Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Petrova.
Three cases of Dubin-Johnson syndrome in close relatives--brother, sister and a brother's son--are reported. The clinical characteristics, evolution, diagnostic and differential diagnostic problems as well as the treatment and prognosis of the disease are pointed out.
Four cases of acute doxycycline injury of the esophageal mucosa--acute catarrhal doxycycline esophagitis and acute doxycycline ulcer are presented. The pathogenesis, clinical course, endoscopic pattern, prophylaxis and treatment of these complications of doxycycline treatment are discussed in detail. The gastroesophageal and duodenogastric reflux, which are most often the result of functional failure of the lower esophageal sphincter, are pointed out as the basic pathogenetic mechanism of the esophageal mucosa injury in oral doxycycline treatment.
The study includes 94 persons: 54 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 40 healthy controls. The coagulation indices were followed up dynamically before and after heparin treatment. The patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were classified into 3 groups in relation to the degree of respiratory failure. The results show significant changes in some of the basic hemostatic indices: decreased antithrombin III activity, increased alpha 2-macroglobulin and plasminogen activity, partial thromboplastin time shortening, increased erythrocyte, hemoglobin and hematocrit values. With deterioration of the respiratory failure these changes become more manifested which increases significantly the risk of pulmonary thromboembolism. The values of platelets, fibrinogen, prothrombin time, bleeding time, clotting time, alpha 2-antiplasmin and prekallikrein activity do not show any significant changes and are not reliable indices for hemostatic changes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The administration of heparin improves the changed basic indices. This is best expressed in patients with III degree respiratory failure. The parameters of external respiration and gas exchange improve parallelly with the improvement of the coagulation state.
The hydrocortisone and ACTH blood levels, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids urine excretion and suprarenal function stimulation with Synacthen were studied in 22 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 12 healthy persons as controls. The results show the presence of reliably higher hydrocortisone and 17-hydroxycorticosteroids levels in patients with low partial oxygen pressure as well as a higher ACTH plasma level and a strong Synacthen stimulation. After a comprehensive treatment including oxygen therapy the blood concentrations of hydrocortisone, ACTH, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids fell to levels found in healthy persons. The study shows that hypoxemia stimulates the suprarenal-cortex secretion.
Diagnostic, clinical and therapeutic studies were carried out, under clinical conditions, on 80 patients with endoscopically confirmed chronic erosive gastritis and gastroduodenitis. The subjects aged between 20 and 59 are most often affected, the males being 2 times more often affected. The histological study on the purposeful biopsy of the mucosa of the stomach and duodenum established, most frequently, the presence of chronic superficial gastritis and duodenitis, followed by initial chronic atrophic gastritis. The clinical symptoms were studied in details--pain (91.20%), dyspeptic syndrome (83.7%), hemorrhagic manifestations (hematemesis or melena)--23.7%. In 40% of the patients with erosive gastritis and gastroduodenitis, the disease was combined with duodenal ulcer and in 7.5%--with gastric ulcer. The etiological factors of importance are: food factors, dietetic errors, alcoholic consumption, drug effects (first of all derivatives of Rauwolfia serpentina, followed by the peroral broad spectrum antibiotics, etc), duodenogastric reflux and toxic effect of the bile acids on the antral mucosa. The endoscopic studies are of decisive importance for the diagnosis and determining the effect of the treatment. The treatment with a dietetic regimen, gastro-protective drugs (almagel, preparations of deglycyrrhized licorice--alcid V, vitamin A, spasmolytics) eliminated the erosive alterations in 75% of the patients after 3-week treatment.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common neoplastic diseases and one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Elevated beta-catenin levels in colorectal cancer result in the binding of beta-catenin to LEF-1 and increased transcriptional activation of the CCND1 gene. Overexpression of cyclin D1 is observed in one third of colorectal tumors. CCND1 amplification is the main cause of protein overexpression in numerous human carcinomas. In colorectal cancer, however, no CCND1 amplification has been reported so far. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of CCND1 amplifications and gains in a large number of colorectal carcinomas, arranged in a tissue microarray, in order to assess their role in colorectal cancer development. The copy number changes, detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization, were predominantly gains (7.6%) and only rarely amplifications (2.5%). In colorectal cancer, the CCND1 copy number increase was neither associated with the tumor phenotype (stage and grade) nor with the tumor localization (colon, rectum or sigmoid colon). In conclusion, even in a small number of colorectal tumors, CCND1 gene amplification is a possible mechanism for the increase in cyclin D1 oncoprotein.