Functional Orientation of Biochemical Processes in Female Beluga × Sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus Linnaeus, 1758 × Huso huso Linnaeus, 1758) Hybrids in the Reproductive Cycle.

The article reports data on the dynamics of blood parameters and parameters of protein, fat, and water-salt metabolism in female starlet × beluga hybrids kept under artificial conditions in the period of reproductive cycle. Gonad maturation in female hybrids in the artificial environment causes clear changes in the biochemistry of blood and of urine.

[Multiple sclerosis with childhood onset]. / Rasseiannyi skleroz s debiutom v detskom vozraste.

The clinical manifestations, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests were analyzed in 19 patients with early-onset (before the age of 17 years) multiple sclerosis (MS) and in 100 patients with the definite diagnosis of MS with adult onset. Between group differences in sex ratio and initial neurological symptoms, with the prevalence of acute brainstem dysfunction (37%) and optic neuritis (37%) in the patients with early onset MS, were revealed. In childhood, the disease course was poorer with early disablement on the background of attendant unfavorable conditions. A sensitivity of various MRI parameters was analyzed and the essential proportion of the tumor-like acute inflammatory lesions was shown in early onset MS (29%). Immunological tests (albumin coefficient evaluation) revealed that in early onset MS hematoencephalic barrier dysfunction was registered more often, comparing to adult onset MS (100% vs 50%). The peculiarities of biases in concentrations of kappa-free and lambda-free light immunoglobulin chains in blood and CSF were detected. Higher levels of the kappa-free light chains concentrations in CSF were mostly found in the patients both with early and adult onset MS (86% and 99%, respectively) that confirmed the diagnostic value of this index. The results obtained may improve MS diagnosis in children.

[Chromatographic analysis of low molecular weight fraction of cerebrospinal fluid in children with acute neuroinfections]. / Khromatograficheskoe opredelenie sostava nizkomolekuliarnoi fraktsii tserebrospinal'noi zhidkosti pri ostrykh neiroinfektsiiakh u detei.

Low molecular-weight (oligopeptide) fraction of the cerebrospinal fluid was analyzed by high-performance reversed phase liquid chromatography in 30 children with bacterial and viral neuroinfections. The incidence and height of chromathoraphic peaks in bacterial meningitis depended on the disease etiology, stage, and severity. Qualitative and quantitative composition of low molecular-weight fraction of the liquor varied in patients with viral neuroinfections, depending on the severity of the cerebral parenchyma involvement. Differences in chromatographic profiles in complicated and uneventful course of neuroinfections indicate a possible damaging, protective, or regulatory effect of the liquor peptides. These data focus the attention on the role of oligopeptides in the genesis of neuroinfectious process, significance of search for peptide markers, their further isolation, identification, and development of test systems available for clinical application.

[Diagnostic significance of the cerebrospinal fluid protein spectrum in bacterial and viral meningitis in children]. / Diagnosticheskoe znachenie belkovogo spektra tserebrospinal'noi zhidkosti pri bakterial'nykh i virusnykh meningitakh u detei.

Protein spectrum of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was studied by polyacrylamide gel disk electrophoresis in 119 children with bacterial and 17 with viral meningitis of different origin over the course of disease. Liquor proteinograms of patients were compared with those of 37 children without meningitis. Protein spectra of the CSF were shifted in the patients. These shifts can serve as differential diagnostic markers: types 1-2 and 2-2 haptoglobins and beta-lipoprotein appears in the blood during the acute period of disease. More pronounced and stubborn changes in the CSF protein spectrum in pneumococcal and hemophilic meningitis correlated with a more severe clinical course and formation of residual neurological consequences. Progress of dysproteinemic shifts in the protein spectrum of the CSF was characterized by a many-fold increase in the concentrations of high-molecular-weight proteins and decreased relative content of liquor-specific fractions, indicating sharp impairment of the blood-brain barrier permeability and formation of brain edema. Disk electrophoresis method is characterized by high resolution, informative value, requires low amounts of CSF for analysis, and is recommended as an accessory diagnostic test for infectious hospitals.

[Clinical and pathogenetic features of CNS damage in children with diphtheria]. / Kliniko-patogeneticheskie osobennosti porazheniia nervnoi sistemy pri difteriinoi infektsii u detei.

The paper presents clinical and neurological features of diphtheritic polyneuropathy in 110 patients aged from 6 months to 14 years. The pattern of neurological complications appeared to be quite different for nontoxic and toxic forms; electroneuromyographical criteria of preclinical diagnosis of nervous disorders were determined. The role of a vascular factor in demyelinating process' genesis, immunohomeostasis implications in severity and outcomes of diphtheritic polyneuropathies, prognostic factors of the unfavorable course of the disease were defined. Scientifically grounded differential approaches to therapy were presented including application of vasoactive neurometabolites optimizing the processes of sanogenesis.

[Computerized electroencephalography of acute neuro-infections in children]. / Komp'iuterizirovannaia élektroéntsefalografiia pri ostrykh neiroinfektsiiakh u detei.

Spectral and visual analysis of EEG was performed in 156 children with acute neuroinfections. It revealed some variants of EEG tracings, related to different grades of a compensation of intracranial hypertension (ICH), the changes in cerebral blood flow and a level of a damage of brainstem in dislocation syndrome. In patients with compensated and subcompensated ICH a polyrhythmic EEG was registered, while the changes in cerebral blood flow were moderate. 91% of the patients of these groups completely recovered. The patients with decompensated ICH and with mesencephalic level of brain dislocation had slow monotonous EEG; those with bulbar lesion had a suppression of bioelectric activity; a decrease of cerebral blood flow as well as an impaired autoregulation were observed. 5 patients from this group died, and the others survived with neurologic impairments of different degree. The conclusion was made about the dependence of EEG character in acute period of neuroinfection on the grade of the elevation of intracranial pressure and on the level of the brainstem damage and about the possibility to prognose an outcome of the disease on the basis of EEG characteristics.

[p-Sulfotetrafluorophenyl hydrophilic activated esters of amino acids in peptide synthesis]. / p-sul'fotetraftorfenilovye gidrofil'nye aktivirovannye éfiry aminokislot v peptidnom sinteze.

Highly reactive hydrophilic (i.e., water-soluble) p-sulfotetrafluorophenyl esters (Tfs esters) are proposed for peptide synthesis in aqueous and aqueous-organic media, as well as for protein and peptide partial synthesis in an aqueous medium. These esters can serve as a basis for creating a series of protein modifying reagents. As they are analogs of the widely used pentafluorophenyl esters, the Tfs esters possess a high reactivity coupled with good stability during storage. The expression for the reaction rate (for substrates AA1 and AA2) is shown to be v = k[Boc-AA1-OTfs][H-AA2-NH2]0.5 for both water and DMF, i.e., the reaction is not a simple second-order reaction. The reaction rate in water is only slightly lower than that in DMF.

[The protective effect of the nerve growth factor on sensory neurons in organotypic culture under the action of diphtheria toxin]. / Protektiruiushchii éffekt faktora rosta nervov na chuvstvitel'nye neirony v organotipicheskoi kul'ture pri deistvii na nee difteriinogo toksina.

Diphtheria toxin (1.10(-1) - 1.10(-6) Lf/ml) was found to inhibit neurite extension in chick embryo dorsal root ganglia in vitro. If the nerve growth factor (60 ng/ml) was added with the toxin to culture media, the effect of diphtheria toxin was seen to decrease and the neurite outgrowth was compared with control. Protective effect of nerve growth factor estimated by the influence of diphtheria toxin may be used for new principles of diphtheria treatment.

[Subdural exudate in bacterial meningitis in children]. / Subdural'nyi vypot pri bakterial'nykh meningitakh u detei.

A subdural exudate (SE) complicating bacterial meningitis in 28 children was diagnosed by the findings at diaphanoscopy, subdurography, thermography, CT, EEG, echo-EG, rheo-EG in the evidence of aggravating neurological symptoms. SE drainage was carried out in all the cases, in 20 patients it was bilateral. CNS age-specific anatomicophysiological features responsible for emergence of the exudate primarily in the anterior hemispheric compartments subject to consequent atrophy are considered when assessing mechanisms of the exudate development in infants.

[Morphology of recent meningococcal infections in children]. / Morfologiia sovremennoi meningokokkovoi infektsii u detei.

An analysis of 108 cases of children's death which occurred in 1981-1991 from hypertoxic meningococcal infection (MI) in St. Petersburg is presented. Serogroup B meningococcus as a causative agent was found in 44% of the cases. The role in the thanatogenesis of inflammatory and immune reactions, viral-bacterial associations was shown on the basis of detailed study of 47 cases. Hemorrhagic adrenal necrosis was diagnosed in 94.7% of the cases. Two clinicomorphological variants of the disease are distinguished: 1) variant with a moderate hemorrhagic eruption without pronounced kidney lesion, 2) variant with an abundant confluent rash and pronounced kidney lesions and choroid plexus immune lesions.

[The clinico-epidemiological characteristics of Powassan encephalitis in the southern Soviet Far East]. / Kliniko-épidemiologicheskie osobennosti éntsefalita Povassan na iuge Sovetskogo Dal'nego Vostoka.

The present communication deals with the analysis of 14 cases of Powassan encephalitis. As shown in this study, the course of this infection may be accompanied by symptoms indicating the presence of cerebral and meningeal lesions (in 7 cases meningoencephalitic forms with one fatal outcome and in 2 cases meningeal forms were registered) or take febrile and inapparent forms (5 cases). Powassan encephalitis was found to give characteristic symptoms of cerebellovestibular lesions, differentiating this disease from tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). The cases of mixed infections caused by TBE virus, Powassan encephalitis virus and tick-born Borrelia were found to be possible.

[Intraocular malignant lymphoma]. / Vnutriglaznaia zlokachestvennaia limfoma.

The paper in devoted to a rare condition difficult to diagnose, intraocular lymphoma. Five patients with a disease history of 2 to 6 years were examined. The authors describe clinical features of the condition and histologic and electron microscopic findings. The clinical pattern of malignant intraocular lymphoma in polymorphous, therefore virtually every case with a sluggish uveitis or posterior scleritis resistant to common therapy has to be verified. A hematologist should take part in examination of such patients. Since the involvement is local, as our findings evidence, a course of polychemotherapy is necessary for such patients.

[Evaluation of the socio-economic effect of using immune anti- meningococcal plasma in pediatric practice]. / Otsenka sotsial'no-ekonomicheskogo éffekta ot primeneniia immunnoi antimeningokokkovoi plazmy v detskoi praktike.

Analysis of the socioeconomic effectiveness of the use of immune antimeningococcal plasma in patients with the grave patterns of meningococcal infection has shown that introduction of the preparation into multimodality therapy results not only in a considerable medicosocial effect (reduction of lethality, lowering of the patients' stay at a hospital, a more rapid, as compared with the control group, removal of the symptoms of intoxication, elimination of hemodynamic disorders underlying the infectious toxic shock) but also in an appreciable economic effect.

[Pathological anatomy and problems of the pathogenesis of pneumococcal meningoencephalitis in children]. / Patologicheskaia anatomiia i nekotorye voprosy patogeneza pnevmokokkovykh meningoéntsefalitov u detei.

The analysis of morphological, clinical and bacteriological data on 31 deceased children with pneumococcal meningoencephalitis is presented. The lesions observed at early and late stages of the disease are characterized in detail and the tendency of pneumococcal meningoencephalitis to a chronic course in the presence of the viable pathogen is shown. The majority of pneumococcal meningoencephalitides were proved to develop primarily, and in their pathogenesis significant role is played by the lesions of hematoencephalic barrier caused by respiratory viruses. High lethality and frequency of severe residual changes in the children with pneumococcal meningoencephalitis are due to early lesions of choroid plexuses and brain matter. In the experiment on 18 rabbits with their suboccipital challenge with 3 different pneumococcal strains, the influence of the biological properties of the pathogen on the clinical and morphological features of the illness is shown.

[Herpetic lesions of the nervous system in children]. / Gerpeticheskie porazheniia nervnoi sistemy u detei.

A total of 125 children with acute infections were examined for herpetic infection, using the conventional viroserological techniques, as well as new methods for rapid diagnosis: the immune competition and immune hemadsorption tests. Thorough pathomorphological examination was carried out in lethal cases. The diagnosis was confirmed in 24 cases. The latter were divided into three groups: (1) herpetic encephalitides (n = 15), serous meningitis (n = 1), and meningomyeloradiculoneuritis (n = 1); (2) involvement of the nervous system as a result of exacerbation of latent herpetic infection in suppurative meningitides (n = 5); (3) persistence of the herpes virus in other neuroinfections (n = 2). Excerpts from the case reports, and electroencephalographic and pathomorphological findings are presented.