Alcohol and drug use disorders, HIV status and drug resistance in a sample of Russian TB patients.

Setting: Alcohol use, tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behavior are of increasing concern in Russian TB patients.

Design: A prevalence study of alcohol use and HIV risk behavior was conducted in a sample of 200 adult men and women admitted to TB hospitals in St Petersburg and Ivanovo, Russia.

Results: Of the subjects, 72% were men.

Co-morbidity of infectious and addictive diseases in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Russia.

The Russian health care system is organized around specific diseases, with relatively little focus on integration across specialties to address co-morbidities. This organizational structure presents new challenges in the context of the recent epidemics of injection drug use (IDU) and HIV. This paper uses existing and new data to examine the prevalence of reported new cases of drug dependence (heroin) and HIV over time as well as associations between drug dependence and alcoholism, hepatitis B and C, and tuberculosis in the City of St.

[Significance of tuberculosis of the large bronchi in the diagnosis and treatment of restrictive forms of pulmonary tuberculosis].

A total of 1223 new cases of restrictive forms of pulmonary tuberculosis were examined. Of them 652 and 598 patients were followed up in the period of the good (1980-1984) and poor (1997-2001) tuberculosis epidemiological situation, respectively. A comparative analysis has indicated that there has been recently a rise in the incidence of tuberculosis of main bronchi from 10.

[Post-tuberculous fibrous mediastinitis: a report of a case followed-up for many years].

The paper reports a rare case of fibrosing mediastinitis of posttuberculous genesis caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis. Such cases are not available in the literature so far. The patient was observed from 1956 to 2001.

[The body's adaptation and responsiveness and their impact on the outcome of exudative pleuritis].

The authors studied homeostasis in 182 patients, including 126 patients with exudative pleuritis of tuberculous etiology and 56 with parapneumonic pleuritis. They determined the adaptive reactions of the body by the leukograms and the types of its responsiveness, established their relationship with other homeostatic parameters. Impaired responsiveness in patients with exudative pleuritis substantially affected the efficiency of etiotropic treatment.

[Stage I-III pulmonary sarcoidosis complicated by nephrogenic (vasopressin-resistant) form of diabetes insipidus].

Literature data and original experience of the authors with 6890 cases of respiratory sarcoidosis (stage I-III) suggest that diabetes ipsipidus in respiratory sarcoidosis (RS) can present as hypothalamic-hypophysial form (observed at the stage I-II by physicians since 1935) and a new form--nephrogenic (vasopressin-resistant) at stage II of pulmonary sarcoidosis. The latter form is little known. It was found that in stage III sarcoidosis patients who have severe fibrosis of the lungs and a long history of corticosteroid hormone treatment the nephrogenic form of the pathogenesis is caused by defects in calcium metabolism leading to nephrocalcinosis with low sensitivity of renal tubular receptors to ADH.

[Diagnostic features of focal pulmonary tuberculosis in new cases].

The authors examined 120 new cases of focal pulmonary tuberculosis (FPT) during the good epidemic situation years (1982-1986) and 70 patients during the poor epidemic situation years (1995-1999). The latter years were marked by a worse social composition, more frequent contacts with those isolating bacteria, a more severe course with weight loss, prolonged subfebrile temperatures, anemia, an increasing tendency for lung tissue decay and even in large foci, a more frequent bacterial isolation along with progressive immunodeficiency. New diagnostic technologies, such as computed tomography, T-lymphocytic studies at the subpopulational level by using monoclonal narrow-specific antibodies, adaptive response tests that reflect the body's responsiveness, are of value in diagnosing FPT.

[Clinical and immunological characteristics and specific features of the treatment of patients with recurrent sarcoidosis of respiratory organs].

In the past 35 years, the authors have followed up 5600 patients with sarcoidosis of respiratory organs (SRO), among whom 1.2 and 10.7% were found to have single and multiple recurrences.

[Causes of fatal outcomes in patients with sarcoidosis].

There have been 21 (7.4) fatal cases among 282 patients with diffuse sarcoidosis of the lung and other organs in the past 30 years. The study of the causes of death indicated that 5 patients had progressive sarcoidosis of the lung and intrathoracic lymph nodes with progressive cardiopulmonary failure.

[Assessment of homeostasis by body's adaptative responses in patients with tuberculous pleurisy].

The types of adaptative responses were defined, by analysing leukograms in 126 patients with tuberculous pleurisy. Assessing homeostasis by proteinograms, cellular and humoral immunity verified adaptative responses as an integral index of responsiveness. This identified 5 types of responsiveness.

[Specific features of diagnosis and treatment of patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and tuberculosis].

In the past 30 years, the authors examined and treated 6473 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, of them 105 (1.6%) had contacted with the individuals isolating Mycobacterium tuberculosis and 45 (0.7%) had a history of various forms of pulmonary tuberculosis; however, the patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis had neither exacerbations nor relapses.

[The differential diagnostic characteristics of sarcoidosis of the intrathoracic lymph nodes and of cardiovascular diseases].

One hundred and fifty-four (5.7%) of 2690 patients who had been admitted to a hospital for sarcoidosis of intrathoracic lymph nodes (ITLN) were diagnosed as having various cardiovascular diseases (hypertensive disease, congestive lung, congenital and acquired cardiac diseases, atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysms and myocarditis). Misinterpretation of the X-ray film of the lung root, no lateral X-ray films, inadequate scope of objective studies of the cardiovascular system are the most common errors at prehospital examination.

[Long-term follow-up of patients with sarcoidosis of respiratory organs].

Long-term (3-25 years) responses to treatment are available for 1820 patients with respiratory sarcoidosis. 65.7% of them were females and 34.