NeuroActivityToolkit-Toolbox for Quantitative Analysis of Miniature Fluorescent Microscopy Data.

The visualization of neuronal activity in vivo is an urgent task in modern neuroscience. It allows neurobiologists to obtain a large amount of information about neuronal network architecture and connections between neurons. The miniscope technique might help to determine changes that occurred in the network due to external stimuli and various conditions: processes of learning, stress, epileptic seizures and neurodegenerative diseases.

SpineTool is an open-source software for analysis of morphology of dendritic spines.

Dendritic spines form most excitatory synaptic inputs in neurons and these spines are altered in many neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Reliable methods to assess and quantify dendritic spines morphology are needed, but most existing methods are subjective and labor intensive. To solve this problem, we developed an open-source software that allows segmentation of dendritic spines from 3D images, extraction of their key morphological features, and their classification and clustering.

Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Pelvicalyceal System of the Kidney Based on Native CT Images Are 1-Step Away from the Use of Contrast Agent.

Objective: To describe special algorithm for the semi-autonomous 3-dimensional reconstruction of the pelvicalyceal system based on native computed tomography images of patients with upper urinary tract obstruction.

Materials And Methods: Fifty patients with renal colic fitting to inclusion criteria were enrolled. All patients underwent computed tomography urography to perform 3-dimensional reconstruction of the pelvicalyceal system on the affected size based on excretory phase representing "gold standard" and on native phase, which was performed via Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit program updated with the described algorithm.

Combination of voxel-based and projection-based methods in terms of convergence for CT reconstruction.

Purpose: Recent applications of iterative image reconstruction algorithms to multislice helical CT have shown that iterative reconstruction can significantly improve image quality and reduce artifacts. In this paper, the authors introduce a combination of two different algorithms with different convergence properties: ordered subsets separable paraboloidal surrogates (OS-SPS) and iterative coordinate descent (ICD). The first one updates image voxels simultaneously, slightly changing attenuation values iteration by iteration.

[The course of a process and the efficiency of treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis patients excreting Mycobacterium tuberculosis with extensive drug resistance to antituberculous drugs].

Forty-one pulmonary tuberculosis patients (32 males and 9 females) excreting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) with extensive drug resistance to antituberculous drugs were examined. The process was first detected in 14.6% of the patients.

[Systemic transplantation of autologous mesenchymal stem cells of the bone marrow in the treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis].

The study undertaken 3 years ago examined the effect of systemic transplantation of autologous mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in the complex therapy of 27 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, including 15 patients with multidrug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis and 12 with extensive drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All the patients were bacteria-discharging persons with disseminated destructive processes in lung tissue, most (n=17) of them had chronic fibrocavernous tuberculosis. In all the patients, previous long specific antituberculous treatment was ineffective or inadequately effective.

[Use of fluoroquinolones in the intensive phase of treatment of new tuberculosis cases].

The efficiency of treatment using the routine (I) versus IIB regime was evaluated in 161 new HIV-negative cases of destructive tuberculosis within the first 3 months of chemotherapy. The IIB regimen used in the intensive phase of chemotherapy in new tuberculosis cases before obtaining data on the drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis significantly enhance the efficiency of treatment in eliminating bacterial excretion and destructive resolution in the lung. The IIB regimen used in new tuberculosis cases with primary multidrug resistance allowed bacterial excretion to be stopped in 80% by month 3 of therapy whereas this index in the similar patients treated by the I regimen was as high as 25%.

[Diagnostic features and efficiency of treatment in nonbacteria-isolating patients with pulmonary tuberculosis].

In patients with pulmonary tuberculosis with negative sputum bacterioscopic tests, the diagnosis of tuberculosis may be verified by supplementary studies: sputum inoculation, polymerase chain reaction, medium inoculation, bronchoalveolar lavage, smear microscopy, blood medium inoculation, determination of serum antigens and antibodies. The patients in whom sputum Mycobacterium tuberculosis has not been detectable by bacterioscopy, the diagnosis of tuberculosis established by X-ray tomography and verified by supplementary studies should receive chemotherapy (primarily WHO Category 3 chemotherapy). An algorithm is proposed to diagnose tuberculosis in patients with three negative smear microscopic tests.

[Use of valvular bronchoblocation in the complex treatment of patients with disseminated pulmonary tuberculosis complicated by pulmonary hemorrhage].

The results of treatment are analyzed in 102 patients with disseminated pulmonary tuberculosis complicated by pulmonary hemorrhage. The authors have developed and clinically tested a procedure for arresting pulmonary hemorrhage by creating therapeutic hypoventilation and atelectasis of a lung portion, in which there is a source of bleeding, by using valvular bronchoblocation of the draining bronchus. The application of valvular bronchoblocation to patients with pulmonary bleeding enhances the efficiency of complex treatment and reduces mortality by 4.

[Artificial pneumoperitoneum in the complex treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis patients isolating drug-resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis].

The pretreated patients who isolated drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) were randomly divided into 2 groups. A multidrug-resistant MBT strain was isolated from 77 and 62.2% of patients in the study and control groups, respectively.

[Efficiency of a new standard chemotherapy regimen in the treatment of patients with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis].

The efficiency of conventional chemotherapy regimens was comparatively studied in 75 patients with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis. In the patients with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis, conventional chemotherapy regimen "2b" including isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol, fluoroquinolone (ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and levofloxacin), and canamycin (amikacin) versus conventional chemotherapy regimen "2a" including isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol, and streptomycin could cease bacterial isolation after 3-month therapy, as evidenced by sputum microscopy (86.1 and 62.

[Organization of hospital care to patients with tuberculosis concurrent with HIV infection in Tuberculosis care hospital No. seven].

HIV-infection morbidity rates continue to increase in Moscow, the Moscow Region, and in the whole country. The epidemiological situation associated with tuberculosis concurrent with HIV infection remains tense in Moscow and its region, as judged from the data of an analysis of this disease at tuberculosis hospital seven (TH-7) over 9 years. A total of 411 patients with tuberculosis concurrent with HIV infection were treated at TH-7 in 1996 to December 2004.

[Frequency and pattern of adverse reactions due to treatment of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis with antitubercular reserve drugs].

Two hundred and fifty-four patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, treated with reserve antituberculous drugs due to multidrug resistance, the ineffective prior stage of treatment, or intractable adverse reactions, were examined. Aminoglycosides and capreomycin were administered. Combinations simultaneously included 5-7 drugs.

[Role of radionuclide studies in the evaluation of the activity of a pathological process in the lymph nodes and lung of patients with tuberculosis].

The authors studied the activity of a pathological process in the lymph nodes of the mediastinum, by using 67Ga citrate and 99mTc, and pulmonary circulation with MAA-99mTc. Radionuclide studies have established that in new cases of respiratory tuberculosis, the function of lymph nodes recovers by 1.5 times higher than that in pretreated patients.

[Efficacy of chemotherapy for tuberculosis in patients who isolate drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis with different genotypes].

Two hundred and twenty-four patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and bacterial isolation were examined to study the efficiency of chemotherapy in patients who isolated drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) of different genotypes. According to the pattern of susceptibility to antituberculous drugs (ATDs), the patients were divided into 3 groups: 1) those who were found to have ATD-susceptible MBT; 2) those who had multiresistant MBT susceptible to all ATDs, other than isoniazid and rifampicin; 3) those with multidrug resistance. MBT genotyping in accordance with the polymorphism of the length of restriction fragments IS6110 has indicated that the strains of the families W and AI were prevalent in all the groups.

[Effectiveness of artificial pneumothorax in the treatment of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis with multiple drug-resistant Mycobacteria].

The efficiency of treatment was compared in 2 groups of patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis and isolation of multidrug resistant Mycobacteria. In 43 patients of a study group, artificial pneumothorax (AP) was used during chemotherapy with reserve drugs while 43 patients of a control group received chemotherapy alone. AP was shown to be highly effective in treating patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis who isolated multidrug resistant Mycobacteria.

[Dynamics in microcirculation and regional ventilation of the lung during treatment in patients with destructive tuberculosis].

Studies of the time course of changes in regional blood flow and regional ventilation of the lung in patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis (DPT) suggest that there may be different shifts in radionuclide indices after antibacterial therapy. Full recovery of regional blood flow and regional ventilation of the lung sometimes is accounted for by the resolution of inflammatory changes, by the healing of destruction frequently attended by a significant improvement, but there is a more regular change in the areas of the underlying process in particular, through evolving pneumosclerosis. A comprehensive radionuclide study in patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis in combination with clinical and X-ray studies allows clinicians to investigate the extent and site of a pathological process and thereby to define the functional status of capillary blood flow and pulmonary alveoles.

[Efficacy of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis with multidrug mycobacterial resistance].

The efficiency of treatment was studied in 149 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis who isolated multidrug resistance of Mycobacteria tuberculosis (MBT). The multidrug resistance of MTB, to at least isoniazid and rifampicin can be associated with both the resistance to other essential (streptomycin, ethambutol) and that to reserve drugs. With this, patients with MBT resistance to a combination of essential and reserve drugs more frequently showed a chronic course of the disease with severe clinical manifestations and more disseminated infiltrative-and-destructive lesions in the lung.

[Course of tuberculosis in patients with HIV infection].

Aim: To evaluate clinical features of tuberculosis in correlation with HIV-infection duration.

Material And Methods: 117 patients with HIV-infection were divided into three groups: HIV-infected in the presence of long-standing tuberculosis (group 1), HIV- and tuberculosis-infected simultaneously (group 2), tuberculosis-infected 5-10 years after getting HIV-infection.

Conclusion: Clinical picture and course of tuberculous infection in HIV-infected patients depend on the time of getting HIV-infection and are determined by the severity of T-cell immunodeficiency.