Concept on the pathogenesis and treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an organ-specific autoimmune disease that predominantly affects women and is characterized by chronic, progressive destruction of small intrahepatic bile ducts with portal inflammation and ultimately fibrosis, leading to liver failure in the absence of treatment. Little is known about the etiology of PBC. PBC is characterized by anti-mitochondrial antibodies and destruction of intra-hepatic bile ducts.

Reperfusion injury after critical intestinal ischemia and its correction with perfluorochemical emulsion "perftoran".

Aim: To investigate the anti-ischemic properties of perfluorochemical emulsion "perftoran" in mesenteric region.

Methods: Experiments were conducted on 146 nonlinear white male rats weighing 200-350 g. Partial critical intestinal ischemia was induced by thorough atraumatic strangulation of 5-6 cm jejunal loop with its mesentery for 90 min.

Mechanism of the effect of postresuscitation changes in the brain on the dynamics of extinction of orientation and exploratory response in rats.

The type of open-field behavior (determined in preliminary tests) was preserved after 10-min circulatory arrest. Postresuscitation changes in the bran modified orientation and exploratory activity under conditions of its partial extinction before clinical death. High behavioral activity of rats in the first open-field session after resuscitation was related to the impairment of memory traces, while that in the follow-up period was associated with the formation of a pathological self-maintaining system between components of orientation and exploratory behavior.

Active and passive behavior of animals during the postresuscitation period.

Behavioral reactions (open-field test, elevated plus-maze, pain stress, and feeding behavior) were studied in various periods after clinical death caused by circulatory arrest for 10 or 15 min. We revealed two different phases of behavioral changes: active behavior directed at attaining a specific goal and passive behavior directed towards isolation of the organism from external signals and functional minimization. Active behavior determined by pathological excitation in the central nervous system increased the severity of structural damage to hippocampal CA1 neurons during the postresuscitation period.

Effect of defibrillation pulses of different shapes on biomembranes: experimental study.

We studied the effects of high-voltage single, double unipolar, and double bipolar electric pulses of exponential or sine shape on erythrocyte membranes. Either single or double (mono- or bipolar) pulses were used. All pulses electroporated the membranes, and the electroporation threshold did not depend on the pulse shape.

Postresuscitation recovery of functional activity of central nervous system in rats during combination treatment with mexidol and neuropeptides delta sleep-inducing peptide and oxytocin.

In experiments on rats we studied the effects of antioxidant and membrane-protecting agent mexidol and neuropeptides delta sleep-inducing peptide and oxytocin administered during resuscitation after 12-min clinical death. Individual and combination treatment with these substances accelerated recovery of the neurological status and partially or completely corrected behavioral disorders associated with changes in the emotional and motivational status. Combined administration of mexidol and oxytocin most significantly promoted postresuscitation recovery of functional activity in the central nervous system.

Mechanisms of adaptation to flow reactions in rats after systemic blood arrest.

The rats survived 10- or 15-min systemic blood flow arrest were exposed to various extreme factors within the following 2 months. It was found that the processes leading to functional isolation of CNS play a protective role: they moderate behavioral response to acute stress and alleviate the degree of neuron damage induced by long-term stress during acquisition of a complex food-procuring reflex.

Some reasons for modifications of rat's conditioned behavior after resuscitation.

In rats survived systemic circulatory arrest and resuscitation, pathological changes such as increased excitability of the central nervous system and decreased volume of simultaneously acquired information considerably modulate conditioned activity. The interaction between these factors facilitates learning after formation of targeted behavioral pattern.

Prophylaxis of encephalopathies and risk factors of atherogenesis development in the postresuscitation period in rats by means of succinic acid.

The effect of oral administration of succinic acid was studied in 66 rats exposed to 10 min cardiac arrest with further resuscitation. A total of 30 mg/kg of the drug were administered daily for 5 days starting with day 3 up to day 7 after resuscitation. The experiments have revealed that treatment with succinic acid caused normalization of the orienting behavior in an 'open field' test, decrease of the intensity of response to electric shock, normalization of free radical formation in the brain and serum and reduced cerebral morphological changes.

Spectral analysis of the ECG in patients during terminal state and in the postresuscitation period.

The use of amplitude end frequency analysis of the ECG in the terminal state end postresuscitation period is presented. One hundred one studies were carried out on 64 patients in critical condition. ECG recordings were done in 3 orthogonal leads (Frank's method) with a standard amplification of 1 mV.

Ischemic brain edema as a complication of decompensated hypovolemic shock.

Four-hour arterial hypotension (decompensated phase) in dogs caused by acute blood loss, when the level of arterial pressure of 40 mmHg was maintained beginning from the 2nd and 3rd h by intra-arterial intermittent blood transfusion is an adequate model for reproducing a moderate ischemic edema of the brain. Pronounced hypoperfusion and considerable disturbances in blood fluidity testified to greater severity of hypoxic and hemorheological disturbances in the microvessles of the brain in decompensated animals than in their compensated counterparts. The formation of a brain edema is based on disturbed fluid circulation closely related to the structural pathology of the organelle membranes of the cells of the nervous and vascular tissues.

Neurological aspects of reanimatology.

The science of resuscitation and correspondingly the more effective methods of death management have come up to the place of a century-old, as a rule, empirical struggle for the life of a dying human being. Mechanisms of dying and resuscitation have become the objects of comprehensive scientific research. Studies of the mechanisms of genesis of hypoxia and posthypoxic pathology of the brain have allowed us to reveal the whole complex of postischaemical factors participating in the development of post-resuscitation encephalopathies, among which the leading ones are the changes in the energy formation processes, disorders in protein and phospholipid metabolism, activation of proteolysis enzymes and changes in the state of membrane systems of neurons.

Postresuscitation disease.

The postresuscitation disease is a specific pathophysiologic state of vital organ systems early after ischemic anoxia. This report summarizes reviews of past research and makes suggestions for future research concerning revival of the cerebral cortex after clinical death, CNS stimulation vs. sedation, postischemic coma and pain, near-death experiences, and extracerebral derangements.