Medicina
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Introduction: Pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood are periods of rapid growth and development. The role of nutrition is very important during these critical growth and development periods. The aim of the study was to investigate infant feeding practices through the first year of life in Latvia, and to compare feeding practices with nutritional guidelines in Latvia and other European countries. ⋯ However, only 45% continued breastfeeding at the age of 12 months, in accordance with WHO recommendations. A guideline on complementary feeding is followed by the majority of parents. There are deviations from guidelines in inclusion of some foods in the diet and frequency of consumption.
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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a global health problem. Early diagnosis, rapid antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and monitoring of viral load are the key strategies for effective HIV management. Many people in resource limited settings where timely access to medical care is a challenge and healthcare infrastructure is poor have no access to laboratory facilities and diagnosis is dependent on the presence of point of care (POC) devices. ⋯ In recent years, there has been great improvement in the development of POC technologies for early HIV diagnosis, HIV viral load and cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) measurement. This review discusses POC technologies that are currently available and in the pipeline for diagnosing and monitoring HIV. We also give an overview of the technical and commercialization challenges in POC diagnostics for HIV.
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Endocardial endothelium (EE) is essential in the embryonic development of the heart, the optimal contractility and rhythm as well as the remodeling of the heart. Endocardial endothelium affect the contractility of cardiomyocytes through paracrine signaling substances such as nitric oxide (NO), endothelin (ET-1), prostaglandins (PGI2, PGF2, PGE2) and angiotensin II (ANG II). Typical lesions of endocardial endothelium have been described in atrial fibrillation, ischemia/reperfusion injury, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, sepsis, myocardial infarction, inflammation and thrombosis. ⋯ Endocardial endothelial dysfunction is, similarly to coronary endothelial dysfunction, an early event that leads to the progression of heart failure. Multimarker strategy, that would include a different set of biomarkers, could significantly help in the assessment of patients with cardiovascular diseases. The challenge lays in finding new therapeutic strategies that would, by preserving endothelial function, prevent the onset of cardiovascular diseases.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and potentially serious postoperative complication after cardiac surgery, and it remains a cause of major morbidity and mortality. The aim of our study was to assess the prognostic illness severity score and to estimate the significant risk factors for poor outcome of patients with AKI requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) after cardiac surgery. ⋯ Our study demonstrated that SOFA score estimation is the most accurate to predict the fatal outcome in patients with AKI requiring RRT after cardiac surgery. Lethal patient outcome is related to Glasgow coma score, mean arterial blood pressure, preoperative serum creatinine and postoperative platelet count.
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Cardiovascular diseases are still a major public health concern in Estonia despite the decline in the mortality rate during the past decade. For better preventive strategies we aimed to investigate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors and their relations with age, gender and ethnicity. ⋯ The study established a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors in Estonian adults (20-65 years of age). Younger portion of the population and some extent ethnic considerations should be taken into account when designing future studies, health prevention activities and interventions.