High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Thermotherapy for Scar Treatment.

The formation of pathological scars is a common medical and aesthetic problem worldwide. Surgical interventions, burns and injuries are the most common cause. Treating these scars is a challenge for any surgeon.

An Individualized Approach to Neuroplasticity After Early Unilateral Brain Damage.

Reorganization after early lesions in the developing brain has been an object of extensive scientific work, but even growing data from translational neuroscience studies in the last 20 years does not provide unified factors for prediction of type of reorganization and rehabilitation potential of patients with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) due to pre/perinatal insult. To analyze the type of motor, language, and sensory brain reorganization in patients with right-sided cerebral palsy due to pre/perinatal isolated left-sided brain lesions taking into consideration the type (cortico-subcortical or periventricular) and extent (gray and white matter damage) of the lesion, etiology, comorbidity, and other postnatal factors that could have played a role in the complex process of brain plasticity. Eight patients with unilateral right cerebral palsy were included in the study.

Cortisol Correlates with Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Parameters in Middle Aged Bulgarian Patients with Metabolic Syndrome: A Pilot Study.

Background: There is a dose-dependent relationship between chronically increased cortisol levels and the number of metabolic syndrome (MetS) components. Both cortisol and MetS are linked to various brain abnormalities.

Aim: To investigate an association of MetS components and salivary cortisol levels with cortical thickness in middle-aged Bulgarian patients with MetS.

Characteristics of Unstable Carotid Plaques - New Image Modalities.

Ischemic stroke is a socially significant health problem due to high mortality and disability. One of the leading causes for cerebrovascular accidents is the carotid atherosclerosis. The mechanism of its formation presents not only lipid accumulation in the arterial wall but a complex inflammatory disease.

Adult brain activation during visual learning and memory tasks. An experimental approach to translational neuroscience.

Rationale, Aims, And Objectives: Human brain connectome is a new and rapidly developing field in neuroscience. The pattern of structural and functional connectivity in the brain is not fixed but is continuously changing in response to experiences. Exploring these phenomena opens a powerful arsenal of analyses and computational approaches that could provide important new insights into clinical and cognitive neuroscience.

Imaging investigation of pancreatic cystic lesions and proposal for therapeutic guidelines.

Aim: To propose a diagnostic algorithm for preoperatively predicting the need for surgical intervention.

Methods: The study included 56 patients (27 men and 29 women) with a final diagnosis of cystic pancreatic lesions. The following materials were used: ultrasonic equipment with 3.

Ultrasound tomography in diagnosing cystic pancreatic neoplasms.

Unlabelled: The clinical, radiologic, and pathologic features of cystic pancreatic lesions are well known, and yet preoperative diagnosis is often difficult to make.

Aim: To present the role of ultrasound study in conventional and interventional diagnostics of cystic pancreatic neoplasms.

Patients And Methods: 65 patients (17 men, 48 women) with cystic pancreatic lesions were examined by ultrasound and computer tomography and investigated using a number of diagnostic interventional procedures over three years.

Delayed evacuatory function due to specific smooth muscle reactivity in the gastrointestinal tracts of tacrine-treated rats.

Most of the side effects induced by tacrine are associated with the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The aim of the study was to analyze the nature of radiographically registered, tacrine-induced changes in evacuatory function, as well as to find a possible correlation with the immediate in vitro action of the drug on smooth muscles from the GI tracts of rats. The tacrine dose we used reliably delayed GI passage: contrast matter was not fully evacuated, predominantly from the stomach and cecum.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy of dense pulmonary lesions under computed tomography control.

Unlabelled: The AIM of this article was to present our experience in the field of invasive diagnosis of dense pulmonary lesions (both benign and malignant). We consider the advantages and shortcomings of this method and the complication frequency (pneumothorax, haemothorax).

Materials And Methods: 92 patients (39 women and 53 men, aged between 24-70 years) underwent fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) under computed tomography control (CTC).

Improvement of visualization in computed tomographic colonography after mechanic air insufflation.

Objective: Our aim was to develop an insufflation system for CT colonography enabling even and quick air inflation as well as pressure control and optional emergency decompression.

Patients And Methods: A modified air insufflation system for CT colonography, consisting of an electric air pump, manometer, safety valve, and a balloon tip is presented. Thirty one patients underwent CT colonography from August to December, 2004.

The Debaryomyces hansenii NHA1 gene encodes a plasma membrane alkali-metal-cation antiporter with broad substrate specificity.

Debaryomyces hansenii is a yeast species often found in salty environments. Its genome sequence is known completely, but the mechanisms behind its halotolerance are poorly understood. In the D.

Point mutation in calcium-binding domain of mouse polyomavirus VP1 protein does not prevent virus-like particle formation, but changes VP1 interactions with Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell structures.

The mouse polyomavirus gene for the major structural protein, VP1, with point mutation in the calcium-binding pocket (VP1(Ala)), was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in a baculovirus expression system. Surprisingly, VP1(Ala) forms virus-like particles (VLPs) in nuclei of both yeast and insect cells. VP1(Ala)-VLPs produced in S.

The cellular nuclear matrix regulatory protein YY1 does not directly interact with the mouse polyomavirus large tumor antigen.

The transcription factor Yin-Yang 1 (YY1) is a multifunctional protein involved in repressing and activating many promoters of cellular and viral genes. YY1 functions via protein-DNA but also protein-protein interactions. The latter has been documented between YY1 and early gene products of adenoviruses (Lewis et al.

Roentgenographic study of ethosuximide-induced functional changes in rat gastrointestinal tract and their modulation by Nivalin in a chronic experiment.

Ethosuximide, a typical antiabsence drug, causes gastrointestinal complaints in the drug-treated patients. In the present study we investigated in an experimental model the functional disturbances occurring in rat gastrointestinal tract (GIT) after a 100-day chronic administration of ethosuximide. Contrast radiographic study of rat gastrointestinal tract was used.

[Intra-arterial therapy as a treatment method in acute pancreatitis].

Intra-arterial therapy has a definite place in the complex management of pancreatitis. Drug infusion into the celiac trunk and a. mesenterica superior is a procedure bringing about the highest concentration (16-18 times) in the pathological focus (Briskinikol), inactivation of vasoactive and toxic products, interference with autolysis of the gland, allowing in turn the administration of smaller drug amounts.

Our experience in the imaging diagnostics of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

The present study focuses on the use of imaging methods for diagnosing aneurysms of the abdominal aorta. We performed ultrasound tomography, computed tomography and digital subtraction angiography in 42 patients (17 men, 45 women, aged 25 to 64 years) with clinically suspected aneurysm of the abdominal aorta. The results obtained are discussed determining the proper sequence in using these imaging methods in the overall diagnostic approach.

Our experience in the diagnostics of liver and spleen hemangiomas.

We studied the potentials of conventional imaging methods (sonography, computed tomography) and invasive imaging methods (digital subtraction angiography, fine needle biopsy under sonographic guidance) in diagnosing liver and spleen hemangiomas. 384 patients underwent ultrasound investigation for suspected focal lesions of liver and spleen. Hemangioma was diagnosed in 83 patients.

Effects of ethosuximide on the cerebral vasculature and hemodynamics of rats.

The development of epileptogenic activity has been proven to be closely related to changes in cerebral blood flow. This study was designed to examine the effects of ethosuximide, a widely used anticonvulsant drug, on cerebral hemodynamics. White Wistar rats were treated (p.

Quantitative analysis of digital subtraction renal vasography in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease correlated with clinical and paraclinical data.

Digital intravenous subtraction angiography (DSA) of the kidneys provides an alternative means to achieve better screening of suspected, symptomless and unclear forms of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The method's capabilities for a quantitative analysis makes it particularly useful in patients with arterial hypertension. We report our experience in using DSA in 36 patients of whom 11 were with proven ADPKD and 15 with suspected ADPKD.

Digital subtraction angiography in renal tumours.

By their nature, more than 98 percent of renal tumours are malignant. Clinically, early symptoms of malignancy are difficult to detect. Because of this, treatment of tumorous formations in the kidneys still is unsatisfactory.

Digital subtraction angiopulmography in children.

The digital subtraction angiography has revealed the great potential of the angiographic diagnostics of children lung diseases with its intravenous introduction of contrast material, greatly reduced amount of the contrast agent used and the irradiation dose applied. Angiopulmography is one of the basic methods for proving the presence of malformations, their characteristic and degree of development. We did 29 digital subtraction angiographies in 13 children aged 2 months to 7 years.

Radiologic methods used in the diagnostics of vasculogenic erectile dysfunction.

Contemporary methods of assessing erectile dysfunction include instrumental registration of nocturnal penile erections, the penile brachial index, Doppler sonography, use of vasoactive substances and various contrast radiologic methods along with studies of the hormonal profile, the neurologic status, examination of prostate excrements, etc. These methods are still not widely used in Bulgaria although their scope of application is quite well known. We report here our own experience in using the contrast radiologic methods for studying this pathological condition, in particular, the technique of digital subtraction pharmacocavernosography with cavernosometry introduced by us and used for this purpose.

[A congenital vascular anomaly--arteriovenous shunt to the right kidney with an aneurysm of the inferior right branch of the renal artery as a cause of asymptomatic hematuria and vasorenal hypertension].

A case of a 19 years old man with a congenital vascular anomaly is presented: arteriovenous shunt in the right kidney with an aneurysm of the inferior right branch of the renal artery as a cause of asymptomatic hematuria and vasorenal hypertension. The diagnosis was determined with the help of subtraction angiography. The method is recommended for the precise diagnosis of asymptomatic hematuria caused by arteriovenous malformations of the kidneys in order to help for a correct therapeutic decision.