Search

The efficiency of the device for permanent circulatory support of the left ventricle has been proven through clinical practice with the trend of constant improvement of treatment results along with biotechnological progress and improvement of surgical implantation techniques. The published reports of most reference cardiac surgery centers present a one-year survival rate of over 85%, a two-year survival rate of 70% and a five-year survival rate of 45-50%. In addition to clear benefits for the patient, implantation of LVAD also carries significant specific risks, so infections, post-implantation bleeding, strokes, and right ventricular postimplantation weakness are the most common complications. Given that the progress of the LVAD program is ensured primarily by reducing the incidence of complications not related to the functioning of individual segments of the cardiovascular system, and as left ventricular function is completely replaced by LVAD device, the most recent challenge is the decision to install LVAD device in the heart with right ventricular, given that the postimplantation weakness of right ventricular is associated with proven increased mortality and morbidity. Since the 1990s, studies on hearts with implanted LVAD as a bridge to heart transplantation have shown regression of cell hypertrophy, normalization of cell size, muscle fiber architecture, and heart chamber geometry. The described changes are characterized by the notion of reverse remodeling, which is synonymous with function recovery. It is this process at the level of the right ventricle that is recognized as extremely important for the success of LVAD programs, especially in the group of patients who have a certain degree of right ventricular weakness preoperatively. The basic requirements of the cardiac surgery team are adequate preoperative assessment of right ventricular weakness, then application of measures to prevent damage and load on the right ventricle during and after LVAD implantation, as well as providing adequate therapeutic measures for right ventricular recovery in the postimplantation period.

The archaeobotanical research of the macrobiotic remains from archaeological sites provides a valuable insight into the plant economy of the continental Celtic (Gaulish or Galatian) tribe of Scordisci, which lived around the rivers of Sava, Drava and Danube during the last three centuries before Christ. The field crop production of Scordisci was based upon cereals, grain legumes and oil crops. The importance of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) in the everyday diets of Scordisci has been underestimated so far. Recent researches proved the presence of Byzantine oat (Avena byzantina K. Koch) at the Celtic tilths in the northern Balkans. Cereals were stored in mud-plastered granary baskets. The spectrum of grain legumes is as diverse as that of cereals. The latest analyses expand the list of oil plants with a new species-dragon's head (Lallemantia iberica (M.Bieb.) Fisch. & C.A.Mey.). There is also the first evidence of a beer production facility in one of the Scordisci oppida, Čarnok.

A find of 2572 charred seeds of pea (Pisum sativum L.) was detected at the Late Bronze Age tell settlement Hissar near Leskovac, in Serbia, belonging to the Brnjica cultural group, 14-10 cent. BC. Two types of pea seeds were observed: apparently healthy seeds and seeds damaged by the activity of a weevil (Coleoptera, Bruchidae). At least two-fifths of all finds have apparently been infested most probably by pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L.), one of the most important pea pests worldwide, especially in medium-moist and dry climates, such as Southern Europe and Australia. A large amount of infested pea seeds indicates a developed pea production on small plots, strongly indicating that cultivating this ancient pulse crop must have been well-rooted in field conditions. Previous DNA analyses of charred pea placed the ancient Hissar pea at an intermediate position between extantly cultivated pea (P. sativum L. subsp. sativum var. sativum) and a wild, winter hardy, 'tall' pea (P. sativum subsp. elatius (Steven ex M. Bieb.) Asch. et Graebn.). Based on an assumption of its late harvest time and combined with pea weevil life cycle stage in charred seeds, it was possible to estimate the season during which the seeds were carbonized, namely, the second half of July or the first days of August at the latest. Older, final weevil instars were predominant before seed carbonization. The pea infestation rate at Hissar is one of the highest noted among pulses in the Old World and the highest among peas, so far.

Introduction. Haemophilia A is the most common hereditary coagulation disturbance occurring due to the lack of coagulation factor VIII. It is widely accepted that people with haemophilia have a reduced incidence of coronary artery disease, potentially because of the protective effect of the impaired coagulation against the pathogenic mechanisms of the acute coronary syndrome. Case report. A 53-year-old man with mild haemophilia [FVIII 22% (mild form: more than 5%–40% of normal)] was hospitalized because of frequent anginal pain at rest. Selective coronary angiography revealed a severe three-vessel coronary disease. A need for urgent surgical revascularization was indicated. The color duplex scan showed the existence of hemodynamically significant stenosis on the right internal carotid artery. After consulting a haematologist, a cardiac surgeon, and a vascular surgeon, it was concluded that due to high bleeding risk, the patient should undergo an endarterectomy of the right carotid artery and a triple aortocoronary bypass in the same procedure. Procedures were performed with a substitution of FVIII concentrate. The patient firstly underwent the endarterectomy of the right carotid artery. Then, the left mammary artery graft was implanted to the left anterior descending artery as well as the venous grafts to the first obtuse marginal artery and posterior descending branch. There were no complications. During the revascularization, there was no need for blood transfusion, nor was there excessive bleeding in the postoperative period. The patient was discharged with antithrombotic therapy (aspirin, 50 mg). Conclusion. Patients with haemophilia are not protected against the development of atherosclerosis. Cardiac surgery in these patients presents a unique challenge for medical teams in securing haemostasis. Adequate substitution with factor VIII concentrate provides adequate haemostasis and the possibility for treatment with antiplatelet therapy.

The only species of the legume genus Vavilovia, a paleoendemic to the Caucasus commonly known simply as Vavilovia (V. formosa) has an extraordinary significance for the evolution and phylogeny of the tribe Fabeae, with its economically important species, such as lentil (Lens spp.) or pea (Pisum spp). This paper is attempting to deduce the genetic background of the materially perished, but thoroughly described, F1 progeny between Vavilovia and field pea (P. sativum var. arvense) in both crossing combinations, obtained by the N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), in 1988. Although with only one plant in each direction, the resulting phenotypes are the only known successful intergeneric hybridisation in legumes with impressively interesting features, such as the trifoliolate leaves absent in both parents, as well as vastly inspiring and potentially useful for the conservation of Vavilovia and crop improvement of pea and other species of the tribe.

Field peas are mostly used for animal nutrition in the Balkan region and in the countries of the former USSR, while in the countries of Western Europe, Canada, the USA and the Middle East they are mostly used for human nutrition. Over three years (2010-2012), the yield and grain yield components of the most widespread field pea varieties were examined. The lowest number of plants was determined in 'NS Junior' intended for combined use (65 plants/m2), while 'Dukat' and 'Partner' had 88 and 85 plants/m2 on average, respectively. The average stem height was 158 cm for 'NS Junior', and 65 and 70 cm for 'Dukat' and 'Partner', respectively. 'Dukat' (4846 kg/ha) and 'Partner' (4521 kg/ha) had significantly higher grain yields compared with 'NS Junior' (2717 kg/ha). The content of crude protein in the grain was highest in 'NS Junior' (27.6%), while 'Dukat' and 'Partner' had lower contents (23-25%).

An amphicarpic and tuberous legume yam Vigna lanceolata Benth., endemic to Australia, has had an extraordinary significance in the peculiar type of farming and entire culture of the Aboriginal peoples for tens of millennia. Our review, welding plant and human sciences, offers a concise and informative presentation of the species, by elaborating its taxonomy and morphology, describing its beneficial nutritional and medicinal properties, exploring its ecogeography, with a remarkable population abundance in the northern areas of the continent, assessing its extensive spreading as a consequence of the past fire-use environmental changes and ways of its wilderness reconnaissance, harvest and food preparation, depicting its role in the Australian Aboriginal art, as one of the most sacred objects in the Dreamtime religion, presenting its vernacular names in 85 extinct and living Australian Aboriginal languages and concluding with opening new horizons of its research, through recently established biodiversity and breeding programmes.

Introduction. The implantable device for mechanical support of the left ventricular circulation (LVAD) is widely applied as a therapeutic option for survival and improvement of the quality of life in patients with the end-stage heart failure. The objective of our paper was to present the implantation of the aforementioned device together with the aortic valve replacement in the same procedure. Case outline. The patient was admitted to the hospital during his terminal stage of heart failure, with ejection fraction of 18%. The ergospirometry test showed that the maximum VO2 was 10.1 ml/kg/min. Because the medicament therapy hadn’t provided adequate results, the LVAD device was implanted as a bridge until transplantation. Due to severe aortic insufficiency, the aortic valve was concomitantly replaced with bioprosthesis in order to prevent the negative effect of this valvular disease on pump work and clinical outcome. Conclusion. This case report confirms that LVAD implantation with the correction of a significant aortic insufficiency is a procedure with satisfactory short-term and long-term results.

Drought greatly affects normal plant growth, endangering physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Under the influence of unfavorable environmental conditions, antioxidant protection systems in plant cell can be activated regardless of the stage of growth and development of plants. The experiment was conducted on three vetches species (V. sativa, V. villosa and V. pannonica) under PEG-induced drought stress. Activity of antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), ascorbate peroxidase (APx, EC 1.11.1.1) and catalase (CAT, EC 1. 11. 1. 6), was determined in shoots and roots of 10-day-old seedlings. Lack of water during germination period activated all the examined antioxidant enzymes in both organs of all tested Vicia species. The activity of SOD and APx generally increased at higher stress levels, while the enzyme CAT showed different patterns of action in all tested species. The results of this study suggest that drought stress causes the production of oxygen radicals that lead to oxidative stress in plants.

Introduction. Cardiac hemangiomas of the right ventricle are very rare and mostly asymptomatic benign tumors. The surgical excision is the first line treatment. Case report. We report a case of 69-year-old woman with an asymptomatic arteriovenous hemangioma of the right ventricle. The complete surgical excision was performed with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass and the patient was discharged on the postoperative day 6 after the uneventral postoperative course. There was no relapse during the six-month followup. Literature review revealed totally 35 cases of this tumors including our case Conclusion. Described procedure can be performed safely with the excellent long-term results.

Biodiversity, or diversity of plant resources in agriculture, is a biological basis of global food providing, directly or indirectly. Biodiversity implies diversity of genetic material contained in traditional and contemporary newly created genotypes. Mentioned resources could be the basis for the creation of new cultivars through conventional crossbreeding process or application of biotechnology. Plant resources include both wild relatives and other wild plant species that could be used as an energy source, for pharmaceutical purposes and as a source of beneficial genes. Genetic material is a reservoir of genetic adaptability that can prove to be a buffer against potentially harmful external or economic changes, regardless of the purpose and technology used. Erosion of plant resources could have serious and long-term effect on food supply.

The words denoting lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), pea (Pisum sativum L.) and faba bean (Vicia faba L.) in the modern Indo-European languages show a high level of uniformity in morphology and semantics and reveal the traces of mutual borrowings among the languages of different Indo-European branches and the exchanges with the neighbouring non-Indo-European languages. Nearly all modern Indo-European languages derived their words denoting lentil and faba bean from the Proto-Indo-European roots *lent- and *bhabh-, with the same primeval meaning. Among the Proto-Indo-European roots related to pea are *erəgw[h]-, *g'er[a]n-, *ghArs-, *kek- and *pis-. The collected results offer another testimony how important grain legumes such as lentil, pea or faba bean were in the everyday life of the forefathers of the modern Indo-European nations of Europe and their non-Indo-European neighbours.

The development of novel markers usually requires high costs and is time consuming. Instead of developing new markers, their transfer within a genus is an alternative particularly suitable in less studied species. Hence the goal of this study was to evaluate the ability of SSR markers, previously developed from Vicia faba, and ISSR markers to estimate DNA polymorphism within the genus Vicia. Eight Vicia species were used for cross-species amplification. Transferability of SSR markers in the studied species ranged from 25% to 100%, with an average of 56.25%. Although three SSR primers were polymorphic, the nature of the amplification products indicated that their further usefulness is questionable. ISSR primers generated polymorphic products of amplification in all tested Vicia species. The average polymorphism of ISSR primers was 93.75%, which implies that these primers can be used within the genus Vicia.

Plant genetic resources are a live treasury of both one country and the whole mankind, although their ex situ preservation and in situ conservation are very demanding in numerous ways, especially if human resources and financial issues are considered. Legumes (Fabaceae Lindl.) are facing the bottlenecks caused by breeding emphasizing yield and quality, raising the questions how to solve the issue of this narrowing the genetic basis of cultivated legume species. The reintroduction of neglected and underutilised crops, such as red vetchling (Lathyrus cicera), Cyprus vetchling (Lathyrus ochrus), French serradella (Ornithopus sativus), Ethiopian pea (Pisum abyssinicum), field pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense), fenugreek (Trigonella phoenum-graecum), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia), Narbonne vetch (Vicia narbonensis), Hungarian vetch (Vicia pannonica) and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) may significantly assist many contemporary farming systems by diversifying their needs and improve the efficiency of environment resources.

The genetic resources of legumes (Fabaceae Lindl.) are facing the narrowing the genetic basis of cultivated species, that is bottlenecks of the available gene pools. This is caused mostly by breeding, since it aims at improving yield and quality. The most widely cultivated crops are in a specific danger of losing numerous desirable traits due to a heavy selection pressure preferring usually yield. Using locally cultivated and maintained landraces of the economically most important annual legumes, such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum), lentil (Lens culinaris), grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), white lupin (Lupinus albus) and faba bean (Vicia faba) may assist breeding and various modern crop systems. They preserved numerous desirable traits that may be easily introgressed into modern cultivars and thus improve their performance.