OPTICO-STRUCTURAL MACHINE ANALYSIS OF LYMPHOCYTE DNA IN PATIENTS WITH LYMPHATIC EDEMA OF UPPER EXTREMITY
Introduction. Lymphedema of the extremities is the common pathology of the lymphatic system caused by a large number of factors. Immunomorphological features of lymphocyte can serve in order to optimize approaches to the problem of treatment, characteristics of its different types, assessing the effectiveness and nature of the disease. The aim of this work is to conduct optical-structural machine analysis (OSMA) of lymphocytes DNA of patients with lymphedema of the upper limb before and after conservative treatment. Material and methods. 39 patients, women with secondary lymphedema of the upper extremity (stages I-IV, mean age 58.2±3.4) have been investigated before and after conservative treatment. The clinical examination and optico-structural machine analysis of DNA blood lymphocytes have been carried out in all patients at admission to treatment and after it. 25 women of similar age served as control. Results. DNA content in blood lymphocytes (integrated optical density, DI) in patients before treatment (compared with control) is increased, and the average optical density (DM) is decreased, after treatment these parameters are returned to the control indicators. Characteristic changes occur in the parameters of OSMA DNA blood lymphocytes and in local reactions (healthy - affected limb). The DNA content in patients before treatment is higher in the healthy limb. After treatment, these ratios changed. The changes in the number of cells in different cell cycle phases take place in blood lymphocytes of lymphedema patients. Thus, the percentage of cells in S phase of the cell cycle in patients before and after treatment (compared with control) was increased by reducing the percentage of cells in G1 phase of the cell cycle. In the study of informative parameters of OSMA and clinical data in the assessment of "health - disease” (among the venous outflow volume and the rate of venous outflow) the percent of cells in different cell phases and DI can also be useful. In the assessment of the “disease - treatment” trend one can apply DM and the percent of cells in different cell phases too. Conclusion. The changes of OSMA of blood lymphocytes DNA in patients with lymphedema of the upper limb have been observed. OSMA informative parameters of lymphocytes DNA have been identified. The importance of some of them (the number of cells in different phases of the cell cycle) in the evaluation of lymphedema of the limbs on the levels of "disease - health" and "disease treatment" has been revealed. OSMA DNA of blood lymphocytes should be used in patients with lymphedema of the limbs to obtain new characteristics of the pathological process, evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and the nature of the disease.