PUBLIC HEALTH AND MEDICAL CARE CONDITIONS DURING THE GREEK INDEPENDENCE WAR (1821).

Τhe 1821 Greek War of Independence, following 400 years under Turkish occupation, resulted, after long-term sacrifices, in the establishment of Greece as a sovereign nation-state, marking the first in the autocratic Europe of the time. The poor public health and the lack of doctors, medical supplies, safe water, food, and sewage favored the outbreak of epidemics. The Greek cause attracted worldwide support, and a great number of philhellenes, physicians, and aristocrats offered services and even their lives on the battlefields.

Pharmacies for pain and trauma in ancient Greece.

Purpose: To summarize pharmacies for pain and trauma in ancient Greece, to present several pharmaceutical/therapeutical methods reported in myths and ancient texts, and to theorize on the medical explanation upon which these pharmacies were used.

Method: A thorough literature search was undertaken in PubMed and Google Scholar as well as in physical books in libraries to summarize the pharmacies and pain practices used for trauma in ancient Greece.

Results: Archeological findings and historical texts have revealed that humans have always suffered from diseases and trauma that were initially managed and healed by priests and magicians.

Devastating epidemics in recent ages Greek populations.

In the recent Greek ages the most devastating epidemics were plague, smallpox, leprosy and cholera. In 1816 plague struck the Ionian and Aegean Islands, mainland Greece, Constantinople and Smyrna. The Venetians ruling the Ionian Islands effectively combated plague in contrast to the Ottomans ruling all other regions.

Serum Hyaluronic Acid Levels Are Altered in Acute Leukemia Patients: Potential Prognostic Implications.

Background: Studies on the serum concentration of hyaluronic acid (HA) in newly diagnosed patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), and mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL) are scarce. In this study, we focused on investigating whether HA could serve as a possible prognostic marker in patients with AML, B-ALL, and MCL.

Methods: The serum concentration of HA was measured in a total of 51 patients with newly diagnosed AML, B-ALL, and MCL.

Hypericum perforatum L. treatment restored bone mass changes in swimming stressed rats.

Unlabelled: Stress, via corticosteroids release, influences bone mass density. Hypericum perforatum (Hp) a traditional remedy possess antidepressive activity (serotonin reuptake inhibitor) and wound healing properties. Hp preparation contains mainly hypericin, hyperforin, hyperoside and flavonoids exerting oestrogen-mimetic effect.

New alkylresorcinols from a lipophilic extract of Urginea indica L. bulbs showing experimental trauma healing activity.

Several alkylresorcinols presenting the substitution pattern of structures I (3-methyl ether of 5-alkyl-2-methylresorcinol) and II (1,3-dimethyl ether of 5-alkylresorcinol), were isolated from the dichloromethane extract of the air-dried bulbs of Urginea indica L. Compounds of structure I with 15, 17 and 20 carbon atoms in the alkyl chain as well as compounds of structure II with 20, 22, 24 carbon atoms in the alkyl chain are new. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of their NMR and MS data.

Nifedipine-induced histological changes in the parotid glands of hypertensive rats.

Nifedipine is a widely used anti-anginal and anti-hypertensive agent. It is associated with significant gingival changes attributed more to collagen hyperplasia than to enhancement of protein synthesis. We investigated the influence of nifedipine on morphological changes in the parotid glands of rats in a model of hypertension.

The influence of simvastatin in rats mandible and femur bone mass under Freund's adjuvant arthritis.

OBJECTIVES. Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA)-induced arthritis in rats has been used widely as a model of rodent arthropathy and polyarthritis followed by osteoporosis, decreased bone formation and increased bone formation. Osteoporosis is characterized by rapid reduce of bone mass affecting more than 100 million people worldwide.

Stress can affect drug pharmacokinetics via serum/tissues protein binding and blood flow rate alterations.

Binding of drugs to plasma and tissue proteins is critically involved in their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Stress affects drugs' protein binding via alterations in plasma proteins' levels and excessive increase of free fatty acids due to cortisol-induced fat mobilisation. Free fatty acids play a crucial antagonistic role to drugs for the binding sites on albumin, the major binding plasma protein, resulting in subtherapeutic or toxic levels of many medications' pharmacological classes (oral anticoagulants, beta-lactames, fluoroquinolones, local anaesthetics).

The influence of clonidine co-administration on the extent of lidocaine protein binding to rat serum and tissues.

Lidocaine is an amide local anesthetic and clonidine is an antihypertensive (α2-adrenergic agonist). The use of these two drugs in combination is recommended to enhance the analgesic effect of lidocaine. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of clonidine co-administration on the extent of lidocaine binding to rat serum, heart and maxillofacial tissues in vivo and in vitro.

Changes of lidocaine levels in rat serum and tissue under stress and hyperlipidaemic diets.

Hyperlipidaemic diets induce increase in serum lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL etc). It has also been proven that stress interferes in lipid metabolism. Many drugs modify their pharmacokinetic properties in presence of lipoproteins, as a result of alterations in their plasma protein and tissue binding.