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Background: Serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and orosomucoid are increased in more than one half of patients with metastatic breast cancer. The information concerning their levels in non-metastatic breast cancer is inconclusive. The aim of our study was to examine some acute phase proteins (CRP, orosomucoid, prealbumin, alpha 2-macroglobulin and transferrin) in patients with various clinical stages of breast cancer before hormonal and/or chemotherapy and 3 and 12 months after its institution and to assess the influence of their levels on the outcome of patients.

Methods and results: Altogether 59 women with breast cancer in clinical stage 0-IV, median age 62 years (47 of them after menopause) were examined. One patient was in stage 0, ten patients in stage I, 24 patients in stage IIA, 11 patients in stage IIB, five patients in stage III and eight patients in stage IV. Acute phase proteins (CRP, orosomucoid, transferrin, prealbumin and alpha 2-macroglobulin) were examined in the sera samples using microturbidimetry. Serum levels of CRP and orosomucoid were higher in patients with breast cancer in all stages compared to controls. Serum levels of CRP (resp. of orosomucoid) higher than mean +2 SD had 30.5% (resp. 39%) of patients with breast cancer. One year after the beginning of therapy serum levels of CRP and orosomucoid significantly decreased, however, in case of orosomucoid they remain higher compared to controls. Serum levels of CRP and orosomucoid correlated before therapy in patients with breast cancer one to another and also with serum levels of soluble TNF (tumour necrosis factor) receptor type I and soluble ICAM-1.

In conclusion: Patients with breast cancer before hormonal therapy and/or chemotherapy had compared to controls increased serum levels of CRP and orosomucoid, however, there was no difference between stages I-III. Observed correlation between serum levels of CRP and soluble TNF receptors suggests the important role of proinflammatory cytokines in stimulating their hepatic synthesis also in patients with breast cancer. Putative prognostic role of persistently increased levels of orosomucoid in patients with non-metastatic breast cancer warrants further investigation.

Advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) may be sensitive biomarkers for protein damage mediated by reactive oxygen species. AOPP were measured in the serum of 41 pregnant women in the 8th-12th week of pregnancy. Parameters of prenatal screening in the first trimester (pregnancy-associated plasma protein A--PAPP-A and free beta human chorionic gonadotrophin--free beta HCG) and anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) IgG and IgM were determined as well. A group of healthy blood donors--women and men was used for comparison. AOPP were determined spectrophotometrically according to Witko-Sarsat [24] (absorbance at 340 nm) and were expressed in chloramine units (mumol/l). Other analytes were determined by immunoanalytic methods. AOPP levels in pregnant women in the first trimester are significantly higher in comparison with blood donors--women (89.46 +/- 33.38 mumol/l vs 57.34 +/- 16.31 mumol/l, p < 0.0001) but there is no statistically significant difference between pregnant women and blood donors--men (89.46 +/- 33.38 mumol/l vs 78.60 +/- 44.01 mumol/l). AOPP level does not correlate either with the age of pregnant women or with the parameters of prenatal screening and ACA IgG and IgM. Higher levels of AOPP in the serum of pregnant women in comparison with women--blood donors may reflect an increase of oxidative stress in pregnancy.

As a catalytic and/or structural cofactor for countless of zinc-dependent enzymes and proteins, zinc is an essential element for all organisms. This review summarizes the basics of human zinc physiology and biochemistry. The role of zinc in the regulation of gene expression and cellular signal transmission is described in more details. The present explosive growth of new knowledge about various biological roles of zinc will undoubtedly lead to the future development of new powerful drugs and to treatment of many diseases including cancer.

A considerable progress has been made in the last three years in the uncovering of the molecular basis of Diamond-Blackfan anaemia (DBA). Two genetic loci on 19q13.2 and 8p23 chromosomes have been associated with the DBA phenotype, and the ribosomal protein S19 (RP S19) located at 19q has been found mutated in 25% of DBA patients. In this review we will outline possible mechanisms of how mutations in RP S19 might lead to the DBA phenotype, we will discuss candidate genes on 8p23 chromosome, and finally, a complex molecular model of DBA development will be proposed.

Impaired wakefulness in machine operators poses a danger not only to themselves but often also to the public at large. While on duty, such persons are expected to be continuously, i.e., without interruption, on the alert. For that purpose, we designed and carried out an experimental model of continuous vigilance monitoring using electroencephalography (EEG) and reaction time measured as the latency of the proband's reaction to sound. If constructed, the set together with other logical elements and an alarm can make for an automatic detection of vigilance and, possibly, also of arousal stimuli in cases of microsleep. We found the following new facts and confirmed the validity of some of the earlier ones: Vigilance is marked by alpha activity in the EEG record (oscillation of 8-13 Hz) and reaction time (RT) of 200-400 ms (milliseconds). Sleep is characterized by theta and delta activities (4-7 and 0.5-3.5 Hz respectively) with no reaction. Between wakefulness and sleep there are at least two stages: relaxation with prolonged RT of 400 to 800 ms and increased EEG alpha, sometimes also beta activities. Then there is the hypnagogic phase with disintegrating alpha and growing theta or even delta activities and an RT of 800 up to 1200 ms. Changes in the EEG and its spectrum and their actual localization on the cranial surface exhibit individual differences; hence, no straightforward categories for the above stages can be established. As for changes in vigilance in the relaxation and hypnagogic phases as well as in the processes of mentation, the most significant are the alpha and delta, less so the theta and beta bands. The most suitable sites for the detection of those changes on the skull surface are temporo-parieto-occipital (TPO) regions, i.e., those over the posterior parts of the skull with the least muscle and oculomotor artifacts and with the most energy for alpha and delta activities. In somnolence, the cortex does not behave as a whole, which means that different areas show different spectra while getting off to sleep, a fact easy to express by means of the alpha/delta ratio, separately for each of the cranial areas. At sleep onset, the alpha/delta ratio undergoes changes; it is greater than one in wakefulness, less than one in sleep, and in the region of one as the person goes to sleep. In the course of sleep with zero reactivity, the cortex already behaves as a whole, i.e., all cranial areas have similar or the same spectrograms, with the alpha/delta coefficient being less than one all over the skull. At times, the spectrogram taken during mentation (e.g., while undergoing psychological tests) resembles that of somnolence, with the alpha/delta coefficient being greater than one. However, there are differences: in somnolence, the delta activity is increased all over its band, i.e., from 0.5 to 3.5 Hz, while during mentation it is increased solely in the slow delta activity band (0.5 to 3.5 Hz). In somnolence, theta is on the increase, b

Nowadays a theoretical psychotherapeutical thinking develops from the eclectic practice and uses particularly the research of the effective factors of the therapy. Best they can be characterized as differentiate, synthetic, integrative and exceeding other approaches. The development in question goes on with attempts of creating a general model of the psychotherapy that could be a basis for models of special psychotherapies. The aim of such a model is to describe all that is present as important factor for inducing a desirable change of a human in all psychotherapeutical approaches. Among general models we can mention the generic model of D. E. Orlinski and K. I. Howard, Grawe's cube (the author is K. Grawe) and the equation of the psychotherapy.

Professor Frantisek Pór, MD, was one of the most important physicians in Czechoslovakia. He graduated in German Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague in 1926. He was a founder of the first Internal Clinic of Medical Faculty of P. J. Safárik University and of Faculty Hospital in Kosice. Professor F. Pór, MD, was the head of the 1st Internal Clinic from 1948 until 1971. During his active professional life he educated eleven assistant professors and three full professors. He was also a founder of Eastern Slovakian Medical Meetings in Nový Smokovec, High Tatras in 1961. Medical Society in Kosice organized "Memorial of Professor F. Pór, MD" from 1994 every year and the last was held in April 28, 2003 in Faculty Hospital of L. Pasteur in Kosice.

By the means of the research of the psychotherapy we can obtain objective and reliable informations that help us to decrease the risk of the subjective distortion, to control the influence of the chance events and to find the connections otherwise not observed. We use several types of research strategies: a qualitative or quantitative strategy, intensive, extensive, multi-variational strategy etc. The contemporary research deals with the effectiveness of the therapy, the indication and the psychotherapeutical process. It was found out that the therapy by the psychological means is demonstrably more effective than the placebo therapy or no therapy, and using various methods we induce qualitatively different changes. That is why the differential approach is necessary; this approach leads in the theory towards progressive integration and towards forming the general model of the psychotherapy.

Long-term follow-up of peripheral cellular chimerism in patients treated with BMT or PBSCT revealed the usefulness of their continuous monitoring at molecular level. Our results are based on monitoring of 120 patients, who were followed for at least 24 months. Comparison of the patients treated for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), acute myelocytic leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and aplastic anaemia (AA) revealed that mixed chimerism was practically absent in MDS and relatively long-lasting in ALL and AA (regardless to substantially different post-transplantation treatment). The first disease relapses signalized by molecular checking of mixed peripheral chimerism were observed also after a period of remission lasting for several years. Molecular watching enables us to detect relapses at their very beginning that would remain hidden to less sensitive methods. We believe that all of the transplanted patients ought to be monitored for residual disease i.e. cellular chimerism using molecular methods without time limits. On the other hand low level of mixed cellular chimerism is not necessarily a sign of disease progression and can remain unchanged as "status quo" for a very long period.