Vol 51, No 1 (2025)

Schizophrenia is characterized by a wide range of symptoms that also manifest themselves in other disorders, which served as the basis for the emergence of ideas about schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Studies indicate inconsistency of data on the characteristics of visual contrast sensitivity in schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder, which is part of the structure of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The study involved 30 patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia; 18 patients with schizotypal disorder and 30 people without psychopathology and neurological diseases. Contrast sensitivity was recorded when presenting Gabor elements with a spatial frequency from 0.4 to 10 cycles/deg, using the adaptive staircase procedure. Contrast sensitivity in both the schizophrenia group and the schizotypal disorder group was lower in the area of high spatial frequencies, compared to the conditionally healthy control. Thus, the identified disorders are common to both schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder. The obtained data are considered as evidence of a special nature of the discordance in the interaction of the magnocellular and parvocellular channels of the visual system with a shift towards the dominance of the magnocellular system.

It is known that neural networks of the human spinal cord can initiate the stepping pattern and control posture in the absence and with impaired supraspinal input. In the rehabilitation of children with spastic diplegia due to cerebral palsy, a new technology based on electrical transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) was used. Continuous and rhythmic tSCS was performed during walking. Continuous tSCS was performed at the level of C5-C6 and T11-T12 vertebrae. Rhythmic stimulation of the dorsal roots of the spinal cord was performed at the level of the T12 and L2 vertebrae to activate the motor pools of the flexor/extensor leg muscles in the swing and stance phases, respectively. Fourteen children with spastic diplegia, age 13 ± 2 years, participated in the study. Patients in the study were able to stand and walk independently with the help of a cane/walker or with the assistance of an adult. All patients received standard therapy and locomotor training (20 min per day, 10 days). During locomotor training, tSCS -based technology was used in patients in one group and no tSCS was used in patients in the other group. The effect of tSCS on the parameters of walking over flat surface (acute effect) was determined in all patients before the course. Before and after the course all patients were examined using clinical tests, kinematic characteristics of walking were analyzed. The acute effect of stimulation is manifested in a reduction in the duration of the stance phase, in an increase in the range of motion in the knee joint. After the course in the main group the scores on the motor function change assessment scale (GMFM-88) increased, spasticity decreased, and the distance passed in the 6-minute walk test increased.

Сardiovascular diseases are commonly associated with disturbances in parasympathetic heart rhythm control, so the development of new methods for assessing vagal cardiotropic influences is an important biomedical task. This work aimed a studying the synchronization of respiration-related oscillations of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) depending on the duration of the expiration phase, during which cardiac vagal influences increase. In the study involving nine young men, a passive head-up test was performed at a fixed respiratory rate of 0.2 Hz (12 cycles/min) and different ratios of the inspiration and expiration phase durations: 30/70% and 70/30%. Blood pressure, HR, and pulmonary ventilation were continuously recorded during the experiment. In the supine position, the power of HR oscillations at the respiratory frequency was significantly higher with longer expiratory phase, the power of MAP oscillations; the phase synchronization index, and the phase difference between HR and MAP oscillations did not depend on the breathing pattern. During verticalization of the body, the power of HR oscillations decreased: with 30% expiratory phase – to a lower level than with 70% expiratory phase. The power of MAP oscillations increased and the phase difference between MAP and HR oscillations decreased during orthostasis regardless of the duration of the inspiratory phase, but increased synchronization of MAP and HR oscillations was observed only during a short inspiratory phase. Thus, the phase structure of the respiratory cycle can significantly affect the power of respiration-related HR oscillations and their synchronization with MAP oscillations of the corresponding frequency.

The development of new tools in the system for predicting the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is an urgent task. The determination of immunoindicators – natural antibodies (e-Ab) to serotonin, dopamine, angiotensin, histamine, characterizing the course of CVD, was studied to assess the severity of the disease using a mathematical balance model based on visualization of laboratory analysis results. The determination of e-Abs was carried out in groups of patients differing in diagnosis (1-hypertension (45 people), 2-hypertension and coronary heart disease (53 people), 3-control (41 people)). It was found that, compared to the control, there was an increase in the level of e-Abs to bioregulators from 44 to 76% and from 46 to 119% (p < 0.05) for patients of the 1st and 2nd groups, respectively. As the severity of CVD progresses, the number of individuals with significantly high ELISA values for angiotensin and serotonin increases. The use of a mathematical balance model to predict the course of CVD showed that the value of the platform deviation angle is a summary indicator reflecting the metabolic disorder of each bioregulator. The results obtained are confirmed by the medical report for each patient.

The relevance of the study is determined by the high prevalence of symptoms of the lower urinary tract, as well as the search for new intersystem relationships in the implementation of the accumulative evacuation function of the bladder using modern diagnostic methods and highlighting criteria for early diagnosis of these disorders. Based on the results of current preventive examinations, including the recommendations of the American Continence Society (ISC), urination diaries were filled out for 3 days, a survey of lower urinary tract symptoms on the I-PSS scale, and quality of life assessments (QOL). Three groups of young males had been divided – with normal (183 people, average age 27.3 ± ± 1.5 years), borderline (52 people, average age 26.8 ± 1.7 years) and increased urination rhythm (total 53 people, average age 28.1 ± 1.8 years). Additionally, the individual volume of habitual physical activity – HPA (mobile application on the Android and Apple platforms) was assessed. Combined positron emission and computed tomography (PET/CT) with a total mathematical calculation of the standardized capture level of Maximum Standardized Uptake Value (SUV_max), the maximum indicator of the degree of accumulation of radiopharmaceuticals in the selected area of interest by various brain zones 18F-FDG, 11C-methionine and 11C-choline was performed in different functional phases of work bladder (filling, urination and after emptying) on a Biograph machine (Siemens, Germany). As a result of the studies, quantitative and qualitative characteristics were given to the energy metabolism of the brain in the process of implementing the storage and evacuation functions of the bladder in young people with normal, borderline and frequent urination rhythms. The consistent functional activity of the most significant sections (anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, paracentral lobule, thalamus, insula) in different phases of urination has been established, and on this basis a standard model of the central regulation of the storage-evacuation function of the bladder has been proposed.

Ultrasound (US) is widely used in medicine; however, the capabilities of this method go far beyond clinical diagnostics. Over the past half century, the West has been actively developing the direction of using ultrasound to assess body composition, muscle changes under physical activity, assess muscle composition by fiber type, and analyze changes in fat and muscle components of body composition over time. Compaction of sizes, technological evolution of the transmitter, new algorithms for recording and processing the reflected signal contributed to the creation of ultra-light, high-power ultrasound scanners with high resolution, which are synchronized with the smartphone of an ultrasound diagnostic specialist. Among specialists in the field of sports and muscle activity, cheaper ultrasound devices are also becoming widespread, which allow measurements in A- and B-modes in healthy people. This review presents modern areas of ultrasound use outside the field of medical diagnostics and the application of this method in sports physiology and anthropology, as well as the limitations of the method and prospects for its development.