Volumen 27 (2014): Edición 1 (June 2014)

The diagnosis of follicular thyroid cancer is based on postoperative histopathology assessment. In its minimally invasive form, the signs of vascular invasion and capsular infiltration may sometimes be seen only in a small tumor fragment; hence, the diagnosis should be based on multiple histopathology specimens. This case study is a report on a 70-year-old female who was diagnosed with spinal metastasis of follicular thyroid cancer. This diagnosis was established 5 years after partial strumectomy due to goiter and there were no signs of thyroid cancer in postoperative histopathology assessment. Based on this case and literature reports, the authors conclude that the diagnosis of follicular thyroid cancer, especially its minimally invasive forms, may pose a diagnostic problem even when based on postoperative histopathology.

A series of new derivatives of 9-(2-pyridyl)-3-aryl(arylalkyl)-2,4,5(9H)trioxo-7,8- dihydroimidazo [1,2-a][1,3,5] triazepine was obtained by condensation of 1-[1-(2-pyridyl) imidazolidine-2-ylidene]-3-aryl(arylalkyl)ureas) with diethyl oxalic acid ester. Considering the structure of the obtained compounds, it can be expected that these compounds can reveal pharmacological activity.

Pain is a symptom of many diseases and significantly affects the quality of life, so researchers are constantly seeking new substances to be used as analgesics. Other, easier way is to combine already known drugs which cause synergistic effects greater than additive, so that probability of drug-specific side effects can be reduced. Researchers showed that caffeine can be an effective analgesic adjuvant enhancing antinociceptive effect of ibuprofen in animals and humans. By using modern drug technology methods tablets containing well-soluble ibuprofen salt and caffeine can be easily prepared. Thanks to that combination, the therapeutic dose of ibuprofen can be lowered and the side effects may be reduced.

Central sleep apnea (CSA) is a disease characterized by repetitive episodes of the socalled central apneas during sleep. The disease has a very complex etiology. In clinical practice, the most important causes of CSA are disorders of the central nervous system, congestive heart failure or certain pathological changes of the respiratory muscles. We present a case of a 43-year-old male with severe CSA, who was successfully treated with BiPAP ST equipment.

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is an hepatotropic human picornavirus that is associated only with acute infection of liver. This pathogen is mainly transmitted through the faecal-oral route, by person-to-person contact, and also contaminated drinking water and food. This reserach presenting the comparative seroepidemiological study (1990/1999/2012) on HAV infection was carried out in population from south-eastern Poland. Anti-HAV was tested in 613 subjects from 0 to over 60 years of age and the results were compared with those observed in 1990 and 1989/99. We also analyzed the number of vaccinations in the past decade and their role in preventing disease.

The number of patients who take the decision to have implantoprosthetic treatment keeps increasing. The aim of this study was to determine the sources of knowledge about possibilities of treating missing teeth with implants. The survey was conducted among 464 patients of both sexes aged from 20 to 74 years, treated with dental implants at the Non-Public Healthcare Centre “Dental” in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The patients answered questions in an anonymous questionnaire. The questions included age, place of residence and source of knowledge about implants. Persons aged up to 40 years frequently obtained knowledge about the possibility of using implants from the media; patients aged 40-60 years - from their dentist, and people over 60 years of age - from family or friends. Persons living in rural areas or small town frequently acquired knowledge of the possibility of dental implants from the dentist, the city residents - from family or friends. The results of the survey indicate that the dentist is most commonly the main source of information about the possibility of replacing the missing teeth with implants, less family and friends and the media. The source of acquiring knowledge in this field varies depending on the age and place of residence of the persons concerned.

Social, economic and technological progress results in an increasing range of treatment and rehabilitation methods for patients with partial or complete edentulism. The role of the dentist is to inform the patient about the full range of available missing teeth treatment options leading to complete rehabilitation of the masticatory organ in agreement with the patient’s aesthetic and functional expectations. The aim of the paper was to identify the type of prostheses used by patients before opting for implantsupported teeth replacements, according to the patients’ age, sex, marital status, place of residence and education. The study covered 464 patients, women and men, aged 20-74, treated with dental implants. The patients answered questions in an anonymous questionnaire. The influence of the prosthetic replacement type according to age and marital status was highly statistically significant, whereas it was statistically significant according to sex, place of residence and education. The female respondents who previously used tissue-borne complete or partial dentures opted for implant treatment more frequently. The respondents younger than 40 and between 40-60 years of age who did not previously used any prosthetic replacements opted for implant treatment more frequently. The respondents who did not use any prosthetic replacements decided to undergo implant treatment most frequently, regardless of their marital status, education and place of residence. The patients opted for implant treatment to improve their quality of life, despite the high cost of such therapy.

In this paper we are focused on analysis of hydroxychalcones, i.e. 2’-hydroxychalcone, 3’-hydroxychalcone and 4’-hydroxychalcone, by the Flowing Atmospheric Pressure Afterglow mass spectrometry (FAPA-MS), and on comparison of the obtained data with other classical methods including ESI-MS, APCI, MALDI, and GC/EI-MS. The paper is presenting fragmentation pathways of both positive-, and negative hydroxychalcone ions. Tested compounds were characterized by comparison of the results (signals m/z and relative intensities) from the five mass spectrometry techniques, showing very good utility of FAPA method for fast and easy analysis of the low molecular weight compounds. Moreover, FAPA does not require a time-consuming derivatization, nor search for a suitable solvent or matrix, often incompatible with various ion sources.

The project was performed within the Polish Society for Pharmacoeconomics (PTFE). The objective was to estimate the potential costs of treatment of side effects, which theoretically may occur as a result of treatment of selected diseases. We analyzed the Drug Programs financed by National Health Fund in Poland in 2012 and for the first analysis we selected those Programs where the same medicinal products were used. We based the adverse events selection on the Summary of Product Characteristics of the chosen products. We extracted all the potential adverse events defined as frequent and very frequent, grouping them according to therapeutic areas. This paper is related to the results in the pulmonology area. The events described as very common had an incidence of ≥ 1/10, and the common ones ≥ 1/100, <1/10. In order to identify the resources used, we performed a survey with the engagement of clinical experts. On the basis of the collected data we allocated direct costs incurred by the public payer. We used the costs valid in December 2013. The paper presents the estimated costs of treatment of side effects related to the pulmonology disease area. Taking into account the costs incurred by the NHF and the patient separately e calculated the total spending and the percentage of each component cost in detail. The treatment of adverse drug reactions generates a significant cost incurred by both the public payer and the patient.

The aim of the study was to assess plasma concentration of catecholamines and asymmetric dimethyl arginine levels and a possible relationship to predict the mortality rates among hemodialysis patients. The study population comprised 27 subjects, aged 65-70 years. Each patient underwent dialysis thrice a week. Furthermore, the median duration of hemodialysis was 3.5 years. Based on the conducted research, it can be concluded that the concentrations of adrenaline and the level of asymmetric dimethylarginine have predictive value of mortality among hemodialysis patients. Of note, lowering plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine concentration may represent therapeutic target for prevention of progressive renal damage.

The Eleutherococcus species including 40 species native to Asia are medicinal plants widely used in traditional medicine. Some of these species are cultivated at the botanical gardens in Europe. On the basis on our earlier studies it was concluded that the extracts of analyzed species act as antioxidants, inhibitors of MMPs, and cytotoxic against Jurkat 45 leukemia cell line. In this study, the anti-leukemic potential of roots and leaves from six Eleutherococcus species cultivated in Poland was determined. The in vitro cytotoxic activity towards human promyelotic leukemia cell line HL60 using trypan blue assay was evaluated. The induction of apoptosis in stimulated leukemia cells was determined by AnnexinV method. Morphological changes in treated cells were observed by microscopic investigations.

The results showed that ethanolic extracts from the roots and the leaves of E. senticosus, E. setchuensis, E. sessiliflorus, E.gracilistylus, E. henryi and E. divaricatus exhibit cytotoxic effect towards leukemic HL60 cells. The received IC50 values for roots ranged from 49- 208 μg/mL and for the leaves from 116-518 μg/mL. The ethanol extract from the roots of E. divaricatus showed the highest cytotoxic and proapoptotic effect on HL60 human lymphoid leukemia cell line.

Suppositories with cocoa butter containing dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) without and with the addition of Span 80 and Tween 80 as surfactants with low and high HLB values were prepared. The physical properties and the drug content of all prepared suppositories were in accordance with the pharmacopoeial requirements. The release study tests in three dissolution media such as water, lactic acid solution at pH 4.2 and phosphate buffer at pH 7.4 were carried out. In acidic and alkalic media only about 10% and 27% of DHEA were released, respectively. The addition of Span 80 to the suppository mass did not improve the release process, but the addition of Tween 80 caused the increase in the amount of DHEA released in the acidic medium to about 35%. The data showed that rectal administration of suppositories with DHEA based on cocoa butter caused about 30% availability and after vaginal administration, only topical activity can be expected. By the addition of Tween 80 to the suppository mass availability of DHEA of about 35% from vaginal suppositories can be achieved.

Aerial parts of Hypericum perforatum L. (Hypericaceae) were collected from five wild populations in Kosovo, with aim to investigate the chemical composition and natural variation of essential oils between wild populations. This species could be considered of economic potential as it is widespread in Kosovo, on the other hand H. perforatum is one of the best-known medicinal herbs used in Kosovo folk medicine. Essential oils were obtained by steam distillation and analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Sixty-seven components were identified. The yields of essential oils differed depending on the population and ranged from 0.04 to 0.26% based on dry weight. The aerial parts of H. perforatum were characterized by the following main constituents: 2-methyl-octane (1.1-15.5%), α-pinene (3.7-36.5%), β-caryophyllene (1.2-12.4%), caryophyllene oxide (3.3-17.7%) and n-tetradecanol (3.6- 10.4%). Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed that the concentration of components depends on the origin of the plant populations, thus α-pinene and 2-methyl-octane were present in the highest concentration in population originating from Gjakove, Prizren and Ferizaj, whereas in the populations originating from Peje and Prishtine the most abundant constituents were caryophyllene oxide, β-caryophyllene and n-tetradecanol. Further investigation is needed to establish the natural variability and chemopolymorphism of this species in the territory of Kosovo, which should be supported by molecular level analyses.

The aim of this study was in vitro evaluation of the level of the immune response in relation to wound dressings composed of alginate, calcium carboxymethylcellulose, and dibutyrylochitin and determination of the direction of response, which will make referring next to the results of in vivo phase possible.

The subject of the experiments was to examine the commercially available, biodegradable alginate dressing, commercially available but not biodegradable dressing constructed from the sodium carboxymethylcellulose, and synthesized in house biodegradable dressing constructed of the dibutyrylchitin. To determine the direction of the immune response, the degree of secretion of pro-inflammatory interleukin (IL-1, IL-6) and antiinflammatory (IL-10) interleukin from murine fibroblasts having contact with the tested dressings (ELISA enzyme linked immunosorbent assay), was tested.

Macrolides are a group of antibiotics whose activity is ascribable to the presence of the macrolide ring, to which one or more deoxy sugars may be attached. Two properties are inherent in this group of antibiotics, the immunomodulatory and the anti-inflammatory actions, ensuring great efficacy in a wide spectrum of infections. Macrolides demonstrate several immunomodulatory activities both in vitro and in vivo. They can down-regulate prolonged inflammation, increase mucus clearance, prevent the formation of bacterial biofilm and either enhance or reduce activation of the immune system. According to given properties and exceptional effects on bacterial phatogens, the macrolide antimicrobial agents have been found to serve a unique role in the management of chronic airway disorders, including diffuse panbronchiolitis, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Use of macrolides can result in clinical improvement in patients with severe, chronic inflammatory airway diseases, improving their spirometry indicators, gas exchange and overall quality of life.