Automated system for processing medical rhythmic information

The computer-aided (ES computer) system for acquisition, storage and sampling for any set of signs and processing of rhythm-based data is developed. The software is based on the operation system ES computer by using a time share system and a system for database control "Spektr". The informative database contains "The map of chronobiological examinations" and "The meteorologic map".     

Slow-wave oscillations of the multi-unit activity average frequency in the human brain during drowsiness and sleep

Slow-wave oscillations of the mean frequency of multi-unit activity (MUA) were studied in the cerebral subcortical structures of parkinsonic and epileptic patients treated with the aid of implanted electrodes, during sleep, drowsiness and awakening. During slow-wave sleep, the MUA slow-wave oscillations become augmented, the number of oscillatory components increases as well as the amount of oscillations with identical or similar periods in different structures. During paradoxical sleep, the total amount of oscillatory components decreases. The MUA rhythmic activity is quite obvious in awakening from sleep, the short-period components prevailing. The data obtained reveal high incidence of the rhythms with periods of about 20 sec which is considered from the standpoint of the hypothetical adaptogenic rhythm in the CNS developing at the moments of certain efforts and adaptive activity of the organism.     

Treatment of life-threatening airway obstruction in patients with malignant lymphomas

Case histories of patients with hemoblastosis admitted to a hospital for acute respiratory failure due to tumor-induced obstruction were retrospectively analyzed. The causes of obstruction, antitumor therapy, methods for provision of airway patency, and major critical syndromes were analyzed. Ten patients with life-threatening tumor-induced airway obstruction were hospitalized from 1995 to 2007. The patients suffered from malignant lymphomas in all cases. The causes of impaired airway patency were the compression of the trachea and large bronchi with a tumor, lymph nodes, affected thyroid, as well as the superior vena cava syndrome, and tumor-induced lesion of soft tissues of the neck and chest. Airway patency was effected with tracheal intubation in 9 cases, it was maintained by noninvasive mask ventilation in 1 patient. Translaryngeal tracheal intubation and tracheostomy were used for artificial ventilation (AV) in 6 and 3 patients, respectively. Multidrug therapy (MDT) was performed in all the patients. Airway patency restored in 9 patients after MDT initiation. The duration of AV was 5.8 +/- l.7 days. The length of stay in an intensive care unit was 90%; intrahospital survival was 70%; 28-day and 3-year survivals were 90 and 24%, respectively. Two of the 3 patients who had undergone were observed to have serious complications (cicatrical stenosis, tracheoesophageal fistula). Hemoblastosis patients with tumor-induced obstruction need for provision of airway patency and for immediate initiation of MDT and/or radiotherapy. Orothracheal or nasotracheal intubation of the trachea is the methods of choice in providing airway patency. Tracheostomy is not indicated in most cases. Short-term prognosis is good in this cohort of patients. Long-term prognosis is determined by a lot of factors of which tumor sensitivity to cytostatics and radiation is most important.     

Extracorporeal methods of therapy in lymphatic tumors

The paper is concerned with the use of plasmapheresis, lymphocytapheresis, lymphocytaplasmapheresis and plasma perfusion in patients with tumors of the lymphoid tissue. Based on 976 plasmapheresis sessions given to 161 patients the authors demonstrate its efficacy in the treatment of patients with tumors of the lymphoid tissue associated with secretion of paraprotein whose presence gives rise to such complications as the syndrome of high viscosity, cryoglobulinemia, chronic renal failure, amyloidosis, cold hemolytic disease and other paraproteinemia-induced complications. On abundant material (535 sessions given to 98 patients) the authors review situations in which lymphocytapheresis, lymphocytaplasmapheresis and plasma perfusion may be indicated. Consider approaches to their performance as well as the clinical efficacy of the methods.