Surgical technique of double switch procedure: Senning with arterial switch operation for congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries with ventricular septal defect.

We present a case of 12-month-old boy with congenitally corrected transposition of great arteries with L-looped ventricles and L-transposition of great arteries and ventricular septal defect. When admitted to the hospital, the patient had the appearance of congestive heart failure due to moderate to severe tricuspid valve regurgitation and right ventricle dysfunction. The pulmonary artery (PA) banding was required first because of low systolic pressure in the morphological left ventricle less than 70% confirmed by catheterization.

Remission of migraine after clipping of saccular intracranial aneurysms.

Background: Unruptured saccular intracranial aneurysm (SIA) is associated with an increased prevalence of migraine, but it is unclear whether this is altered by clipping of the aneurysm. The aim of our study was to determine whether remission rate of migraine and other recurrent headaches was greater in patients with SIA after clipping than in controls.

Methods: We prospectively studied 87 SIA patients with migraine or other recurrent headaches.

Migraine before rupture of intracranial aneurysms.

Background: Rupture of a saccular intracranial aneurysm (SIA) causes thunderclap headache but it remains unclear whether headache in general and migraine in particular are more prevalent in patients with unruptured SIA.

Methods: In a prospective case-control study 199 consecutive patients with SIA (103 females and 96 males, mean age: 43.2 years) received a semistructured face to face interview focusing on past headaches.

Systemic connective tissue abnormalities in patients with saccular intracranial aneurysms.

Objectives: Our purpose was to identify the incidence and significance of markers of systemic connective tissue abnormalities (CTA) in patients with saccular intracranial aneurysms (SIA).

Materials And Methods: This prospective case-control study included 199 consecutive patients with SIA (103 women and 96 men, mean age - 43.2 years) and 194 control patients - blood donors (108 - men, 86 - women, mean age - 38.

[Optimization approach to arterial hemodynamics in elastic capillaries].

The article considers a number of ways of optimizing arterial hemodynamics including finding of the best value of capillary resistance or coefficient of elasticity.

[Optimization approach to arterial hemodynamics on the systole stage].

With the help of a simple model of arterial hemodynamics as an example, the authors demonstrate it that dynamics of arterial pressure including the top and lower pressure values, systole-diastole length ratio, and coefficients of arterial and capillary elasticity can be obtained as an optimal solution of the problem of maintaining appropriate intensity of oxygen ingress in body tissues despite minimal "physiological" ability of the heart.

[Vascular diseases in first-degree relatives of patients with intracranial aneurysms].

An aim of the study was to compare frequencies of vascular diseases in first-degree relatives (FDR) of patients with intracranial aneurysms (IA) and FDR of controls. Pedigrees have been selected through interviews in 194 patients with IA (96 men and 98 women) and in 193 age- and sex-matched controls. Only FDR with complete information about their disorders have been included in the study: 1011 FDR of patients with IA and 812 controls.

[Vascular pathology in first-degree relatives of patients with intracranial aneurysms].

An aim of the study was to compare by the analysis of pedigrees the frequency of vascular pathology in first-degree relatives (FDR) of patients with intracranial aneurysms (IA) and controls. Pedigrees were selected by interviewing 194 patients with IA (94 men and 100 women) and 193 age- and sex-matched control patients. Only FDR with complete information about their health status were included: 1011 FDR of patients with IA and 812 FDR of controls.

[The role of angiotensin-converting enzyme and apolipoprotein E in the development of intracranial aneurysms.].

The distribution of allele and genotype frequencies of the Alu-insertion polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene and missence mutations leading to the substitution of arginine to cysteine in positions 112 and 158 of apolipoprotein E (APOE) has been studied in 166 patients with brain intracranial aneurysms and in 192 controls of Russian origin from Ural region. Brain vascular aneurysms with hypertension were associated with the D*D* ACE genotype in men and with the e2 allele and the e2/e3 APOE genotype in women. The association was also observed between the e2 allele and the e2/e3 APOE genotype and family history of stroke, hemorrhages and aneurysms in patients.

Association of kallikrein gene polymorphisms with intracranial aneurysms.

Background And Purpose: Genomewide DNA linkage analysis identified a susceptibility locus for intracranial aneurysm (IA) on chromosome 19q13 in the Finnish population, a region including the kallikrein gene cluster. We investigated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the kallikrein gene cluster with IA in the Finnish population.

Methods: We genotyped 18 haplotype-tagging SNPs spanning a 244 kbp region in the kallikrein gene cluster for 266 Finnish IA cases and 290 Finnish control subjects.

[Determining metals contents of human serum and urine through atomic emission method].

Atomic emission multichannel special device involves sensitive methods to determine levels of cadmium, copper, lead and zinc in human serum, of cobalt, manganese, copper and nickel in human urine. Those methods could be applied in laboratories providing toxicologic and hygienic research.

[The first experience in interstitial brachytherapy for primary and metastatic tumors of the brain].

In 2001-2002, the authors performed a course of brachytherapy in 15 patients with inoperable primary, recurrent, and metastatic brain tumors. The histostructural distribution was as follows: low-grade astrocytoma (grade II according to the WHO classification) in 2 patients, anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) in 3, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in 5. Five patients had solid tumor deposits in the brain.

[Malignant transformation of left atrial myxoma].

Malignant transformation of cardiac myxoma is poorly described in the literature. A case of diagnosis of cardiac angiofibroliposarcoma of the heart which developed after removal of the left atrial myxoma is described.

[The surgical treatment of intracranial aneurysms from the pterion approach using small trephining openings].

In the past decade, there has been a clear trend for the use of low-invasive surgical interventions in many divisions of neurosurgery. Since each operation is bound to be followed by tissue traumatization, a decrease in the sizes of skull trepanation should be regarded as a way of reducing the incidence of intra- and extracranial complications. The proposed variant of a pterion access to intracranial aneurysms by using small trepanation holes may substantially decrease the duration of surgical interventions and to avoid postoperative epidural and subdural hematomas without preventing the visualization of arteries in both anterior and posterior Willis' circle and at the same time the variant exerts no negative effect on the possibilities of hemostasis in intraoperative aneurysm rupture.

[The formation of true saccular aneurysms from diverticula of the cerebral arterial walls].

The authors show that aneurysmic diverticula of cerebral vascular walls cam grow in size and to develop, with time, into true saccular aneurysms. Cases of aneurysmic diverticula transformation into aneurysms illustrate dynamic pattern of aneurysmogenesis and formation of this pathology during life. Feasibility of the growth and rupture of the aneurysm in intracranial hemorrhage dictates necessity of follow-up visualizations of cerebral vessels in such patients (contrast angiography, NMR angiography).

[The current neurosurgical resources on the Internet].

Progress of information and telecommunication technologies, rapid development of local computer networks and their incorporation into the global computer network Internet are of great importance for the development of modern civilization. Internet presents all spheres of human activities, including medicine, neurosurgery in particular. It is the most available resource that has an unlimited amount of information, expands and is supplemented in geometric progression.

[Heredity in intracranial aneurysms (a study of identical twins)].

The study of identical twins revealed an important role of hereditary factors in the development of cerebral aneurysms. The "weakness" of connective tissue, caused by some genetic (or polygenic) defects, concurrent with several acquired conditions (essential hypertension, connective tissue disorders) leads to the development and rupture of cerebral aneurysms.

[The surgical correction of traumatic deformities of the orbit in naso-fronto-orbito-cribriform fractures].

J. Raven's (1992) classification was used in the treatment of patients with multiple fractures of the face associated with contusions, brain concussions, and injuries to the skull vault and base. According to this classification, all injuries of the cerebral and facial skull are classified as types I, II, and subtype Ia.

[A mathematical model of the changes in bone marrow cellularity in radiation exposures].

The model is based on classical ideas about of hemopoiesis in normal conditions and under irradiation. It consists of only two equations characterizing stem and differentiated bone marrow cell dynamics. The systemic mechanisms of hemopoiesis regulation were roughly taken into account.

[Phonoangiography in aneurysms of the cerebral vessels].

Phonoangiography was conducted in 113 patients with various diseases of the brain. From comparison of the findings of clinical and angiographic examination the authors defined typical phonoangiographic criteria for the diagnosis of arterial and arteriovenous aneurysms of the brain which can be used in out- and inpatient practice.