[Characteristics of inflammatory response in patients after senile cataract surgery].

The aim of the work was to study prognostic value of some laboratory markers (anti-DNA antibodies, cell adhesive molecules, neopterin) in heriatric patients with exudative inflammation after cataract surgery. 12 in-patients with postoperative iridocyclitis and endophthalmitis were included. The assays were taken twice: after admission and before discharging. The follow-up period was 6 months. Preliminary data show that high serum levels of sVCAM, sICAM and anti-DNA antibodies, as well as very low levels of anti-DNA antibodies seems to be associated with poor outcomes in those patients (enucleation, blindness, lens extraction). Small cohort doesn't allow us to make strict conclusion about prognostic value of these laboratory markers. The study should be continued.

[Change in the blood cytokine spectrum in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis].

AIM: To assess cytokine spectrum changes in different types of pulmonary sarcoidosis (PS). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven PS patients without signs of pulmonary fibrosis and 14 patients with sarcoidosis complicated by pulmonary fibrosis were examined. Baseline serum Th1 and Th2 cytokine concentrations were studied. A control group comprised 30 healthy donors. RESULTS: A higher interleukin (IL)-4/IL-2 ratio was found in the peripheral blood of the patients with pulmonary fibrosis-complicated sarcoidosis than in the other patients (326.4 +/- 122.6 and 88.2 +/- 28.6%, respectively; p = 0.002). The sarcoidosis patients with signs of pulmonary fibrosis and no symptoms of disease inflammatory activity had elevated blood IL-1 levels whereas an IL-1 receptor antagonist was decreased. CONCLUSION: In the patients with PS, the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis occur with a shift in the Th1/Th2 balance towards Th2, which manifests itself as a higher IL-4/IL-2 ratio in the peripheral blood. At the same time, the signs of systemic inflammatory activity remain.

[RT-PCR-based evaluation of the activity of human papilloma virus infection in relapsing papillomatosis of the larynx].

RT-PCR-based examination of papilloma samples obtained from patients with relapsing papillomatosis of the larynx showed an incidence rate of human papilloma virus (HPV) amounting to 89%. The viral load level of the studied samples, when measured by concurrent RT-PCR HPV, differed by more than 130 times. It made, in the untreated patient, 1.2 x 10(9) hormonal equivalents/ml, i.e. 13-fold higher versus the patient who received pathogenetic therapy. Thus, the approach in question provides for a possibility to monitor the activity of papilloma viral infection and to evaluate the efficiency of different variations of pathogenetic therapy because the "classic" variant of PCR-detection is not informative in the discussed case.

[Fast detection of DNA of hepatitis B virus by real time PCR].

90 blood plasma samples from patients with suspected chronic viral hepatitis B (CVHB) were analyzed by real-time polymerized chain reaction (PCR). The findings were compared with the results obtained by 2 PCR electrophoresis-based test-systems; the sensitivity limit for the quantification of DNA of hepatitis B virus (HBV) was determined; in the present case, the limit corresponded to 30 replications of HBV DNA to reaction (600 GE/ml). The positive result of real-time PCR was registered in 53.3% of cases. The quantity of HBV DNA replications in blood plasma samples varied from 30 to 3.9 x 10(6) per reaction (600-7.8 x 10(7) GE/ml). Serological profiles were analyzed in 18 patients with the verified diagnosis of CVHB. HBV DNA was detected in blood of 65% of HBsAg(+)-patients. The markers of HBeAg replication were noted in 35.5% of patients; it is noteworthy, that HBeAg(+)-samples were characterized by a higher level of viral loads (> or = 10(6) GE/ml) versus HBeAg(-)-samples (> or = 6 x 10(3) GE/ml). An analysis of blood-plasma samples dynamically obtained from one patient with chronic renal insufficiency and CVHB showed a decreased level of viral load from 1.7 x 10(7) GE/ml to a negative finding of real-time PCR registered after a therapy course by zeffix. Hence, the automated and standardized real-time PCR, when used at a multi-field patient-care facility, ensures a better diagnosis of viral hepatitis B.

[Immunological aspects of laboratory diagnosis of chronic urticaria]. / Immunologicheskie aspekty laboratornoi diagnostiki khronicheskoi krapivnitsy.

High prevalence of allergic diseases necessitates search for new methods of laboratory diagnosis thereof. We studied the diagnostic significance of the count of cells expressing low-affinity receptors to IgE (CD23+ cells) and compared this test with skin tests with non-infectious allergens and measurement of total serum IgE. 104 patients with various forms of chronic relapsing urticaria were examined. The count of CD23+ cells was markedly increased in atopic urticaria. The increase in the count of these cells and correlation with the results of skin test were less expressed in infectious allergic urticaria. In other forms of chronic urticaria characterized by negative results of skin tests the count of CD23+ cells was normal. The level of total serum IgE was low virtually in all patients. Hence, the count of cells carrying low-affinity receptors to IgE is highly informative, detecting IgE-mediated reactions in the patients, though this parameter does not allow identification of the allergen. This test can be used in complex with other methods of allergodiagnosis, particularly in cases when skin tests are for this or that reason impossible.

[Cytogenetic and cytomorphologic parallels of human lymphocytes]. / Tsitogeneticheskie i tsitomorfometricheskie paralleli limfotsitov cheloveka.

Association frequency of human acrocentric chromosomes is the function of the period of interphase of cells and the activity of their proliferation. This characteristic, therefore, can be used for the analysis of the dynamics of cellular populations. Variations in the classes of frequencies of lymphocytes with different associating centric chromosomes were compared with the frequency of different classes. The dynamics of the classes of lymphocytes without associations and with two associating acrocentrics correlated in force and direction with different classes with the diameter up to 0.5 mcm, the fact witnessing their functional unity. They make up a pool of newly-formed activated populations of lymphocytes, whose character of dynamics can be used for analysing proliferative and migrational activities of lymphocytes in the initial periods of immunogenesis in lymphoid organs. The increase in the number of associations in long-circulating lymphocytes was followed by an adequate increase in cellular sizes, the latter being the reflection of their following immunological functions. Changes in frequencies of associative and different classes in blood and pleural exudate of patients took place in accordance with the pathogenesis of a concrete illness as well as the character of the factors affecting the body.