Medicina
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Recently the use of allogeneic (donor) blood transfusion is widely accepted in the clinical practice. Despite of good quality and safety of preparation of allogeneic blood, there are some risks related with transfusion: hemolytic, febrile, and allergic reactions, transfusion related acute lung injury, negative immunomodulatory effect, transmission of infections diseases, dissemination and recurrence of cancer. This is why the indications for donor blood transfusion are restricted, so new safer methods are discovered to avoid or to decrease the heed for allogeneic blood transfusion. ⋯ Autologous transfusion is the collection and reinfusion of the patient's own blood (donor and recipient is the same person). Several types of autologous transfusion can be used: preoperative autologous blood donation, acute normovolemic hemodilution, intraoperative blood salvage, postoperative blood salvage. Neverless, autologous transfusion does not protect from all risks, it still remains the safest type of blood transfusion and is important in the strategy of blood conservation.
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Aortic dissection is an acute lesion of the aortic wall accompanied by separation of the media due to rupture or intramural hematoma. The incidence rate of aortic dissection is 5 to 30 cases per million people a year. Acute aortic dissection is a highly lethal cardiovascular emergency with an incidence of 2000 new cases per year in the United States and 3000 in Europe. ⋯ An alternative mean for diagnosis of aortic dissection might be the determination of concentration of smooth muscle myosin heavy chain protein in blood serum, the peak of which is found after 3 hours after the onset of pain. Normal value of smooth muscle myosin heavy chain protein concentration is 2.5 microg/L, while in case of aortic dissection it exceeds 22.4 microg/L. This diagnostic method has not been introduced in Lithuania yet.
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Vasopressin is a 9-amino acid peptide synthesized by magnocellular neurons of the hypothalamus and released from posterior pituitary gland. The primary physiological role of vasopressin is the maintenance of fluid homeostasis. ⋯ The use of vasopressin is an alternative therapy for vasodilatory shock with better outcome. Vasopressin is effective in resuscitation of adults after ventricular fibrillation or pulseless tachycardia, when epinephrine is not effective.
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Review Comparative Study
Selected environmental risk factors and congenital heart defects.
The aim of the article is to review the published scientific literature and epidemiological studies about the effect of selected environmental risk factors on congenital heart defects in infants. According to recent reports, the prevalence of congenital heart defects is around 1% of live births. ⋯ These malformations are caused by interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The article reviews selected environmental risk factors: maternal illnesses and conditions associated with metabolic disorder (maternal diabetes, obesity, phenylketonuria), maternal lifestyle factors (alcohol use, smoking), which may increase the risk of congenital heart defects.
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Review Comparative Study
[Relevance of examination and treatment of the most common gastrointestinal disorders in children in Lithuania during the last decade].
In the last decade, scientific studies in the field of children's gastroenterology performed in Lithuania explored different problems: pathology of Helicobacter pylori infection and food allergy. Our studies revealed that children with atopic dermatitis had gastrointestinal complaints (abdominal pain, diarrhea, distension and unstable stool, which appeared with the exacerbation of skin rash) more often as compared to nonallergic children of the control group. Abdominal pain in children with atopic dermatitis with local rash was more frequent and lasted longer than in control group children, whereas children with extended rash had stools more frequently. ⋯ The highest frequency of H. pylori infection was found in children with duodenal ulcer; histological changes in their gastric pylorus and corpus mucosa were greatest. More than half of children with nonulcer dyspepsia were infected with H. pylori. After eradication of H. pylori infection, the prevalence of dyspepsia in children with duodenal ulcer decreased.