Special Treatment and Wound Care of the Driveline Exit Site after Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation.

Objective: Despite good results following implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), infections of the driveline and device pocket remain a major problem for patients on long-term support. We present the data from heart failure patients treated with a Thoratec HeartMate-II LVAD (Thoratec Corporation, Pleasanton, California, United States).

Methods: From January 2008 to April 2011, in our institution, 40 heart failure patients (NYHA IV) were supported with a HeartMate-II LVAD.

Morphometric ultrastructural analysis of muscle fibers and neuromuscular junction in rats kept under conditions of weightlessness for 21 days.

The aim of the study was qualitative and quantitative analysis of muscles and neuromuscular junctions of m. quadriceps, m. diaphragma and m.

[Improvement of head-pelvis axis (+Gz) tolerance by increasing body hydration].

Experiments were performed to determine tolerance to head-to-feet (+Gz) acceleration in 62 test subjects aged 23 to 33 years. They were rotated in a human centrifuge before and after they consumed water and water-salt supplements under the conditions of normal activity or dry immersion simulating microgravity effects. During the centrifugation experiments the following parameters were recorded: stroke volume and cardiac output, arterial pressure by means of Korotkov sounds, electrolytes, total protein and hematocrit.

Physiological aspects of automatic physical training control by biofeedback in weightlessness.

An automatically regulated biofeedback apparatus "UN-1" is described for enabling astronauts to maintain specified levels of exercise or lower body negative pressure within acceptable limits of cardiac function. The apparatus was also used to assess the workload tolerance of cosmonauts during space flight. Under these conditions the cosmonaut was unable to exercise on the cycloergometer when his heart rate reached 140 beats/minute steady state.

Ultrasonic investigations of the soleus muscle after space flight on the Biosputnik 936.

The study was aimed at quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the muscle fibres and the axonal endings of the neuromuscular junctions in the soleus muscle of animals after a space flight on Biosputnik 936. Ultrastructural morphometric studies of the muscle fibres demonstrated diminished volume of sarcomer and accumulation of glycogen granules. The mean number of mitochondrial profiles decreased.

Stereological ultrastructural analysis of the axonal endings in the neuromuscular junction of rats after a flight on Biosputnik 782.

The study was aimed at quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the axonal endings of the neuromuscular junction in the quadriceps femoris muscle and the diaphragma in animals after a space flight. Quantitative morphometric studies at the ultrastructural level demonstrated a statistically significant diminution of the mean number of mitochondria and synaptic vesicles on the cross section of the axonal endings. Qualitative analysis of electronogrames revealed morphological changes indicating degeneration and various degrees of injury in some of the axonal endings of the neuromuscular junction.