. / K analizu demograficheskoi situatsii v Saratovskoi oblasti.

Demographic analysis of the population of the Saratov region in 1991-1995 is presented. The values of mortality, birth rate, and migration and relationships between them are analyzed. Basic trends and regularities of population mortality are discussed. Special attention is paid to causes of death in the Saratov district and the time course of the relevant mortality coefficients.

[Public health at the municipal level]. / Zhdravookhranenie na munitsipal'nom urovne.

The purposes of health protection and fortification in various sociums and conditions of attaining these purposes may differ at various levels (federal, regional and municipal) of the society organization. At the municipal level the fortification and protection of population health may be regarded as the chief idea, aim, and criterion of the optimal functioning and development of a socium of the given level, reflecting the measure of efficacy of providing the immediate vital activity of the population. The task of social management is as follows: the share of the national output, created by the socium, is to be distributed so that it were possible for this socium to permanently recreate and maintain at a certain qualitative level its labor resources--the major energy potential of the socium, and adequately provide and guarantee human rights as the main value of the society. A logistic model of the management structure ensuring population health at a municipal level is presented. For health control and for attaining this aim it is necessary to transfer the maximum of legal functions to the municipal level of society administration. It is desirable that every citizen, and not only administration, be involved in the reformation of the society as regards health protection, and that the citizens be personally interested in this process.

[Current problems in price formation in public health]. / Aktual'nye problemy tsenoobrazovaniia v zdravookhranenii.

Adequate policy of price formation is one condition for effective development of public health under conditions of market economy. The authors present the fundamentals of price formation in public health under conditions of state financing, insurance, and self-support. Price formation should promote the activities of public health institutions, aimed at improving the quality of medical aid to the population and at the creation of conditions for the welfare of medical workers.

[The role of the audit in the system of obligatory medical insurance]. / Rol' audita v sisteme obiazatel'nogo meditsinskogo strakhovaniia.

Presents the fundamentals of applying audit to the system of obligatory medical insurance. Auditory check-up of the funds of obligatory medical insurance revealed waste of money, detected its causes, and proposed approaches to correcting it. Use of auditory service is a condition indispensable for improving the reliability of obligatory medical insurance functioning.

[The role of androgens in the regulation of the immune response in male CBA mice at various stages of ontogenesis]. / Rol' androgenov v reguliatsii immunnogo otveta u myshei-samtsov linii CBA na razlichnykh étapakh ontogeneza.

Gonadectomy of 18-day-old mice (the 1st group) causes retardation of the functional maturation of the immune system but that of 1 and 3-month-old mice (the 2nd group), on the contrary, intensifies the immune response. The treatment of the 1st group mice during 10 days with 5-alpha-DHT (100 micrograms/100 g b. w.) increases the immune response 1 month after the end of hormone therapy more than twice. The TP failed to evoke such effects. In the 2-nd group of mice TP as well as 5-alpha-DHT (10 micrograms, 100 micrograms) caused the same stimulatory effects and the TP (8 mg) and 5-alpha-DHT (3 mg)-decreased the immune response. The diverse effects of the TP and 5-alpha-DHT in immature and mature mice may be due to the age peculiarities of androgens metabolism.

[The immune response to heteroantigen of male mice at various stages of ontogeny and following gonadectomy]. / Immunnyi otvet na geteroantigen u myshei-samtsov na raznykh étapakh ontogeneza i posle gonadéktomii.

Experiments on male CBA mice have shown that androgens modulate the function of the immune system depending on its initial functional status. Studies of humoral immune response in mice during ontogeny have revealed that the most pronounced activation of the immune system coincides with the beginning of the sexual maturation (18-30 days). Gonadectomy of 18-days-old mice causes retardation of the functional maturation of the immune system but that of 1 month-old mice, on the contrary, intensifies the immune response. It is supposed that this period of life is one of the key periods of the humoral immunity development. Long-term decrease of the testosterone level in blood of mice castrated after puberty induces untimely extinction of the immune reactivity comparable with that in old animals.

[Ultrastructure of neurosecretory cells of the hypothalamic supraoptic nuclei of albino rats during nociceptive stress and aging]. / Ul'trastruktura neirosekretornykh kletok supraopticheskogo iadra gipotalamusa belykh krys pri notsitseptivnykh vozdeistviiakh i starenii.

Ultrastructural organization of neurosecretory cells from the hypothalamic supraoptic nuclei of aged and young rats was studied after painful stress of different duration (2 min, 20 min). Intact young rats formed the control group. An increase of the functional activity of neurosecretory cells was shown to follow the short-term stress (2 min) and a decrease of the activity--the long-term stress (20 min). The prolonged stress in young rats was comparable with ultrastructural changes in the neurosecretory cells of aged animals. The prolonged painful stress is supposed to promote the aging of the neurosecretory cells.

[Testosterone content of the blood plasma in mature animals of various species during modeling of a pathological process in the testes using testicular antibodies]. / Soderzhanie testosterona v plazme krovi polozrelykh zhivotnykh raznykh vidov pri modelirovanii patologicheskogo protsessa v semennikakh s pomoshch'iu testikuliarnykh antitel.

Testosterone content in the blood plasma before and after administration of testicular antibodies (IgG and IgM) isolated from respective antisera was studied by a radioimmunoassay in 86 mature mice, rats and guinea-pigs. IgG at a dose of 0.4-2.4 mg of protein per 100 g of body mass decreased testosterone content in the blood plasma 1.6-4.2-fold early after administration (on the 3rd-6th day) in animals of all species. The level of testosterone remained below the basal values in the course of 33 days after the administration of immunoglobulins. A single administration of IgG at a dose of 2.4 mg of the protein resulted in a less damaging effect on the animals' testes than the same amount of the protein administered in fractions (at a dose of 0.8 mg three times a day). IgG produced a higher inhibiting effect than IgM administered at the same doses. Immunoglobulins of class G isolated from antisera which are specific to the testicular tissue, can be used for the simulation of a pathological process in the testes for a study of the etiology and pathogenesis of hypogonadism which is quite frequent in clinical practice.