New methods of connecting physicians and patients have arisen. Technology is playing a crucial role and the concept of hybrid doctor-patient relationship is considered relevant for the competitive health management system. At the same time, the need for knowledge about implementing policies and best practices into the system is highly demanding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTaking care of mental health is a state of mind. Amid the challenges of the current context, mental health has become one of the problems with the greatest impact on citizens and the evolution of any economy. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people have become more anxious, solitary, preoccupied with themselves, and depressed because their entire universe has changed, by restricting their social and professional life; the increase in concern caused by a possible illness of them or those close to them made to isolate themselves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe study was carried out in an attempt to explain the familial character of endemic Balkan nephropathy and of agglomeration of cases in certain households and in the ascendency of certain families. The hypotheses of a genetic disease or that of an infectious etiology have been taken into consideration in previous studies - by chromosomal analyses and statistical-mathematic tests of contagiousness - without being able to find arguments in support of one or the other hypotheses. This study brings important elements in favour of the possible role of ecologic factors and mainly of the hydrictoxic one, in the determination of the familial agglomerations in endemic nephropathy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong many etiological factors, infection and the genetic factor are the main two causes which could explain the familial aggregation of endemic nephropathy (EN). The data collected over all the EN cases during 1957--1976 in the endemic village Bistriţa have been analysed for time-space clustering and a particular type of spatial clustering (within household) by the Knox's space-time interaction test and Walter's pair statistic test. The lack of clustering could be interpreted as suggesting the lack of infection (human transmission pattern) in the occurrence of endemic nephropathy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComparative studies aiming at the detection of certain tubular protein elements by means of Ouchterlony's immunodiffusion, in parallel with lysozyme and guanase assays, were carried out in the unconcentrated urines of 746 subjects, of whom 655 apparently healthy inhabitants (mostly children) from a region with endemic nephropathy (EN) and from Bucharest, as well as 91 adults with EN or various other diseases with renal involvement. The presence of light chains, of lysozymuria exceeding 2 microgram/ml, of beta2 microglobulin and of guanase in the urines of children and adults from the endemic area was significantly more frequent than in the control groups. These immunochemical changes are hence considered as valuable criteria for the detection of EN prior to the uremic stage.
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