[The role of structure-modifying agents in the treatment of back pain].

BACKGROUND: Back pain is currently one of the most urgent problems within pain syndromes. Inadequate treatment of nonspecific back pain, even with a relatively favorable prognosis, leads to its chronicity and decreases the patient's quality of life. The most common cause of vertebrogenic dorsopathies is spinal osteochondrosis. The etiopathogenetic basis of spinal osteochondrosis is degenerative and dystrophic changes in the intervertebral discs involving adjacent vertebrae, joints, and ligaments. Considering the experience of many years of using chondroprotective therapy in clinical practice, we performed an observational study using Ambene Bio to assess the change of pain severity over time in patients with osteochondrosis and back pain. AIM: To study the change in the severity of pain and its components in patients with back pain during therapy with Ambene Bio combined with standard therapy (NSAIDs and muscle relaxants). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients with chronic lower back pain lasting more than 3 months were included in the study. CONCLUSION: The study results confirmed the high efficacy of Ambene Bio in patients with dorsopathies with an alternating treatment regimen (10 IM injections 2 mL every other day).

[The use of neipilept in treatment of asthenic syndrome]. / Primenenie neipilepta dlia korrektsii proiavlenii astenicheskogo sindroma.

AIM: To assess the efficacy of neipilept in treatment of asthenic syndrome. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two groups of patients, aged from 30 to 40 years, with functional asthenia were examined. Patients were divided into main (n=40) and control (n=15) groups. In 22% men and 56% women, the disease was precipitated by emotional stress, in 46 and 38% by physical and stressful work conditions. Both groups received standard treatment. Patients of the main group received additionally neipilept in solution (500 mg daily) during 30 days. General physical and neurological examinations and psychometric assessment were performed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A significant reduction of asthenic symptoms, an increase in self-rated physical and mental functioning, a decrease in symptoms of cognitive dysfunction, anxiety and depression were observed in the main group compared to the control one. The positive changes in neuropsychological status improved quality of life and psychological adaptation in patients with functional asthenia exposed to chronic stress, physical and psychoemotional overstrain.

[Correction of anxiety-depressive disorders in Parkinson's Disease.]

In the formation of a common age-associated pathological process in patients with Parkinson's disease along with movement disorders so-called «non-motorized¼ clinical symptoms (including anxiety and depression) play an important role. These pathological manifestations can reduce the quality of life of the patient and require specific therapeutic measures. The picker is the use of drugs - antidepressants. The article discusses the opportunity for the effective and safe use of such drug - sertraline combined with basic therapy, which is widely used in Parkinson's disease. Distinct positive results were obtained in the process of using the proposed scheme of treatment in 35 patients at the age of 62,3±3,6 years and with disease duration of 3,9±2,6 years. We observed decrease depressive symptoms, improve sleep, decrease anxiety levels while improving the quality of life of patients. No unwanted side effects of the treatment were observed. The possibility to use of sertraline for the relief of anxiety and depressive disorders in the elderly suffering from Parkinson's disease was shown.

[Association of T174M polymorphism of the angiotensinogen gene with the higher risk of cerebral stroke in women].

AIM: To study the association of M235T (rs699) and T174M (rs4762) polymorphisms of the angiotensinogen (AGT) gene with the risk of cerebral stroke (CS) in the Russians of the Central Chernozem Region. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 638 DNA samples obtained from 353 patients with CS and 285 sex- and age-matched healthy individuals were examined. The polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (T174M) and TaqMan allelic discrimination (M235T) assays. RESULTS: Heterozygous AGT 174TM genotype carriers were found to be at a higher risk for CS (odd ratio (OR) = 1.52; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08-2.15; p = 0.02). A gender-stratified analysis showed that the mutant 174M allele (OR = 1.86; 95% CI, 1.14-3.03, p = 0.01) and variant 174TM and 174MM genotypes (OR = 1.86; 95% CI, 1.09-3.20; p = 0.02) were associated with the higher risk of cerebral stroke in women. CONCLUSION: The association of AGT T174M polymorphism with the risk of CS was first found; but the higher risk of the disease in the carriers of variant alleles and genotypes was observed in the women only.

[The function of neuromuscular structures and the cerebrospinal dynamics in primary arterial hypotension]. / Funktsiia nervno-myshechnykh struktur i tserebral'naia likvorodinamika pri pervichnoi arterial'noi gipotenzii.

To specify correlations between neuromuscular, vegetative functions and CSF dynamics in patients with primary arterial hypotension, 22 young patients were examined with the aid of stimulation electroneuromyography, registration of evoked sympathetic cutaneous potential, echoencephalography and electrothermometry. The data obtained before and after antiorthostatic test were compared. A group of healthy subjects served as control. It has been shown that in patients with primary arterial hypotension with compensated neurological microsymptomatology, unpronounced under common conditions, there are well-defined signs of disorders in the work of neuromuscular structures, vegetative fibers, and in thermoregulation. These disorders undergo different changes under the influence of the antiorthostatic test and are accompanied in the majority of the patients by the enlargement of the ventricular system of the brain. It is assumed that in view of this fact, potentialities of adaptation are decreased in the disease in question. It is recommended that electroneuromyography and echoencephalography be used in an all-round estimation of the health status of patients suffering from primary arterial hypotension.