[Shiga toxin and tetanus toxin as a potential biologic weapon].

Toxins produced by the bacteria are of particular interest as potential cargo combat possible for use in a terrorist attack or war. Shiga toxin is usually produced by shiga toxigenic strains of Escherichia coli (STEC - shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli). To infection occurs mostly after eating contaminated beef.

[Today's threat of rickettsioses].

Rickettsioses are infectious diseases transmitted to human by arthropodes, characterized by different clinical manifestation, from subclinical symptoms, through the mild virus-like infection to severe disease with multiorgan complications. Rickettsiosis include typhus, spotted fevers, anaplasmosis, bartonellosis and Q fever. In some of these diseases respiratory symptoms predominate (i.

[Viral infections of the respiratory tract].

Viral infections are the most common cause of acute respiratory diseases. They are caused by adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, influenza and parainfluenza viruses, metapneumoviruses, syncytial-respiratory viruses and coronaviruses. Respiratory symptoms also may be due to hemorrhagic fever viruses, especially hantaviruses, that not occur in Poland.

[Epithelioid haemangioendothelioma of the lungs].

Authors present a case of EH as an accidental finding in 40 year old woman appeared as the presented small, solid nodules in both lungs on a routine chest radiograph and HRCT scans. There were no signs in clinical examination, no abnormalities were presented in the spirometric and respiratory tests, neither in the endoscopic digestive tract examinations nor in CT scans of abdomen. The histological examination of open lung biopsy revealed the morphology of epithelioid haemangioendothelioma.

[Assessment of reversibility in airway obstruction].

In the medical literature there have been described some methods to determine bronchodilator response. They are different because of the required percentage increase in FEV1 and /or FVC and the way of expressing results -as the percent of predicted or initial value. This study on 38 subjects evaluated that there is better bronchodilator responses when the results are presented as the percentage of the initial value compared with the predicted value.

[Endogenous nitric oxide in obstructive pulmonary diseases].

Recently there has been an intense research what is the role of nitric oxide (NO) in physiological and pathological processes is, especially in pneumonology. Authors discussed endogenous NO synthesis, its molecular mechanism of action, as well as the importance of its detection in exhaled air and clinical utility of such measurements in asthma (AO) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is evidence that eNO is increased in asthma, correlates with other inflammatory markers and corticosteroids, and anti-leukotrienes reduce its levels.

Influence of air pollution on pulmonary function in healthy young men from different regions of Poland.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of air pollution on pulmonary function parameters in healthy non-smoking young men. The study comprised 1,278 healthy, non-smoking young men (aged 18-23) living in Poland in regions with different levels of air pollution. The examined population was divided into three groups A, B, and C, based on low, moderate and high air pollution levels, respectively.

[Analysis of the treatment method in patients with COPD].

Unlabelled: According the mass spirometry, every third person over forty years old, suffer from COPD in Poland. Prophylaxis, early detection and proper treatment are necessary for the limitation of group of patients with severe COPD in the future. We analyzed the usage of particular group of medicines and estimated conformability of COPD treatment with actual recommendations.