Vol 16, No 5 (2011)

The use of molecular biochips has been shown to considerably accelerate the laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis and mycobacteriosis and, when used with an automated BACTEC MGIT 960 system, to obtain a result in 90% of the examinees within 10 days irrespective of bacillary burden. The biochips make it possible to study the genetic diversity of mutations and their combinations in the rpoB, katG, inhA, oxyR, and gyrA genes and to rapidly detect drug-resistant Mycobacterium strains and may serve as additional genetic markers for Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains circulating in the Moscow Region.

The paper considers the impact of Borrelia infection on the course of ischemic heart disease (IHD), its role in myocardial remodeling and cardiomegaly development. The study shows that IHD in the presence of persistent Borrelia infection took a severer course, as appeared as the development of cardiomegaly and myocardial reinfarctions.

A new synthetic nitrofuran agent was obtained, which was used to design the antiseptic isofural as 0.05% solution for the treatment and prevention of external pyoseptic processes. In vitro and in vivo preclinical trials of the pharmaceutical active substance and the drug and the clinical testing of the latter showed its antibacterial activity and a high efficacy in the treatment of external pyoinflammatory processes and burns and in the prevention of postsurgical pyoinflammatory complications. The designed agent is 12-fold less toxic and 2-20-fold more active (depending on the species of a microorganism) than its structural analogue furacilinum. It completely suppresses the growth and multiplication of gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms in the shortest periods after contact with them and contributes to the rapid elimination of a pyoinflammatory process. The drug has neither carcinogenic nor embryotoxic effects, it does not cause any pathological changes in the hemogram and blood biochemical parameters and any destructive changes in the viscera and skin.

Despite the fact that the epidemiology of tick-borne virus encephalitis (TBVE) in the forest-steppe zone of the Middle Volga Region has been studied for many decades, the data on the manifestation of this arbovirus infection and the specific features of its spread remain still incomplete. As of now, the Ulyanovsk Region notifies sporadic cases as the subclinical and feverish clinical forms of TBVE, which manifest as self-relieved forms that require no special treatment. Examination of the ticks taken from 19 persons (in 2007-2008) identified tick-borne encephalitis virus antigen and a serological assay revealed immunoglobulins M only in one case without visible clinical manifestations. In this connection, in the package of prophylactic measures, there is extreme prevention using specific homologous antitick-borne immunoglobulin in persons with adhered ticks by suction, as well as a permanently immunological screening of the persons in contact with ticks, thereby promoting the establishment of the true spread of TBVE in the areas having no active natural foci of this infection, which have a dominant role in their efficiency when correctly made in the areas with the small activity of natural TBVE foci.

The review considers retrospective information on the epidemic rise and outbreaks of enterovirus infections, mainly as central nervous system lesion identified as aseptic meningitis. The resistance of neuropathogenic properties, which is associated with the predominance of certain serotypes of ECHO and Coxsackie B viruses, has been noted to preserve over time. The persistence, cardio- and pacreatotropicity of the viruses in question are given in evidenced-based studies and in cases of clinical diseases.

The paper describes two cases of particularly severe hemorrhagic chickenpox in brothers with a poor prognosis in the presence of primary immunodeficiency. Its clinical, laboratory, and epidemiological characteristics are shown.

The paper describes the life and creative work of Professor Vitaly Dmitriyevich Belyakov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, an outstanding Russian epidemiologist, a talented health administrator, a public figure, and a teacher.