[Effect of altitude on blood oxygenation during sleep in patients with bronchial asthma]. / Wplyw wysokosci na utlenowanie krwi w czasie snu u chorych na astme oskrzelowa.

The aim of our study was to investigate the severity of overnight arterial blood desaturations in patients with asthma at the altitude of 3200 meters above sea level. 12 asthmatics and 12 healthy controls were investigated. Three overnight pulsoximetries were performed in all subjects, one at the lowland and on the 1st and 5th night at the altitude. Mean SaO2 at the lowland was significantly lower in asthmatics than in the controls (p < 0.01). After the ascent to high altitude severe fall in mean SaO2 was noted in both groups (from 94.3% to 85.8% in asthmatics and from 97.1% to 88.7% in controls) (p < 0.001 for both groups). After few days of acclimatization mean SaO2 rose to 88.8% in asthmatics and to 91.3% in controls, but was still significantly lower than at the lowland (p < 0.001 for both groups). At the altitude differences in mean SaO2 between two groups were not statistically significant. We conclude that severity of overnight desaturations at high altitude do not vary between asthmatics with impaired respiratory function and healthy subjects.

[The clinico-functional characteristics of pulmonary arterial hypertension in systemic scleroderma]. / Kliniko-funktsional'naia kharakteristika legochnoi arterial'noi gipertenzii pri sistemnoi sklerodermii.

Electro-, phono-, echo-, and Doppler echocardiography, bulbar biomicroscopy were performed in 54 SS patients aged 18-64. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PP) was determined at Doppler echocardiography on Toshiba SSH-40A unit according to techniques developed by M. M. Mirrakhimov et al. in 1989. The diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) was made in PP above 18 mm Hg. A close relationship was found between SS history and PH registration. With growing SS duration, PH severity increases, microcirculatory disorders progress. Main PH risk factors in SS patients are believed SS duration, activity, Raynaud's syndrome presentation. Doppler echocardiography can effectively diagnose PH in its subclinical stage, is noninvasive.

Effects of acetazolamide on overnight oxygenation and acute mountain sickness in patients with asthma.

The aim of the study was to assess effects of acetazolamide in prevention of acute mountain sickness (AMS) and on overnight oxygenation, in patients with asthma treated at the altitude of 3,200 m. Sixteen patients with asthma, 6 males and 10 females, mean age 32 yrs, were first investigated at low altitude (760 m). They presented with mild airways obstruction, normal arterial blood gases, and normal oxygenation at night studied by pulse oximetry. After initial investigations, patients were divided by random number into the treated (T) and control (C) groups of eight patients each. T group patients received acetazolamide, 750 mg daily for 2 days, before the ascent and on the first day at altitude (3,200 m). Symptoms of AMS developed in seven patients from group C and in three from group T. The overnight pulse oximetry, performed on the first night at altitude, revealed that group T patients had statistically higher (p < 0.05) initial, 91 vs 87%, mean, 90 vs 86%, and minimum, 84 vs 75%, arterial oxygen saturation than group C patients. Overnight pulse oximetry was repeated on the 5th, 10th and 17th day at altitude, and showed that in group C patients, from the 5th day onwards, oxygenation improved to the level observed in group T patients on the first night. We conclude that pretreatment with acetazolamide before the ascent prevented patients with asthma from developing symptoms of AMS, and alleviated acute changes in arterial oxygen saturation brought about by the high altitude hypoxia.

[Evolution of the allantoid placenta in placental mammals]. / Evoliutsiia allantoidnoi platsenty u platsentarnykh mlekopitaiushchikh.

The article surveys the literature concerning comparative morphology of allantoic placenta and presents some evolutionary-morphological conclusions. The initial form of allantoic placenta is non-deciduate that occurs in 7 orders of placental mammals. The non-deciduate placenta is especially characteristic for lower primates and Cetacea. The non-deciduate placenta in lower primates and the fact that in some modern species of insectivores the non-deciduate placenta is also preserved speaks in favour of the opinion that insectivores of the Cretaceous period had non-deciduate placenta. The non-deciduate placenta in Cetacea that take their origin from ancient carnivores (from procreodonts) demonstrates, in its turn, that the non-deciduate placenta was the initial form. The deciduate placenta was the means for changing many of vital activities of the organism--it is connected with shortening or lengthening of individual life duration and duration of pregnancy. In the course of evolution the allantoic placenta improved towards intensified metabolism between the embryo (fetus) and the maternal organism. Relations between the evolution of mature specimens and evolutional changes in placenta are at their initial stage of investigation.

[Progressive character of embryogenesis in placental animals]. / Progressivnyi kharakter émbriogeneza platsentarnykh.

The article presents evidence of the placental animals being isolated from the rest of higher vertebrates according to many peculiarities of their structure and the embryonic development. The most important of these signs are the following: female genital tracts are disposed to the inside from the urinary tracts (in embryos the Müller's canals are on the inner side of the wolffian ducts); in placental animals there are no tertiary egg sheaths which are physiologically substituted for the trophoblast; the provisory organs reveal great variability; the allantoid placenta performs not only metabolic but also endocrinous functions. The evolution of peculiarities of the structure and development characteristic of placental animals was performed by a series of successive aromorphous phenomena. Theri mighty adaptive radiation is the result of greater perfectness of placental animals.

[Adaptational evolution of embryogenesis and adult placental individuals]. / Prisposobitel'naia évoliutsiia émbriogeneza i vzroslykh osobei platsentarnykh

On the basis of a comparative morphological and embryological analysis the author concludes that lower mammals (ovipositors and marsupials) and higher mammals should not be united into a single class. Two classes should be distinguished: 1) lower mammals including modern ovipositor animals and marsupial animals and fossilized Multituberculata, Triconodonta, Symmetrodonta and Pantotheria; and 2) higher mammals or placental animals.

[Giant cells in the placenta of the bactrian camel in the fetal period of development]. / Gigantskie kletki platsenty dvugorbogo verbliuda v plodnom periode razvitiia

Polyploid giant cells resulting from differentiation of normal cytotrophoblast cells were found in the composition of the placenta cytotrophoblast of the Bactrian camel. In the placenta of the Bactrian camel the transformation of cytotrophoblast cells into multinuclear giant cells is realized via endomitotic polyploidization and distinctly reflects active synthetic processes occurring in these cells related with the trophic function of the placenta. It may be supposed that giant cells of the placenta of female Bactrian camels also participate in the endocrinous function of the placenta. Their histolitical function is completely excluded.