[Characterization of life quality in patients with respiratory tuberculosis treated in the outpatient setting]. / Kharacteristika kachestva zhizni bol'nykh tuberkulezom organov dykhaniia pri ambulatornom rezhime lecheniia.

The overall Life Quality-100 questionnaire recommended by the World Health Organization was used to survey 29 patients with active respiratory tuberculosis and 19 healthy persons. Life quality (LQ) was assessed by 24 items pooled to form 6 categories. There were significant differences in the overall life quality and in the mental health scale. The activity, mobility, physical status of the patients were impaired. The survey revealed the aspects lowering LQ in patients with active respiratory tuberculosis. It is concluded that individual psychosocial correction of the status of a patient with tuberculosis is promising in making his/her life quality normal.

[The prospects for the antenatal preventive therapy of congenital developmental defects]. / Perspektivy antenatal'noi profilakticheskoi terapii vrozhdennykh porokov razvitiia.

Prenatal diagnosis of congenital diseases using specialized and expensive enough methods and abortion in case of defect revealing are regarded today as the main approach to their control. The paper is concerned with an alternative approach lying in the preconceptional and antenatal therapy in order to arrest the occurrence of developmental abnormalities. The data on the role of vitamins in the origin of congenital defects of the neural tube as well as on possibilities of the antenatal therapy by a complex of vitamin drugs are provided.

[Infantile spasms in children under 1-year-old]. / Infantil'nye spazmy u detei pervogo goda zhizni.

In the period of 1977 to 1982, 72 children suffering from infantile spasms and aged 10 days to 12 months were observed. Studies of the neurologic status over time were supplemented with echoencephalography, diaphanoscopy, cranial roentgenography and ophthalmoscopic examination. Furthermore, 58 children were subjected to electro-encephalographic investigations. The clinical findings and data provided by additional methods were evaluated over time, i.e., prior to, during and after the course of treatment. An analysis is presented of the results of corticosteroid therapy of two groups of patients: 1) "idiopathic"-where the medical history showed no previous nervous system impairments prior to the development of the spasms; 2) patients with a history of various damaging factors (pregnancy pathology in the mother, new-born asphyxia, intracranial birth injury, intrauterine infection, neuroinfection in the early postnatal period, etc.). The clinical picture of infantile spasms is extensively described. Before the initiation of hormonal therapy, the patients received anticonvulsive drugs for 1-10 months. The use of ACTH, synacthen and hydrocortisone proved to be fairly effective provided the treatment is instituted early. Possible mechanisms of the action of hormonal drugs are analyzed.

[Content of hypophysiotropic, adrenotropic and thyrotropic hormones in the blood in Duchenne's progressive muscular dystrophy]. / Soderzhanie tropnykh gormonov gipofiza, nadpochechnikov i shchitovidnoi zhelezy v krovi bol'nykh progressiruiushchei myshechnoi distrofiei Diushenna.

Content of hypophysis-, adrenal gland- and thyroid gland-tropic hormones was studied in blood plasma of children with primary X-linked Dushenne's myopathy at various periods of the disease, as compared with the patterns observed in healthy children of the same age. Increase in the functional activity of hypophysis and decrease -- in functions of adrenal cortex glands were observed in the muscular dystrophy; these alterations correlated with the disease steps. Relationship between the hormonal alterations and the dystrophy steps suggests the importance of the hormones in pathogenesis of the myodystrophic impairment.

[Changes in the cyclic AMP concentration in muscle in experimental dexamethasone myopathy]. / Izmenenie soderzhaniia tsiklicheskoi AMF v myshtse pri éksperimental'noi deksametazonovoi miopatii.

A study was made of muscle cAMP content in rabbits with dexamethasone-induced myopathy. The experiments were performed in 15 male rabbits weighing 2.5--3.5 kg. Steroidal myopathy was produced by daily administration of 0.8 dexamethasone/kg body weight. Muscle biopsy was taken on experimental days 1, 3, 7 and 14. The content of cAMP was determined by radioimmunoassay. The clinical signs of myopathy occurred by day 7. The animals were immobilized day 14. The content of cAMP increased after the first administration of dexamethasone and remained unchanged till the end of the experiment. The increased cAMP content may be accounted for by dexamethasone effect on the enzymatic system that monitors the processes of cAMP activation and inhibition.