Medicina
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Beta-glucans are naturally occurring polysaccharides. These glucose polymers are constituents of the cell wall of certain pathogenic bacteria and fungi. The healing and immunostimulating properties of mushrooms have been known for thousands of years in the Eastern countries. ⋯ These antibodies activate complement system and opsonize tumor cells with iC3b fragment. In contrast to microorganisms, tumor cells, as well as other host cells, lack beta-glucan as a surface component and cannot trigger complement receptor 3-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and initiate tumor-killing activity. This mechanism could be induced in the presence of beta-glucans.
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Since the first percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty performed by A. Gruentzig in 1977, percutaneous coronary interventions have become the most important treatment modality for coronary heart disease. Coronary angioplasty carried a significant risk of coronary flow-limiting dissections and restenosis during the first six months following the procedure. ⋯ However, the long-term studies comparing bare-metal stents and drug-eluting stents did not show any significant differences in the rate of major adverse cardiac events (death, myocardial infarction), especially in patients with diabetes after the treatment of bifurcational lesions. According to proposed recommendations, drug-eluting stents should be used in small vessels, restenotic lesions, and in saphenous vein grafts. Despite some disadvantages, the results of coronary stenting using drug-eluting stents continue to improve.
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Every year, especially during the cold season, many people catch an acute respiratory disease, namely flu. It is easy to catch this disease; therefore, it spreads very rapidly and often becomes an epidemic or a global pandemic. Airway inflammation and other body ailments, which form in a very short period, torment the patient several weeks. ⋯ Shope, who investigated swine flu in 1920, had a suspicion that the cause of this disease might be a virus. Already in 1933, scientists from the National Institute for Medical Research in London - Wilson Smith, Sir Christopher Andrewes, and Sir Patrick Laidlaw - for the first time isolated the virus, which caused human flu. Then scientific community started the exhaustive research of influenza virus, and the great interest in this virus and its unique features is still active even today.
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Comparative Study
[Comparison of methods for evaluating renal function (Data of Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital in 2006)].
Cockcroft-Gault formula and Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation are widely used as indirect estimates of renal function. The precision and reliability of these formulas regarding kidney function are still discussed. The aim of our study was to evaluate glomerular filtration rate by different methods and compare the results. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS. Cockcroft-Gault and MDRD formulas are best for the evaluation of moderate degree of renal insufficiency, and in early stage of chronic kidney disease, underestimation of glomerular filtration rate is possible by using formulas. Estimates of glomerular filtration rate based on formulas are higher as compared to endogenous creatinine clearance measurements in end-stage chronic kidney disease.
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Comparative Study
Short-term and one-year prognosis of diabetic patients with a first-ever myocardial infarction.
To clarify the importance of clinical features and changes in the first electrocardiogram in 28-day and 1-year mortality in patients with diabetes. ⋯ Acute heart failure and Q-wave in derivations of the first electrocardiogram reflecting anterior site of myocardial infarction increased the risk of death from ischemic heart disease during the first year, and female gender--during the first 28 days in diabetic patients with myocardial infarction.