[Justifying standards of workup in patients with occupational polyneuropathy caused by physical overload].

The authors examined algorithm of investigations in occupational pathology centers for suspected occupational polyneuropathy due to physical overload. Suggestions included a procedure to investigate the patients, including medical specialists consultations, set of laboratory and instrumental studies divided into obligatory and by special indications.

[Diseases of "operating hand" in hypermarket checkout counter workers].

The authors evaluated peripheral neuropathy in 34 female workers of hypermarket checkout counter, via neurologic examination and electric neuromyography. Average length of service in checkout counter was 4 years, maximal one--8 years. All the examinees demonstrated slower peripheral nerve impulse conductivity. 22% of the examinees presented significantly lower nerve impulse conductivity. Right median neuropathy was diagnosed in 47% of the examinees, left one--in 38% of the cases, and ulnar neuropathy--in 24% of the cases. Possibility is that work conditions at major hypermarket checkout counters require improvement.

[Evaluating dependency of medical rehabilitation results in occupational polyneuropathy patiens on treatment strategy and work conditions].

The authors evaluated efficiency of rehabilitation in patients with upper limbs occupational polyneuropathy, in accordance with length of service under physical overstrain. The study was based on follow-up of 268 patients. Treatment was initiated after the patients discontinued work hazardous for health. Drug and sanatorium treatment was effective in 67-86% of patients (with differences in occupational groups). The effect was only transitory (for 15-60 days) decrease of the disease clinical manifestations. Rehabilitation prognosis was reliably better in patients who worked during the disease development in conditions with number of stereotypic working movements of hands within hygienic norms. The treatment efficiency is reliably higher when started at younger age, regular drug and sanatorium treatment for many years. Placement of the patients on jobs avoiding physical overstrain enabled nowadays to prevent progression of occupational polyneuropathy.

[Objective evaluation of rehabilitation efficiency in patients with upper limbs occupational vegetosensory polyneuropathy].

Clinical and neurophysiologic study covered efficiency of rehabilitation in 40 patients with upper limbs occupational vegetative-sensory polyneuropathy. Each patient underwent infrared thermography and electroneuromyography of hands before and after the treatment. Findings are that post-treatment nerve impulse velocity in right median nerve has improved considerably, thermovisual pictures of both upper limbs also have reliably improved. Electroneuromyography and infrared thermography for evaluation of rehabilitation efficiency are justified. Applied rehabilitation protocol was clinically effective, reliable improvement in the patients state was registered.

[Infrared thermography and electroneuromyography in occupational polyneuropathy diagnosis].

We have evaluated diagnostic value of the combination of infrared thermography and electromyography in professional polyneuropathy diagnosis. 20 patients with working-hand syndrome and 5 controls were enrolled. In 18 cases (90%) both methods were sensitive: on EMG CNV slowing and amplitudes drop were seen, as well as M-response shape changes, and thermography have detected focal hypothermia in hands in some cases and appearance of obscure hypothermia in others. Thus, both methods demonstrated good sensitivity. We recommend using thermography as a screening test and EMG as a following investigation.

[Evaluating efficiency of rehabilitation in patients with occupational vegetative sensory polyneuropathies caused by physical overstrain].

Analysis of medical and occupational rehabilitation efficiency in patients with occupational polyneuropathies caused by physical overstrain revealed that most patients show persistent symptoms and ineffective occupational rehabilitation in spite of regular medical and sanatorium-and-spa treatment.

[Heterochromatic DNA repeats in Drosophila and unusual gene silencing in yeast cells].

The 1.25-kb heterochromatic Stellate repeats of Drosophila melanogaster are capable of stably persisting in transgenic constructs and silencing the white reporter gene (mosaic position effect variegation). This system reveals an unusual form of silencing, which is insensitive to known modifiers of position effect variegation. The unusual form of silencing was studied with yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a simple eukaryotic model. To be transferred into yeast cells, the D. melanogaster Stellate repeats were cloned in the pYAC4 centromeric vector (CEN4, URA3, TRP1, HIS3). The HIS3 and/or URA3 genes could be inactive in plasmids consisting of pYAC4 and the Stellate insert in yeast cells. Deletion of D. melanogaster DNA from the plasmid was found to activate the URA3 and HIS3 genes. It was assumed that the genes were repressed rather than damaged in the presence of the Stellate repeats and that a new form of gene silencing was revealed in S. cerevisiae.

[Occupational dorsopathy: topics of occupational examination and rehabilitation]. / Professional'nye dorsopatii: voprosy ekspertizy i reabilitatsii.

The article is an attempt to summarize contemporary views of etiology and pathogenesis of back pain syndromes, of examining links between dorsopathy and occupation and rehabilitation of occupational vertebral neurologic diseases.

[Rheoencephalographic signs of inadequate blood supply to the brain in early cerebrovascular insufficiency]. / O reoéntsefalograficheskikh priznakakh nepolonotsennosti krovosnabzheniia mozga pri nachal'noi tserebrovaskuliarnoi nedostatochnosti.

Using the method of functional rheoencephalography the author examined 450 patients with initial signs of inadequate blood supply of the brain. Characteristics of the rheoencephalographic signs of the blood supply inadequacy are given and their importance for early diagnosing of various forms of cerebrovascular pathology, revealing latent forms of the latter, and determining collateral circulation paths, compensatory potentialities, and indications for angiographic examinations are discussed.