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Medical care refers to a risky type of activity, since as a result of its provision, harm to the patient's health may be caused and prerequisites for the onset of legal (civil, disciplinary, administrative and criminal) liability may arise. The legal liability of a pathologist in the event of an incorrect diagnosis by the attending physician on the basis of an incorrect conclusion of the pathologist may occur due to violations due to low qualifications, frivolity, negligence, failure to comply with the rules, procedures for providing medical care, job descriptions, official duties. If the incorrect conclusion of the pathologist was of an objective nature (for example, in the case of an incorrect interpretation of a diagnostically difficult case), it should go beyond the scope of punishable shortcomings in the activities of the pathologist. The financial responsibility of a pathologist may occur when its burden is placed on a medical organization for harm caused to the life or health of a patient, due to the establishment, among other things, of the legality of the actions (inaction) of a medical worker with whom the medical organization is in an employment relationship. A medical organization, in case of satisfaction of the patient's claims by the court, as a rule, in a regression procedure, may involve the relevant medical worker who caused the harm in the issue of compensation, compensate for their financial and reputational losses. The most important thing in such cases is to resolve the issue of establishing the grounds for bringing a medical worker to responsibility.

An open comparative randomized study of paroxetine (selective inhibitor of serotonin re-uptake) and tricyclic antidepressant amitriptiline has been conducted. These drugs were used for the treatment of 43 patients with recurrent depression (RD) with frequent relapses (ICD-10 F33.0-F33.2) during 12 months. There were 2 groups matched for demographic and clinical data, one included 21 patients treated by paroxetine and the other 22 patients switched to amitriptiline. Basing on clinical records and scores on a number of scales, i.e. HAM-D, CGI, quality of life, high efficacy of the drugs was confirmed, being estimated as 90,5% responders in the paroxetine group and 69,2% in the amitriptiline one, with the marked advantage of the former medication. The better tolerability, possibility of single intake and absence of severe side-effects argue for preferable use of paroxetine during long-term therapy in RD patients with frequent relapses.

The difficulties in performing the clinico-anatomical analysis of fatal outcomes and establishing the direct causes of death are discussed. It is suggested the automatic monitoring of basic physiologic indices with an obligatory magnetic registration of heart rate respiratory movements and encephalogram should be introduced into the practice of the surgical departments and departments of intensive therapy. This system should be implemented when the operation started, when the patient is in the critical condition, terminal state and resuscitation.

Morphological studies of the thymus and the spleen were made in 54 alcohol addicts and 53 cases of other death cause at the age from 25 to 65 yr. Alcoholism was found to induce the reduction in thymus size and the number of its lobes with a simultaneous decrease of lymphocyte content in them; in the lymphatic follicles of the spleen (in the presence of infectious processes) absence of bright multiplication centres and alkaline phosphatase activity in their mantle zone cells was noted. There appeared to be a statistically significant difference in the amount of the parenchyma in the thymus of alcoholics (p less than 0.017) compared to that of the control group 0.68 +/- 0.09 g and 1.33 +/- 0.21 g, respectively and this figure was almost 4-fold less, than the average age norms, 0.26 +/- 0.03 g; the quantitative content of the splenic pulp in alcoholics also had a statistically significant difference compared to the control group (P less than 0.001), 6.37 +/- 0.66 g vs. 12.59 +/- 0.98 g, respectively. The data obtained indicate the development of immunodeficiency states in alcoholism and basing on the changes occurring in the thymus and spleen they can be referred to a combined T- and B-cell form of immunodeficiency.