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An experiment that decontaminated of opistorchide metacercariae-infected fish is described. Decontamination was accomplished by fast electron radiation on an ILU-6 accelerator. A high larval mortality (about 98-100%) was shown in the biological control invasions of the experiment animals exposed to radiation in different doses from 1.25 up to 2.5 Mrad.

Regulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis by means of secondary mediators calmodulin and 4,5-inositol phosphates (products of phosphatidyl inositol hydrolysis) was studied in children with ectopic forms of arrhythmias. Alterations in the system calmodulin-Ca2+ and the activity of phosphoinosite metabolism correlated highly with clinical manifestations of the arrhythmias. The data obtained suggest that a number of molecular mechanisms and responsible for arrhythmias were realized in cell membranes and depended on a complex of intracellular messengers affected within various steps of the hormonal signal transmission.

Importance of calmodulin and Ca2+ in membranes of erythrocytes and myocardium was studied in children with ectopic forms of cardiac arrhythmia--extrasystole, paroxysmal and nonparoxysmal tachycardia. Activation of lipid peroxidation and shifts in cytomembrane phospholipid spectrum were shown to be involved in impairments of calcium homeostasis regulation, which is responsible for control of electromechanical parameters and may be related to deterioration of myocardial electrophysiological properties.

The resistance of the rat's organism to emotional stress is determined by alterations of the heart's electric stability. The condition of lipid oxidation is accompanied by alterations of cholesterol and ionised calcium concentrations. Such alterations were expressed in Fisher rats to a greater extent. It conformed to the morphophysiological peculiarities of this group of animals and confirmed its considerable species sensibility.

As many as 21 children suffering from infectious endocarditis (IE) were examined for the clinical and morphological picture of the disease. The patients' age ranged from 2 to 15 years. In 15 children, IE developed in association with different congenital diseases; in one patient, in the presence of rheumatic heart disease, and in 5 patients, in unaffected heart valves. The sectional material was examined in 19 cases whereas the operational material in 2 cases. Analysis of the data obtained has shown that early diagnosis of IE (primary and secondary) may not infrequently be fairly difficult, which is likely to result in the late administration of antibacterial therapy. In addition to the involvement of the valvular apparatus of the heart, the majority of the patients demonstrated the signs of focal myocarditis and postmyocarditic cardiosclerosis, which is one of the causes of the development of refractory heart insufficiency. IE children mostly die from heart insufficiency and thromboembolism.

Analysis is made of the routine and circadian ECG in 32 children with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The signs of myocardial hypertrophy of some or other parts of the heart were discovered in 29 children (90.6%). The signs of left ventricular hypertrophy were the most suggestive ones, whereas the signs of left atrial hypertrophy and right heart hypertrophy were observed less frequently. The use of the daily ECG monitoring allowed rhythm and conduction disorders to be revealed in 30 children (93.8%). It should be mentioned that in patients with the obstructive form of the disease, the signs of myocardial hypertrophy and heart arrhythmia on the ECG occurred much more often than in children suffering from the non-obstructive form. In accordance with the observations, prognostically unfavourable disorders of heart rhythm are not characteristic of children, they occur rarely, being primarily seen in the obstructive form of the disease. The daily ECG monitoring not infrequently allows the identification of heart arrhythmias and transitory disorders of conduction, which cannot be recorded on routine electrocardiography.

In order to estimate the liver status and hemodynamics in children with non-rheumatic cardiomyopathies, 130 schoolchildren were examined. Of these, 60 children were diagnosed to have hypertrophic and 70 dilated cardiomyopathy. In both cardiomyopathy varieties, alterations in the liver were established to be of secondary character and associated with greater circulation abnormalities. The patients manifested an appreciable increase of the diameter of the hepatic veins and reduction in them of the blood flow rate. Adequate cardiotropic therapy brought about a noticeable decrease in the echographic signs of liver congestion.

The authors demonstrate potentialities of long-term ECG monitoring in the diagnosis of heart rhythm and conduction disturbances in children with dilated cardiomyopathy. Provide the results of comparative studies of routine and 24-hour ECG monitoring in children with dilated cardiomyopathy under every-day life conditions. Show that during 24-hour ECG monitoring, all the children with the above pathology manifest heart rhythm and conduction disturbances of varying intensity and prognostic significance.

Ultrasound research methods were applied in 32 children with the clinical signs of infectious endocarditis (IE). The patients' age varied from 3 to 16 years. In 5 patients, IE turned out primary in the intact valves whereas in 27 patients, it superadded on different congenital heart disease. In 10 patients, IE had developed before surgical correction of the diseases and in 17, within different times after operation. The direct and indirect echo-signs of IE were delineated. The direct echo-signs included vegetations which were discovered in 22 out of the 32 patients. The indirect echo-signs included the signs of regurgitation in the externally unchanged or minimally changed cusps of the valves and blood drop at the level of the ventricles in connection with the defect reshunting in the interventricular septum. The data obtained are in good agreement with the clinical picture, surgical and morbid anatomy data.