[Atrial fibrillation registered for the first time: characteristics of clinical course, treatment, prognosis].

To study the clinical presentation of the first episode of atrial fibrillation (AF), treatment tactics and its compliance with current recommendations, features of the further clinical course and prognosis in patients with AF we performed a retrospective study on data of Polyclinic No 1 of the General Management Department of the President of RF . We analyzed data from 58 patients (36 men, 22 women) from January 2009 to September 2011 inclusive. The first episode of AF was recorded in the age from 48 to 90 years (in 39.

[Antiviral activity of aqueous extracts and polysaccharide fractions from mycelium and fruit bodies of higher fungi].

Sixty preparations of basidiomycetes (Ganoderma, Lentinus, Pleurotus, Laetiporus, Polyporus, Inonotus, Flammulina, Grifola, Trametes) were investigated with respect to their toxicity for Vero cells and antiviral activity. The antiviral activity was estimated with the use of the West Nile virus and type 2 Herpes simplex. It was shown that 11 preparations of Ganoderma, Lentinus and Pleurotus completely inhibited the infective activity in doses not lower than 1000 TCD50 (the West Nile virus) and 100 PPU (type 2 Herpes simplex).

[Spectrum of pathogenic mtDNA mutations in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy families from Siberia].

The results of clinical, genealogical and molecular investigation of eighteen families with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), identified on the territory of Siberia during the period from 1997 to 2005, are presented. Comprehensive analysis of mitochondrial genome variations in probands and their matrilineal relatives revealed the presence of relatively frequent (G11778A, G3460A, and T14484C), as well as rare and new mutations with the established or presumptive pathological effect (T10663C, G363A, C4640T, and A14619G). The G11778A mutation was detected in nine pedigrees (50%), mostly in the families of ethnic Russians.

[The mitochondrial genome and human mitochondrial diseases].

To date, more than 100 point mutations and several hundreds of structural rearrangements of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are known too be connected with characteristic neuromuscular and other mitochondrial syndromes varying form those causing death at the neonatal stage to diseases with late ages of onset. The immediate cause of mitochondrial disorders is a defective oxidative phosphorylation. Wide phenotypic variation and the heteroplasmy phenomenon, which some authors include in mutation load, are characteristic of human mitochondrial diseases.