[Implementation of the radiolabelled antibiotic in the detection of orthopedic infections]

The aim of the study is detection and evaluation of the orthopedic infections using 99mTc-ciprofloxacin, radiopharmaceutical supposed to distinguish inflammation from infection. There were 15 true positive findings, 9 true negative, and two were false positive, while 1 was false negative. Sensitivity was 94%, specificity 82%, positive predictive value 88%, negative predictive value 90% and accuracy 89%. According to our results, scintigraphy with 99mTc-ciprofloxacin is a useful method for detection and assessment of exact localization of orthopedic infections, which might be useful for (differential) diagnosis, surgical treatment in due time as well as monitoring of the treatment of conservative therapy.

[Tonsillo-pharyngeal form of tularemia]

Clinical, laboratory and serologic features of tonsillopharyngeal form of tularemia in 14 patients were analyzed in the study. The disease was ignored under the diagnosis of typical tonsillopharyngitis followed by cervical lymphadenopathy. Routine laboratory analyses results were non-specific and didn't reveal the disease etiology, while microagglutination test (MAT) of F. tularensis in the second week of disease was positive in 86% of patients. Skin tularin test was positive in all the tested patients during the first week of the disease. The best results in the treatment were achieved by administration of streptomycin and doxycycline. Well timed therapy prevented the lymph nodes colliquation, disease recurrence and infection generalization. The authors point out the significance of this clinical form of tularemia in the differential diagnosis of tonsillopharyngitis and cervical lymphodenopathy.

[Clinico-laboratory characteristics and treatment of patients with trichinosis]

The severity of clinical features of trichinosis and cardiac involvement incidence were examined in the study. The values of eosinophiles, serum enzymes and serologic response to T. spiralis were determined in relation to the disease severity. Twenty-nine patients, of mean age from 24 to 29 years treated in the Clinic in the period from January to April 1995 were presented-7 with severe form of trichinosis, 10 with moderately severe and 12 with light. The fever was noticed in 93.1% of patients, gastrointestinal disorders in 65.5%, myalgias in 96.6%, facial edema in 79.3%, cardiac disorders in 31% and rash in 20.7%. Positive IIF test result was found in 100% of patients with severe clinical features, and only in 58.3% of patients with light clinical features. The patients were treated with mebendazole in the dose of 25 mg/kg BM a day during 14 days. It was concluded that severe trichinosis forms were frequently followed by myocardial damage, that severe forms responded faster and better serologically to trichinella and those patients should be treated with high mebendazole doses.

[Pharmacotherapy in neonates and infants]

Pharmacotherapy in neonates and infants includes the knowledge of many specific characteristics of this age. Haemodynamic and pharmacokinetic characteristics are coupled not only with intensive development of organs and organ systems, irst of all liver and kidneys, but also the specificity of drugs of pharmacotheray, aiming at acheiving the optimal dosing, either by correction of doses, or by increasing the time interval between the doses, or both... This helps in decreasing the time risk of early of delayed complications due to overdosing, but also helps in decreasing the unnecessary financial burden.

[Viral hepatitis C. Personal experience with diagnostic, monitoring and epidemiologic studies]

In the period from 1991 to 1993, 18 patients with the acute viral hepatitis type C were treated and followed up--13 men and 5 women, the average age of 42 years. The group of 6 patients (4 men and two women) with the "old" proven liver cirrhosis, whose etiology was unknown for 20 years, was analyzed. The investigations showed that the acute viral hepatitis type C usually began with the mild subjective disorders. The half of the patients did not have either jaundice or hepatomegaly, only half of them recover, and the first cases of cirrhosis could have been expected almost as early as a year after the beginning of illness. The developed liver cirrhoses remained compensated for years. About 58% of patients got infected parenterally, and the rest of them could have gotten infected in other manner. ELISA test showed great reliability in proving the antibodies against the viral hepatitis type C in the confirming the diagnosis of illness.

[Clinical manifestations of infectious erythema in adults]

The infectious erythema is usually childhood disease associated with rash and caused by parvovirus B19. At the beginning of 1993., at the Clinic for infectious and tropical diseases of the Military Medical Academy 36 patients were treated for this disease, the average age 21 years. The prodromal phase of illness lasted approximately 2.9 days, the elevated temperature 5.2 days, and 17 patients had temperature above 39 degrees C. The rash was usually maculo-papullous and lasted about 6 days. Four patients had the recurrence of rash. The polyarthralgia appeared for short in six patients and in one patient lasted longer than 4 months. The mild anemia during infectious erythema was observed in 18 patients. IgM antiparvo B19 antibodies were proven in serum in 91.7%, and IgG antibodies in 58.3% of patients.

[Personal experience in the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis B with recombinant interferon B alfa-2]

Twelve patients were treated with alpha-2 recombinant interferon during 4 months. Patients were given daily dose of 3 million units three times a week. Therapeutic effect expressed as the percentage of HBeAG seroconversion or by the loss of antibodies for the core antigen in IgM fraction and by the core antigen loss from hepatic tissue, was achieved in 41.6% of patients. Corticosteroids, administered before interferon, could improve therapeutic effect. Better response to therapy was observed in patients with higher serum transaminase levels and with histopathologically confirmed chronic hepatitis. Predictive value of each immunological parameter of therapeutic effect requires further study.

[Clinical characteristics of Lyme disease]

Clinical characteristics of Lyme disease were analysed in 22 patients. Erythema migrans was found in 20 (91%), arthralgia in 18 (81%), neuralgia in 8 (36%), encephalitis in 3 (13%), carditis in 2 (9%) and arthritis in 2 (9%) patients. The positive antibody titer was found in 14 (63%) patients. Favourable effects of antibiotic therapy was achieved in all patients. Erythema migrans has been manifested up to 12 days after tick sting and arthralgia, arthritis, neuralgia, hepatitis and chronic dermatitis within a year. Carditis and encephalitis have been developing from a month to ten years after tick sting. Lyme borreliosis is commonly manifested as a systemic disease. Together with the skin, most commonly have been involved ankle joints, heart and nervous system. The time from tick sting to the onset of first signs of the diseases varies by the involved organs.

[Changes in thyroid hormone levels in patients with acute viral hepatitis]

In 10 patients with acute viral hepatitis A or B the dynamics of the concentrations of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4), triiodothyroxine (T3) and their coefficient T3/T4, and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in all phases of hepatitis have been studied. In acute phase and in the fully developed clinical picture of the diseases, the increased T4 values and decreased values of T3, T3/T4 coefficient and TSH were found. These changes are explained by the slowed down deiodinization of T3 and T4 in hepatocytes as well as by the disturbed secretion of the thyroid hormone in hepatitis and they could be of some value in diagnosis and prognosis.

The many-beam moiré effect in electron micrographs of epitaxic Sn/SnTe layers

The many-beam dynamical theory of moiré fringes of Gevers [Phys. Status Solidi (1963). 3, 2289–2297] has been applied to the parallel moiré case and the results have been verified on epitaxically grown Sn/SnTe specimens showing the sensitivity of moiré patterns to the presence of systematic reflections. The Fourier analysis of the calculated intensity profiles showed that each additional diffracted beam gives rise to a new term in the Fourier series so that the profile can be sinusoidal only in the two-beam approximation. The same result has been obtained recently by Pardo, Pariset & Renard [Phys. Status Solidi A. (1981). 64, 283–295], who applied a slightly different theoretical approach to Sb/Bi specimens. It is shown that the corrections to scattering factors for temperature effects are not important since they do not affect the general character of the moiré profiles. Some experiments were performed showing the dependence of the moiré pattern on the number of beams that are transmitted through the objective aperture. The effect of the gradual thinning of one layer on the moiré pattern could be reproduced by computer simulation.