[Smoking among medical students]. / Kurenie sredi studentov meditsinskikh institutov.

A fundamental statistical analysis of the questionnaire given to 2089 first-year and last-year students of 9 medical institutes of the country was carried out within the framework of study of the "Smoking and Health" International Committee. The number of smokers per day was 21.6%. Awareness of smoking association with the development of certain diseases is 2-3 times higher in the last-year students than in the first-year ones. Among the nonsmokers 87.6% supported the need to limit smoking in public places, 79.2% to prohibit tobacco selling to children, 66.6% to prohibit advertisement of tobacco products and 82 supported the idea of instructing doctors in methods for treating smoking. Smokers were less enthusiastic in supporting the proposed measures. Among the smokers 53% claimed failure in giving up smoking. The main responsibility in banning smoking falls on medical profession.

[Setting up a dialogue-automated counselor system for the examination of patients with a phthisio-pulmonological profile]. / Razrabotka dialogovoi avtomatizirovannoi sistemy-sovetchika dlia optimizatsii obsledovaniia bol'nykh ftiziopul'monologicheskogo profilia.

The Central Research Institute of Tuberculosis of the USSR Ministry of Public Health is engaged in the work for the development of the computed automatized dialogue system--counsel of a physician on questions of the optimization of examination of patients of the ++phthisio-pulmonologic profile under dispensary conditions, which is based on the statistical methods of image discrimination. The system helps in solving tasks of differential diagnosis, diagnostic volume of patients examination and development of recommendations for the further management of patients.

[The formation of groups at risk for tuberculosis by means of questionnaires and using computers]. / Formirovanie grupp riska po tuberkulezu putem anketirovaniia i ispol'zovaniia EVM.

The highest risk groups of tuberculosis origination and recurrences have been ascertained on a large factual material. A multifactorial computed analysis conducted on the basis of the automatized dialogue system made it possible to establish the optimal combinations of the socio-hygienic and medico-biological factors to detect risk groups of emergence of respiratory organs tuberculosis and its recurrences. The main risk group of respiratory organs tuberculosis included subjects adhering to the social way of life, having concurrent respiratory diseases and living under the unfavourable housing conditions. Respiratory organ tuberculosis most probably recurs in subjects who were not fully cured of a primary disease and in those who had an acute disease one year prior to recurrence detection. The developed system helps a practitioner-phthisiatrist in decision making concerning risk groups formation.

[The differential diagnosis of sarcoidosis of the respiratory organs using mathematical methods and computers]. / Differentsial'naia diagnostika sarkoidoza organov dykhaniia s primeneniem matematicheskikh metodov i EVM.

A system for detecting sarcoidosis has been proposed on the basis of the results of a primary examination, which comprises a combination of programs for determining whether sarcoidosis may occur in various X-ray syndromes (enlarged intrathoracic lymph nodes, disseminated process, infiltrative or pneumonia-like shadow and cavity formation). The system has been developed with the help of a program-algorithm complex which enables one to make the dialogue system of the decision-make support on the basis of statistical methods of "image recognition" containing basic structural elements of the expert systems. Program development proceeds from the findings obtained in 406 patients with sarcoidosis of respiratory organs and 723 patients having similar clinical and X-ray picture of the disease. The diagnostic efficiency of the system was 89% in disseminated processes, 90% in enlarged intrathoracic lymph nodes and cavitary changes, and 96.2% in infiltrative changes.

Evaluation of the heart pump function by afterload intracardiac pressure and blood flow measurements in cats.

In experiments carried out on cats and by using a mathematical model the authors studied afterload characteristics of the left ventricle of normal and hypertrophied heart. They found that afterload characteristics, expressed by a relationship between left ventricular systolic pressure and the aortic blood flow rate, have both in a normal as well as in a hypertrophied heart a nearly linear character, do not depend on the elastic properties of the aorta, and can be described by two parameters: the force parameter--i.e. maximum pressure at zero flow (Pm), and the rate parameter--i.e. the maximum flow value at zero pressure (Qm). Afterload characteristics change at inotropic influences: positive inotropic effects shift the characteristics upward and rightward, negative inotropic action shifts them downward and leftward. In moderate hypertrophy, Pm and Qm increase, with the increase in Qm being greater. The parameters of afterload characteristics can be used as pump function indexes characterizing the heart's ability to cope with the load in the outflow tract.

[Effect of inotropic factors in the postload characteristics of the heart]. / Vliianie inotropnykh faktorov na postnagruzochnye kharakteristiki sertdsa.

It was shown in acute experiments on cats that the post-exercise characteristics of the left ventricle plotted as a dependence between the magnitudes of the maximal blood flow velocity and systolic intraventricular pressure in health and inotropic exposures are close to the linear ones. Adrenaline shifts the post-exercise characteristics upward and to the right, increasing both the maximal magnitude of the blood flow velocity at a zero pressure (velocity component) and the maximal magnitude of the pressure at a zero blood flow (force component), the latter rising to a greater extent. Calcium chloride and obsidan cause a parallel shift of the post-exercise characteristics: the force and velocity components diminish upon obsidan administration, while with CaCl2 they increase.

[Experimental quantitative evaluation of the cardiac pump in function]. / Kolichestvennaia otsenka nasosnoi funktsii serdtsa v éksperimente.

Experimental technique has been developed that makes it possible to change left ventricular after exercise on a wide scale during one beat at an intact circulation. The relationship between the maximal blood flow rate and left ventricular systolic pressure at permanently filled ventricle and inotropic state has been shown close to linear. This relationship (exercise characteristics) can be described by two parameters: maximal systolic blood pressure at blood flow and maximal blood flow ab zero peripheral resistance, and can be used for the assessment of the cardiac pump function.

[Relationship between myocardial contractile activity and the concentration of endogenous prostaglandins in the heart]. / Zavisimost' mezhdu sokratitel'noi aktivnost'iu miokarda i soderzhaniem v serdtse éndogennykh prostaglandinov.

The time-dependent positive correlation between myocardial contractility and myocardial level of prostaglandins (PG) was found after acute pressure overload. The PG level and contractility were observed to correlate well just after aortal stenosis. This correlation became less marked after more prolonged periods of adaptation to overload. A suggestion is made that a rapid increase in the PG content is required for triggering the biochemical mechanism of heart adaptation after the stressful factor.

[Changes in cerebral circulation during various types of cardiac arrhythmias]. / Izmenenie mozgovogo krovoobrashcheniia pri razlichnykh vidakh serdechnykh aritmii v eksperimente

The cerebral volume blood flow was measured in acute canine experiments in three major arteries of the brain using an electromagnetic flowmeter. Paroxysms of ventricular tachycardia caused by electric stimulation of the heart resulted in varying degrees of reduction of the cerebral blood flow and arterial pressure that was most significant with cardiac contractions rate exceeding 240/min. Bradycardia with the contractions rate below 60/min also caused a reduction of the cerebral blood flow and arterial pressure. A parabolic correlation was revealed between the changes in the heart contractions rate and the amount of decrease of the cerebral blood flow and arterial pressure. Grouped ventricular extrasystoles resulted in a brief sharp fall of the cerebral blood flow...