Biomedical subjects

F Bojan

Publications and source records attributed to F Bojan.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Changing life expectancy in central Europe: is there a single reason?

BACKGROUND: During the 1980s, at a time that life expectancy at birth in western Europe has increased by 2.5 years, it has stagnated or, for some groups, declined in the former socialist countries of central and eastern Europe. METHODS: A study was carried out to ascertain the contribution of deaths at different age groups and from different causes to changes in life expectancy at birth in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland between 1979 and 1990. RESULTS: Improvements in infant mortality have been counteracted by deteriorating death rates among young and middle-aged people, with the deterioration commencing as young as late childhood in Hungary but in the thirties or forties in Czechoslovakia and Poland. The leading contributors to this deterioration are cancer and circulatory disease but, in Hungary, cirrhosis and accidents have also been of great importance. CONCLUSIONS: The patterns observed in each country differ in the age groups affected and the causes of death. Further work is required to explain these differences.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

The electronic medical-student exchange: a low-cost alternative to overseas electives.

The authors report on an international collaboration that uses the Internet for medical education. In addition to introducing the students to electronic communication, the project aims to further international collaboration and understanding and to emphasize the importance of a population perspective for health and disease. Students and professors in Canada, England and Hungary participated.

Canada↗

PubMed1995

Teaching public health: an innovative method using computer-based project work.

Restructuring of training in public health in the Hungarian medical schools is being undertaken in the context of a major European Union TEMPUS Joint European Project. Under the aegis of this project a common core curriculum of public health has been developed. As part of the implementation of the curriculum, new approaches to learning are being explored that should enable students to appreciate the nature and magnitude of the major challenges to public health in Hungary and promote the development of their analytic, interpretative and presentational skills. One of the approaches is based on the individual preparation of reports on important public health issues, making use of secondary data from electronic databases (WHO HFA/PC and OECD Health Data) and traditional printed sources (annuals). This method called 'computer-based project work' was introduced in Debrecen in 1992-1993 with a secondary objective to develop basic computing skills. The initial experiences of introducing computer-based project work to the curriculum have been positive. This paper describes a practical example of the implementation of innovative approaches to teaching in a highly traditional setting in Central Europe, and one that provides ideas and encouragement to those facing similar problems in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗

PubMed1995

Development of public health training in Hungary--an exercise in international co-operation.

Following the fall of Communism, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been restructuring their health systems. Restructured medical education is vital to, and has been supported by, the European Union TEMPUS (Trans-European Mobility Scheme for University Studies) scheme. An example is a three-year project in Hungary to develop undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in public health. The project team (CNPHH) included representatives from all Hungarian medical schools and universities in Western Europe and Canada. The project involved assessing the needs of the Hungarian departments and developing a strategy involving transfer of skills in modern public health and educational methods, study visits and courses in Hungary and at Western universities, and capital funding. The project provides a model for others wishing to develop or restructure their education at national or local levels. This paper describes the methods used, outcomes achieved, and lessons learned.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1991

Establishing an international computer network for research and teaching in public health and epidemiology.

Most universities and major research institutions in North America, Western Europe and around the Pacific are connected via computer communication networks. The authors have used these networks' accessible, low cost, electronic mail system to develop a network of public health researchers and teachers. Current and potential uses of this network are discussed. These networks can not only facilitate international cooperation within public health; they also make it possible to conduct international collaborative research projects that would be too cumbersome and time consuming to initialize and conduct without this communication facility. One participant from Hungary has been able to participate in the network by using telefax. This has some drawbacks compared to electronic mail. In this era of rapid change in Eastern Europe, we urge that electronic communication be made freely available to colleagues in Eastern Europe.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1991

Avoidable mortality. Is it an indicator of quality of medical care in eastern European countries?

Age-standardized time trends (1979-1988) for avoidable mortality in two Eastern European countries (Hungary and Czechoslovakia) and selected developed countries (England and Wales, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal and USA) have been analysed. Mortality from both all avoidable causes and all other causes declined in the selected developed countries during the period of observation, the decline in rates for avoidable causes was faster than that for all other causes. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia the death rates from both groups of causes increased in the first part of the period studied and a decline in mortality from both types of causes could be observed from 1985. As a consequence, the difference in avoidable mortality between the Eastern European countries and the developed countries increased by the end of the observation. Studies on mortality from individual amenable causes showed that the death rates are usually much higher in Hungary and Czechoslovakia than in the developed countries and the differences did not diminish during the period of study. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia the bad pattern of mortality from conditions amenable to medical interventions is believed to reflect, at least in part, the crisis in the health services which these countries have experienced for the past decades.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Cytogenetic analyses of three papillary carcinomas and a follicular adenoma of the thyroid.

Cytogenetic data of three papillary carcinomas and a follicular adenoma using direct preparations or cell cultures or both after 7 to 60 days in vitro are presented. Although karyotype of the follicular adenoma proved completely normal, in each of the three papillary carcinomas a modal chromosome number in the diploid range and a deleted 11q were observed. In case 1 the del(11)(q23) was associated with rearrangement of chromosome 1 and other marker chromosomes. Our results suggest that 11q deletion may be specific for papillary carcinoma of the thyroid.

Adenoma↗

PubMed1989

Cytotoxic endothelial cell antibodies in mixed connective tissue disease.

We examined the presence of anti-endothelial cell antibodies in the sera of 44 patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). Warm antibodies against endothelial cells were found in 45.4% of patients; the presence of these antibodies was positively correlated with anti-monocyte antibodies (P less than 0.01) but not with anti-lymphocytic antibodies. Strong correlations were found between the presence of these antibodies and abnormalities of pulmonary ventilatory capacity, neurophysiologic and myocardial function. Anti-endothelial antibodies were related to the high rate of spontaneous abortion noted in female MCTD patients. The identification of the antigen identified by MCTD sera in endothelial cells would help in understanding disease manifestations.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Effect of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate on selection of drug-resistant phenotypes in rodent cells.

The effect of the tumour promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) on the selection of drug-resistant phenotypes in hamster and mouse cells has been studied. TPA increased considerably the incidence of methotrexate (MTX)-, N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate- and cadmium-resistant 3T6 and 3T3 mouse cell clones, but it had little effect on V79 and CHO hamster cells. The MTX-resistant V79 hamster cell clones, selected with or without TPA, lost their resistance within 15 cell cycles, however, 50% of the 3T6 mouse cell clones selected and maintained in the presence of TPA preserved their resistance for more than 15 cell cycles. A number of the MTX-resistant 3T6 clones overproduced dihydrofolate reductase enzyme; however, their frequency was lower among the clones selected in the presence of TPA.

Animals↗

PubMed1983

Effect of tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate on recovery of methotrexate-, N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate-, and cadmium-resistant colony-forming mouse and hamster cells.

The effect of the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and its nontumor promoting derivative 4-O-methyl-12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate on the frequency of mouse and hamster cells resistant to methotrexate (MTX), N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate, and cadmium has been examined. TPA alone at concentrations up to 1.0 microgram/ml had no significant effect on the plating efficiency of either mouse or hamster cells. Exposure of 3T3 and 3T6 mouse and V79 and Chinese hamster ovary cells at low density to the 3 compounds in the presence of TPA (0.1 microgram/ml) did not result in any increase in the recovery of resistant colonies. When plated at high density, exposure to drug selection in the presence of TPA resulted in a 3- to 10-fold increase overall in the incidence of MTX-, N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate-, and cadmium-resistant mouse cells. However, an increase greater than 3-fold was not observed in hamster cells exposed to drug plus TPA under the same conditions. 4-O-Methyl-12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate had no significant effect on the frequency of MTX-resistant cells. Seventy V79 cell clones surviving MTX (200 to 400 nM) alone and 79 surviving MTX plus TPA were isolated and retested for resistance to MTX. None were stable. In contrast, 6 out of 42 mouse colonies isolated from MTX alone and 55 out of 99 isolated from MTX plus TPA showed stable resistance on retesting in MTX. The implications of these results in relation to possible mechanisms of tumor promotion are discussed.

Animals↗