Searching for Potential Markers of Glomerulopathy in Urine by HS-SPME-GC×GC TOFMS.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exiting in urine are potential biomarkers of chronic kidney diseases. Headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was applied for extraction VOCs over the urine samples. Volatile metabolites were separated and identified by means of two-dimensional gas chromatography and time of flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC TOF MS). Patients with glomerular diseases (n = 27) and healthy controls (n = 20) were recruited in the study. Different VOCs profiles were obtained from patients and control. Developed methodology offers the opportunity to examine the metabolic profile associated with glomerulopathy. Four compounds found in elevated amounts in the patients group, i.e., methyl hexadecanoate; 9-hexadecen-1-ol; 6,10-dimethyl-5,9-undecadien-2-one and 2-pentanone were proposed as markers of glomerular diseases.

[Sudden cardiac death in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura]. / Nagla smierc sercowa z powodu zakrzepowej plamicy maloplytkowej.

Cardiac abnormalities may constitute an important and unrecognized cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). We report a case of 29-year-old female with rapid acute TTP ending with sudden death and not preceded by cardiac symptoms.

Was the famous astronomer Copernicus also a nephrologist.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), world-famous astronomer, born in Torun, was also a Warmian canon (senior priest) and a physician to 4 consecutive prince-bishops of Warmia and of other Warmian canons. What medical conditions preoccupied Nicolaus Copernicus and whether they included kidney diseases can only be inferred from the extant prescriptions of Copernicus, as no record remains of any treatises by Copernicus regarding medicine. While no prescription penned by him is dated, several are traced to the period of his studies in Padua, Italy. The prescriptions indicate that he was concerned with conditions afflicting virtually all systems and organs of the human body including the kidneys. His personal library included at least 45 books, of which 14 dealt with medical issues. Copernicus used to write his prescriptions in the margins or on the blank pages of the treatises. They were mostly based on Avicenna's original prescriptions. The most common herbal ingredients used by Copernicus as remedies for symptoms of renal colic, hematuria and diuresis were common nettle (Urtica dioica), goosegrass (Galium aparine), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), cubeb (Piper cubeba), common pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo), almond seeds and many others. It is hard to ascertain how effective the medical methods utilized by Copernicus may have been.

Leon Marchlewski: one of the precursors of clinical chemistry.

Dynamic progress in the basic sciences such as clinical chemistry exerted a great influence on the development of clinical science in medicine in the 19th century. We should rate Prof. Leon Marchlewski among the group of prominent foreign and Polish scientists working in that period. Marchlewski was born in 1869 in Wloclawek, Poland. He began his chemical studies in Warsaw and then continued at the Zurich Technical University. After having graduated, he began working in the famous Edward Schunk's laboratory in Kersal near Manchester in England. At that time he achieved recognition for his research on the chemical affinity of dyes of the animal and plant world. Later he cooperated in this field with another great scholar Marceli Nencki. In 1900 he returned to Poland, and in 1906 he took charge of the Department of Medical Chemistry at Jagiellonian University. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize twice in 1913 and 1914 for his numerous achievements in the field of clinical chemistry. He took many positions at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, including dean and rector. In 1930-1935 he was a senator of the Republic of Poland. He died in 1946 in Krakow.

Nicolaus Copernicus: not only a great astronomer but also a physician.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), an internationally recognized Polish astronomer, studied liberal arts at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow during the period 1491-1495. Shortly thereafter he was sent by his uncle to Bologna University, where he spent almost 5 years (1496-1501) studying law and philosophy. After his return to Poland, Nicolaus was nominated as canon in the cathedral chapter in Frombork. Next he started to study medicine in the University of Padua, one of the best-known centers of medical education in Europe. He was granted a bachelor degree and after another year, a therapeutic license (veniam practicandi), but never obtained his doctoral degree from Padua, though he was always called doctor of medicine ("medici doctor"). Copernicus returned to Warmia in 1503 and spent almost 40 years there. During the first few years he was the personal "medicus" and secretary of his uncle, Bishop Lucas Watzenrode. After the death of his uncle in 1512, Copernicus became the personal physician to the subsequent 4 Warmian bishops and his confreres from the Warmian chapter in Frombork. Copernicus practiced medicine not only in diagnosing and taking care of his patients but also in personally preparing the prescribed drugs. He was often consulted (consiglia) from several other cities, including Gdansk, Königsberg, Lubawa, Elblag and Olsztyn. He also collaborated and consulted with Jan Benedict Solfa and Laurence Wille, the official Polish royal physicians at the time. During the epidemics of 1519, Copernicus employed sanitary preventive measures by providing several Warmian and Pomeranian towns with an innovative water supply system. Copernicus is well known as a genius in astronomy, but this great Renaissance man was also a mathematician, engineer, soldier, writer, economist and, last but not least, a practicing physician.

Unknown Polish pioneers of peritoneal dialysis.

Peritoneal dialysis is one of the methods of renal replacement therapy. The first research using a patient's peritoneal membrane for this purpose appeared at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. Among the many scientists dealing with this field of medicine during that period were also Polish representatives: Prof. Marceli Landsberg, Prof. Henryk Gnoinski and Dr. Tadeusz Szenkier. In the 1920s, independent of their foreign colleagues, they carried out and published interesting experiments on animals in Polish and foreign magazines. They indicated the possibility of using the peritoneal membrane and also the intestines, in uremia treatment. After a long period in which the development of peritoneal dialysis was restrained by the rapidly expanding development of hemodialysis, one saw its resurgent development. And here again Polish scientists made their contribution: among others, Profs. Zbylut Twardowski and Zofia Wankowicz contributed in a significant way and are still contributing to the development of peritoneal dialysis in the world and in Poland.

[HIV-associated nephropathy. Case report]. / Nefropatia w przebiegu zakazenia wirusem HIV. Opis przypadku.

The clinical case described below forces us to ask two basic questions: whether the patient is suffering from two separate, co-existing illnesses, i.e. primary nephritic syndrome or the nephritic syndrome in connection with Schoenlein-Henoch disease, with accompanies the HIV infection, or nephropathy, development of which has been triggered by HIV infection.