Learning to Observe Relationships and Coping

Milieu relationships provide the critical background presence to staff's attempts to motivate, regulate, and teach patients how to cope with stress. Forging a connection with hospitalized children and adolescents demands attention to how they respond to adults and engage with staff around milieu expectations. Assessment guides that deal with these issues are presented. Important aspects of children's relatedness are presented in the context of their working models of adults and the influence of these representations on their response to staff. Coping skills are explained with particular emphasis on behavioral coping strategies. Tied to the assessment process are interventions that emphasize staff's role in helping patients manage strong affects and avoid the use of nonproductive behavior regulation strategies.     

Use of dimephosphon in pathogenetic therapy of experimental tuberculosis]

The results of a study of a new synthetic drug dimephosphon used as a pathogenetic means in the treatment of experimental tuberculosis are presented. Dimephosphon was found to be responsible for both the in vivo and in vitro decrease of the degree of MBT resistance to rifampicin. The findings of macroscopic, histologic and bacteriologic examinations demonstrated a significant increase in the effectiveness of antituberculous therapy. Dimephosphon monotherapy in mice elicited manifested stimulation of peritoneal macrophages: increase in O2- production, and decline in extracellular 5-nucleotidase activity. Nemolysine-synthetic cellular splenic activity in mice rose essentially. No direct stimulating influence of dimephosphon on functional macrophage activity in vitro was found.     

Immunological shifts and effectiveness of vaccination in patients with recurrent herpetic stomatitis

The effects of herpes vaccine on immunologic parameters and clinical manifestations of recurrent herpes stomatitis (RHS) were studied. Altogether 70 patients with RHS were examined: 30 before and 40 after vaccination and revaccination. The clinical effect of vaccination was shown to be associated with stimulation of cell-mediated factors of immunity as well as with the desensitizing effect of the vaccine. It is suggested that herpes vaccine is characterized by immunomodulating properties.     

Indole 3-hydroxymethylation and the synthesis of ascorbigens

Translated from Khimiko-Farmatsevticheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 57–59, June, 1991.     

Correction of blood hyperviscosity in patients with chronic post-embolic pulmonary hypertension by the method of infusion of UV-irradiated autologous blood

Examination of 38 patients with chronic postembolic pulmonary hypertension revealed gross hemorheological disorders: increased viscosity of blood, extreme aggregation activity of blood cells, diminished property or erythrocytes to undergo deformity when circulating through the capillaries. Small amounts of UV-irradiated autologous blood were infused repeatedly for the correction of these disorders. After a course of treatment the hemorheological indices were normalized in all the patients, which was attended by improvement of the general condition and positive hemodynamic shifts.     

Follistatin and activin A production by the male reproductive tract

Follistatin is a binding protein for the activin and inhibin family of hormones, regulating their biological activity. In the male reproductive tract, the interaction of these factors is likely to be involved in the regulation of the proliferation of several cell types. We have investigated the presence of follistatin and activin A in seminal plasma using specific immunoassays and have localized follistatin and activin/inhibin subunits in the adult human testis, prostate and seminal vesicle to establish their likely sources. High concentrations of immunoreactive follistatin were present in seminal plasma in normal men (mean 97.9 ng/ml; 1.43 ng/ml in peripheral plasma) and were similar in men with oligo/azoospermia and following vasectomy. Follistatin immunoreactivity was localized to both Leydig and Sertoli cells of the testis, and to epithelial cells of the prostate gland and seminal vesicle, which are likely to be the predominant sources of the hormone in seminal plasma. Activin A was also present in seminal plasma in normal men but was undetectable following vasectomy, thus deriving from the testis. Consistent with this finding, the betaA-subunit was immunolocalized in Sertoli and Leydig cells but was not present in seminal vesicle or prostate gland. The functional significance of the high concentrations of follistatin secreted into seminal plasma by the prostate gland and/or seminal vesicle is uncertain, but they may regulate the biological activity of testis-derived activin A and inhibin B.