[The functional features of cell membranes in children with bronchitis and pneumonias].

To develop new differential and diagnostic markers of different types of bronchopulmonary diseases, sodium-lithium countertransport through the red blood cell membrane was studied in 119 children, including 30 patients with bronchitis, 21 with pneumonia, and 68 apparently healthy children (a control group). The majority of patients with pneumonia were found to have the maximum high sodium-lithium countertransport rate as compared with patients with bronchitis, although high sodium-lithium countertransport rates are generally typical of children with bronchopulmonary diseases, as shown by absolute values. These indices may be attributable to the influence of a genetic determinant and environmental factors.

[The characteristics of the humoral antibacterial immunity of young children with respiratory organ diseases].

The state of antibacterial humoral immunity in young children with acute bronchitis, acute obstructive bronchitis and bronchial asthma at the period of exacerbation has been shown with the use of the enzyme immunoassay. The concentration of antibodies to endotoxin positively correlates with the severity of clinical manifestations of the endogenic intoxication of the body. As the inflammatory process in the bronchial tree increases, the spectrum bacterial agents to which elevated concentrations of specific antibodies can be detected becomes wider, and this finds its maximum reflection in bronchial asthma.

[Medium-weight molecules and their indicator role in young children with acute pneumonia].

As many as 63 infants with acute pneumonia, 7 children with ARVI (bronchiolitis) and 28 normal children were examined. At the height of the clinical manifestations there was an increase of the level of medium-weight molecules in blood serum, correlating well with the disease gravity determined by the intensity of the toxic syndrome. The highest concentration of serum medium-weight molecules was demonstrable in toxic and purulent complications due to acute pneumonia.

[Evaluation of the alternative approach to complement activation using C3-dependent adhesion].

The authors suggest a method of functional probing of the complement alternative cascade, the jist of it being analysis of the neutrophil adhesion to sephadex granules treated with serum or another complement-containing substrate. The advantages of the method are analyzed, and the range of its application suggested.