Folia medica
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We report a 40-year-old woman with saddle shaped-nose and bilateral deformed "cauliflower" ears who was admitted to our clinic because of arthralgia, fatigue, weakness and coldness in both arms, recurrent swelling and pain of the nose and both auricles. On physical examination, bruits were heard over both carotid arteries and blood pressure was not measurable in both upper extremities. Conventional angiography revealed total occlusion of left common carotid, right internal carotid, right subclavian, right renal and bilateral vertebral arteries. Relapsing polychondritis and associated Takayasu's arteritis were diagnosed according to Mc Adam and American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, respectively.
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Organisation and management are factors of paramount importance in higher education for achieving higher quality of training, better professional adaptation, and more effective career pursuance of the students. ⋯ Students prefer the classical teaching methods. They are the most familiar and the most frequently used formats by lecturers, although they do not require a higher level of activity on the part of the students, who in T. Popov's view "...demonstrate passive attitude towards the educational process".
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Bacterial nosocomial ventilator-associated pneumonias are common complications in critically-ill patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the significance of the quantitative changes of consciousness of various etiology as a risk factor for the development of this type of pneumonia. ⋯ Suppression of brain activity and the ensuing depressed levels of consciousness as reasons for admission to an intensive-care unit cause a statistically significant increase of the risk of bacterial nosocomial pneumonia developing in patients on mechanical ventilation. Thiopental therapy did not affect the frequency of pulmonary infections. The neurosurgeries we conducted did not increase significantly the risk for nosocomial infections.
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Neuronavigation is a result of the introduction and integration of high technologies into modern neurosurgery. The method is becoming increasingly available, and more than ever, its "fashionable", ungrounded application (literally, in each neurosurgical procedure) requires objective evaluation of its real usefulness. The aim of the present survey was to analyze the use of neuronavigation in the general fields of modern cranial neurosurgery. ⋯ We studied the neuronavigation assisted interventions in tumor surgery, skull-base surgery, biopsies, neuroendoscopy, functional neurosurgery, vascular neurosurgery and surgical procedures in the proximity of functionally important cortical zones. We showed the modern tendencies in neuronavigation and outlined the social and economic aspects of neuronavigation-assisted neurosurgery. A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of frameless stereotaxy is made.
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In recent research B. Celli et al. (N Engl J Med 2004;350:1005-12) proposed a complex grading system (which they designated by BODE) for predicting the mortality risk in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ COPD patients who experienced frequent exacerbations in a previous year have significantly higher BODE score than those who experience infrequent exacerbations.