Bulletin of RSMU

ISSN Print 2500–1094 ISSN Online 2542–1204

Bulletin of RSMU

BIOMEDICAL JOURNAL OF PIROGOV UNIVERSITY (MOSCOW, RUSSIA)

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Polunina VV, Sergeenko EYu, Yarustovskaya OV, Polunin VS

Nowadays headaches are common among teenagers and children. This study aimed to assess effectiveness of reflexology, kinesiology taping and myofascial trigger point therapy in children with tension headaches and to compare these treatments with traditional drug-based modalities. The study recruited 37 children (19 boys and 18 girls) aged 9 to 14 years. The main group (n = 25) received 2 series of reflexology treatments separated by a month interval, kinesiology taping and trigger point massage, which was also taught to the patients and their parents. The control group (n = 12) received Ibuprofen and Mydocalm (the daily doses did not exceed 30 mg/kg and 2–4 mg/kg, respectively). Treatment duration in both groups was 4 months. Treatment effectiveness was assessed based on the evolution of patients’ complaints and the impact of headache on children’s daily activities, using the visual analog pain scale and the HIT-6 method, respectively. Within a month, headaches became 1.2 times less frequent and the attacks became 1.2 times shorter in the control group, while in the main group headaches became 2.5 times less frequent and the attacks became twice as short as they had been before Headache intensity did not change significantly in the control group, while in the main group it decreased 1.5 times (p < 0.05). The number of controls who experienced a severe impact of headache on their daily activities decreased 1.2 times after the treatment, while the main group reported no such impact at all. In the main group the number of patients who experienced only a slight impact of headaches on their daily activities increased 4.7 times, from 12 % to 56 %. Our findings demonstrate that drug-free treatments for tension headaches are more effective than drug-based regimens. Moreover, children benefit from drug-free regimens as they are not exposed to the negative effects of analgesics and muscle relaxants.

Received: 2017-11-03

Published online: 2018-01-22

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-06-04

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VIEWS 4750

Didur MD, Vykhodets IT, Khokhlina NK, Zhuravleva AI, Polyaev BA

A safe sport is a bit of an oxymoron: competition puts a severe strain on the vital systems of the organism that may be dangerous or uncontrollable, does not come in small doses and entails unpredictable results. Sports injury surveillance aims to estimate the impact of different factors that increase the risk of injuries and to elaborate wise and efficient measures to curb this risk. Accurate data on mortality rates in athletes help to improve approaches to health screening. Injury surveillance systems that also report injury-related deaths in athletes exist in many developed countries. This article talks about sports injuries in Russia and provides rationale for creating a nation-wide system of sports injury surveillance.

Received: 2017-11-16

Published online: 2018-01-22

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-06-03

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VIEWS 4582

Parastaev SA, Miroshnikova YuV, Pushkina TA, Kurashvili VA, Yashin TA, Vykhodets IT, Kupeev MV, Didur MD

Fluid and electrolyte imbalances can compromise physical performance of professional athletes. We have conducted a study to understand how aware athletes are of their hydration status and how they deal with dehydration. First, we surveyed 51 athletes (mean age of 20.4 years) specializing in different sports, including ice hockey, water polo, tennis and figure skating, using a questionnaire. Next, we analyzed the anonymized results of the laboratory tests run on the samples of 30 athletes specializing in futsal. We focused on hemotocrit and sodium levels and urine specific gravity as indirect indicators of hydration status. Survey results demonstrated that 86 % of the participants lacked knowledge of wise approaches to replenishing fluid or electrolytes after physical exercise, did not adequately control fluid intake and developed various degrees of dehydration. We noticed that awareness of hydration status negatively correlated with professional qualifications of the participants. Retrospective analysis of laboratory tests showed that hypohydration prevailed among high-class athletes: at least 73 % of them showed signs of dehydration. We emphasize the need for elaborating unified clinical recommendations on rehydration for Russian athletes that should be further approved by doctors and coaches.

Received: 2017-11-02

Published online: 2018-01-18

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-06-02

Comments 0

VIEWS 5081

Andreev DA, Karmazin VV, Parastaev SA

This literature-based review focuses on the basic physiological aspects of proprioception. Below, we describe and compare a number of biomechanical platforms used to measure postural control in high-class athletes. We define the primary goals of biomechanical assessment of postural problems, paying special attention to the functional performance of proprioceptors and proprioceptive control. We also provide a list of clinical and biomechanical indicators of proprioceptive damage and propose a diagnostic algorithm for assessing static and dynamic impairments in high-class athletes.

Received: 2017-11-16

Published online: 2018-01-18

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-06-01

Comments 0

VIEWS 5120

Takhchidi KhP, Kachalina GF, Kasmynina TA, Tebina EP

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) profoundly affects a woman’s quality of life, causing physical and emotional distress. This study aimed to describe premenstrual pains in reproductive-age women (18–45 years). The main group included 136 women with moderate and severe PMS; the control group consisted of 136 healthy females with only sporadic premenstrual symptoms. We encouraged the participants to rate their symptoms using the menstrual distress questionnaire by Rudolf H. Moos and to keep a symptom diary over the course of 3 menstrual cycles. We also used the visual analogue scale, which allows estimating pain intensity. In the main groups the participants scored an average of 47.14 ± 3.67 total points on the distress questionnaire (moderate PMS), whereas the controls scored 10.28 ± 1.94 points (mild PMS) (p < 0.05). Among the most typical premenstrual symptoms observed in the main group and the controls were: headaches (66.17 % vs. 22.79 %, respectively; p < 0.001); breast tenderness/pain (83.08 % vs. 49.26 %, respectively; p < 0.001); pelvic pain (70.58 % vs. 35.29 %, respectively; p < 0.001); bloatedness/stomach ache (64.7 % vs. 25.73 %, respectively; p < 0.001), and muscle/joint pain (51.47 % vs. 21.32 %, respectively; p < 0.001). The average number of premenstrual symptoms observed in the main group was 5.62 ± 0.92, of which 2.47 ± 0.68 represented intense pains determining PMS severity. The results of our study suggest that premenstrual symptoms should be monitored prospectively over at least 2 consecutive menstrual cycles using a diary, because retrospective data are unreliable.

Received: 2017-10-23

Published online: 2018-01-15

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-05-10

Comments 0

VIEWS 5012

Dobrokhotova YuE, Friptu VG, Grishin II, Saprykina LV, Mazur IA

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) profoundly affects a woman’s quality of life, causing physical and emotional distress. This study aimed to describe premenstrual pains in reproductive-age women (18–45 years). The main group included 136 women with moderate and severe PMS; the control group consisted of 136 healthy females with only sporadic premenstrual symptoms. We encouraged the participants to rate their symptoms using the menstrual distress questionnaire by Rudolf H. Moos and to keep a symptom diary over the course of 3 menstrual cycles. We also used the visual analogue scale, which allows estimating pain intensity. In the main groups the participants scored an average of 47.14 ± 3.67 total points on the distress questionnaire (moderate PMS), whereas the controls scored 10.28 ± 1.94 points (mild PMS) (p < 0.05). Among the most typical premenstrual symptoms observed in the main group and the controls were: headaches (66.17 % vs. 22.79 %, respectively; p < 0.001); breast tenderness/pain (83.08 % vs. 49.26 %, respectively; p < 0.001); pelvic pain (70.58 % vs. 35.29 %, respectively; p < 0.001); bloatedness/stomach ache (64.7 % vs. 25.73 %, respectively; p < 0.001), and muscle/joint pain (51.47 % vs. 21.32 %, respectively; p < 0.001). The average number of premenstrual symptoms observed in the main group was 5.62 ± 0.92, of which 2.47 ± 0.68 represented intense pains determining PMS severity. The results of our study suggest that premenstrual symptoms should be monitored prospectively over at least 2 consecutive menstrual cycles using a diary, because retrospective data are unreliable.

Received: 2017-09-22

Published online: 2018-01-15

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-05-09

Comments 0

VIEWS 4714

Eliseev AV, Fedorova AD, Lebedin MY, Chudakov DM, Shugay M

In-depth study of mechanisms of immune response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is critical for better understanding of how immunodeficiency develops in patients with HIV, as well as for designing effective immunotherapy strategies and vaccines against the virus. In this work we analyze sequencing profiles of T-cell receptor repertoires previously obtained from healthy donors (601 Americans and 65 Russians) to estimate the population frequency of HIV-specific naive T-cells. We demonstrate that frequencies of T-cells recognizing different HIV epitopes vary considerably across the population (F-statistic = 2007, p < 10<sup>–100</sup>, ANOVA). Although the frequency of T-lymphocytes recognizing a particular epitope does not change significantly between the individuals, it still largely depends on the presence of certain HLA alleles (p < 0.01, post-hoc Tukey’s test), cytomegalovirus infection (F = 61, p = 7 × 10–15, ANOVA), and age (Pearson correlation coefficient ranging from –0.53 to –0.14 in different groups).

Received: 2017-10-23

Published online: 2018-01-14

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-05-08

Comments 0

VIEWS 4748

Merzlyak EM, Kasatskaya SA, Sosnovskaya AV, Israelson MA, Staroverov DB, Nakonechnaya TO, Novikov PI, Chudakov DM, Britanova OV

Although mechanisms underlying development of autoimmune vasculitis and polyangiitis remain understudied, these pathologies are already known to be largely mediated by T-lymphocytes. Cyclophosphamide (CF) is widely used to treat autoimmune diseases. Lymphoid cells in general (T, B, and NK cells) and naive T-lymphocytes in particular are highly sensitive to CF. In this work we analyzed the repertoires of T-cell receptors (TCRs) in the peripheral blood of young (aged 24 to 35 years, n = 4) and elderly (aged 52 to 68 years, n = 5) patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis (Wegener granulomatosis and Churg–Strauss syndrome) treated with high doses of CF > 3 years before the study. The control group included 7 young and 14 elderly healthy individuals. We revealed no TCR variants previously reported as typically found in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis. Relative frequency of “public" (often found in a population, largely formed during an embryonic period) TCR variants in the repertories of young patients was significantly lower than in the repertories of healthy donors of the same age, and was similar to the elderly healthy donors. We hypothesize that CF-treatment eliminates substantial proportion of naïve T-cells in the young donors, that contains "public" TCR variants of fetal origin. Long-term consequences of such changes in the structure of T-cell immunity require further investigations.

Received: 2017-10-04

Published online: 2018-01-14

DOI: 10.24075/brsmu.2017-05-07

Comments 0

VIEWS 4984