Репозиторий Университета

© Ima-Press Publishing House. All rights reserved. Objective: to investigate the effect of indapamide/perindopril fixed-dose combination (FC) on 24-hour blood pressure (BP) and cognitive functions in antihypertensive treatment-naive middle-aged patients with uncomplicated grade 1-2 essential arterial hypertension (EAH). Patients and methods. The open prospective study enrolled 25 patients (9 men and 16 women) aged 40-59 years with a diastolic BP of 90-109 mm Hg and/or a systolic BP of 140-179 mm Hg, as evidenced by routine measurements. As starting antihypertensive therapy, the patients received indapamide 1.25/perindopril 5 mg FC once daily in the morning; if necessary, after 2 weeks (if the routine blood pressure was ≥140/90 mm Hg) they took indapamide 2.5/perindopril 10 mg once daily in the morning. The follow-up period was 14-16 weeks. Before and at the end of the follow-up, the patients underwent 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) and evaluation of cognitive functions using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), ten-words test (immediate and delayed word recall), verbal association test (literal and categorical associations), number connecting test (Trail making test (TMT), part A and numbers and letters connecting test (TMT) part B), and Stroop test. Results. At the end of the follow-up period, treatment with indapamide/perindopril fixed-dose combination showed a statistically significant reduction in BPs, as evidenced by routine measurements and ABPM (during 24-hour, and awake and sleep periods); a statistically significant cognitive improvement: an increase in the number of the so-called words in the ten-words test during both immediate (from 5.5±1.6 6.5±1.5 words; p=0.02 vs baseline) and delayed (from 6.2±1.7 to 7.4±1.4 words; p=vs baseline) recalls, a decrease in the performance time of TMT-B (from 112.6±42.5 to 90.4±28.4 sec; p=0.02) and Stroop test Part 3 (from 135.5±50.1 to 112.6±19.6 sec; p=0.02), and a larger number of called words in the categorical associations test (from 6.5±2.4 to 8.1±2.9 words; p=0.02). Conclusion. The results obtained indicate that in treatment-naive middle-aged patients with EAH, indapamide/perindopril fixed-dose combination assures an effective reduction in BPs, as evidenced by routine measurements and ABPM, also improves cognitive functions, particularly attention, information processing speed, semantic memory, cognitive flexibility, and short-term and long-term memory.

© 2018 Ima-Press Publishing House. All rights reserved. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a promising non-invasive method to assess cerebral perfusion, which identifies a decrease in cerebral blood flow (CBF). Objective: to assess cerebral perfusion in middle-aged untreated patients with uncomplicated grade 1-2 hypertension compared to same-age healthy controls. Patients and methods. 33 patients with essential hypertension and 40 healthy individuals (a control group) at the age of 40-59 years were examined. 24-hour blood pressure (BP) monitoring and brain magnetic resonance imaging were performed in different modes (T1 MPRAGE, T2 TSE, T2 FLAIR, DTI, and ASL). Results. White matter hyperintensive changes were found in 7.5% of the healthy individuals and in 51.5% of the hypertensive patients (p = 0.0002). In hypertensive patients, CBF in the cortical plate of anterior frontal regions was significantly (p ( 0.001) lower than that in the controls: right CBF, 39.1±5.6 and 45.8±3.2 ml/100 g/min, respectively; left CBF, 39.2±6.2 and 45.2±3.6 ml/100 g/min, respectively. In hypertensive patients with white matter hyperintensive changes, CBF was significantly lower than that in the controls: right CBF, 38.5±5.9 ml/100 g/min (p = 0.0001); left CBF, 39.2±6.7 ml/100 g/min (p = 0.002), and in those without these changes, right CBF was 39.5±5.1 ml/100 g/min (p = 0.0002); left CBF was 38.9±4.3 ml/100 g/min (p = 0.00002). Correlation analysis revealed significant inverse correlations of CBF with BP and systolic BP variability. Conclusion. Lower cerebral perfusion occurs in middle-aged untreated patients with uncomplicated grade 1-2 hypertension even in the absence of white matter hyperintensity foci.

© 2018 The Authors Recent years have witnessed the development of an enormous variety of hydrogel-based systems for neuroregeneration. Formed from hydrophilic polymers and comprised of up to 90% of water, these three-dimensional networks are promising tools for brain tissue regeneration. They can assist structural and functional restoration of damaged tissues by providing mechanical support and navigating cell fate. Hydrogels also show the potential for brain injury therapy due to their broadly tunable physical, chemical, and biological properties. Hydrogel polymers, which have been extensively implemented in recent brain injury repair studies, include hyaluronic acid, collagen type I, alginate, chitosan, methylcellulose, Matrigel, fibrin, gellan gum, self-assembling peptides and proteins, poly(ethylene glycol), methacrylates, and methacrylamides. When viewed as tools for neuroregeneration, hydrogels can be divided into: (1) hydrogels suitable for brain injury therapy, (2) hydrogels that do not meet basic therapeutic requirements and (3) promising hydrogels which meet the criteria for further investigations. Our analysis shows that fibrin, collagen I and self-assembling peptide-based hydrogels display very attractive properties for neuroregeneration.

© 2018 SPIE. We have proposed a wavelet-domain de-noising technique for imaging of human brain malignant glioma by optical coherence tomography (OCT). It implies OCT image decomposition using the direct fast wavelet transform, thresholding of the obtained wavelet spectrum and further inverse fast wavelet transform for image reconstruction. By selecting both wavelet basis and thresholding procedure, we have found an optimal wavelet filter, which application improves differentiation of the considered brain tissue classes-i.e. malignant glioma and normal/intact tissue. Namely, it allows reducing the scattering noise in the OCT images and retaining signal decrement for each tissue class. Therefore, the observed results reveals the wavelet-domain de-noising as a prospective tool for improved characterization of biological tissue using the OCT.

© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. We have performed the in vitro terahertz (THz) spectroscopy of human brain tumors. In order to fix tissues for the THz measurements, we have applied the gelatin embedding. It allows for preserving tissues from hydration/dehydration and sustaining their THz response similar to that of the freshly-excised tissues for a long time after resection. We have assembled an experimental setup for the reflection-mode measurements of human brain tissues based on the THz pulsed spectrometer. We have used this setup to study in vitro the refractive index and the amplitude absorption coefficient of 2 samples of malignant glioma (grade IV), 1 sample of meningioma (grade I), and samples of intact tissues. We have observed significant differences between the THz responses of normal and pathological tissues of the brain. The results of this paper highlight the potential of the THz technology in the intraoperative neurodiagnosis of tumors relying on the endogenous labels of tumorous tissues.

В области изучения нейробиологии униполярных депрессивных расстройств (УДР) перспективными считаются нейровизуализационные методы, особенно позитронно-эмиссионная томография (ПЭТ) и функциональная магнитно-резонансная томография (фМРТ). В статье приводится обзор современных нейровизуализационных данных, касающихся структурно-функциональных особенностей головного мозга у лиц, страдающих УДР. Результаты отдельных исследований представлены в зависимости от особенностей методов их проведения (состояние покоя, выполнение когнитивных и эмоциональных тестов) и соотнесены с основными нейробиологическими концепциями развития депрессивных расстройств. Отдельно рассмотрены возможности нейровизуализационных исследований для оценки и прогнозирования результатов антидепрессивной терапии.

В области изучения нейробиологии униполярных депрессивных расстройств (УДР) перспективными считаются нейровизуализационные методы, особенно позитронно-эмиссионная томография (ПЭТ) и функциональная магнитно-резонансная томография (фМРТ). В статье приводится обзор современных нейровизуализационных данных, касающихся структурно-функциональных особенностей головного мозга у лиц, страдающих УДР. Результаты отдельных исследований представлены в зависимости от особенностей методов их проведения (состояние покоя, выполнение когнитивных и эмоциональных тестов) и соотнесены с основными нейробиологическими концепциями развития депрессивных расстройств. Отдельно рассмотрены возможности нейровизуализационных исследований для оценки и прогнозирования результатов антидепрессивной терапии.