The studies were performed on 20 conditioned cyclists and 19 untrained men. At rest absolute and percent number of neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocytes, neutrophil bactericidal activity, and blood plasma beta-glucuronidase, acid phosphatase, and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activities were similar in sportsmen and untrained men, while neutrophil adherence was lowered in sportsmen. Maximal physical exercise induced significant rises in absolute numbers of neutrophils and monocytes in both groups. In sportsmen, adherence of neutrophils and monocytes and neutrophil bactericidal activity significantly decreased under the influence of exercise, while neutrophil phagocytic activity did not change. On the other hand, in untrained men, maximal physical exercise did not induce significant changes in neutrophil and monocyte adherence and bactericidal activity of neutrophils, but their phagocytic activity increased. Blood plasma beta-glucuronidase, acid phosphatase, and LDH activities increased during exercise in both groups. The changes observed tended to normalize during 2-h recovery. The results obtained suggest that intensive physical exercise tends to depress nonspecific immunity, which may render sportsmen more susceptible to infections.

Abstract-Our aim was to ascertain whether the ultrasonic measurement of longitudinal corneal apex displacements carried out in a proper headrest is a credible method of ocular pulse detection. To distinguish between longitudinal movements of the eye globe treated as a rigid body and ocular surface expansion caused by the variations of the eye-globe volume, two ultrasound distance sensors were applied to noninvasively measure displacements of cornea and sclera. The same sensors were used to examine the influence of the anterio-posterior movements of a fixed head on the registration of corneal apex pulsation. In both experiments ECG signals were synchronically recorded. Time, spectral and coherence analysis obtained for four healthy subjects showed that the ocular surface expansion due to pulsatile ocular blood flow is the main component of longitudinal corneal displacement. Ocular surface pulsation is always affected by the head movement. However, there exist some unique properties of signals, which help to distinguish between head and eye movements. A rigid headrest and a bite bar are required to stabilize the head during ocular pulse measurement. Ultrasonic technique enables noninvasive and accurate in-vivo measurement of corneal pulsation which could be of interest for indirectly estimating intraocular pressure propagation and pulsatile ocular blood flow component.

The objective of this study was to develop age- and gender-specific reference ranges for blood pressure in a large national database on blood pressure levels throughout childhood and adolescence in young Poles. A prospective cross-sectional study was performed in 2002-2005 in the representative sampling sites, selected randomly from the entire Poland. Altogether, 6,447 school pupils, aged 7-18 years, were involved in the study of which 3,176 were boys and 3,271 were girls. Statistical analysis was performed using STATISTICA for Windows 7.1. The normal range of blood pressure, determined by age and the category of body height percentiles, revealed percentiles values which might serve as reference values to identify cases of high normal blood pressure (the mean blood pressure between 90th and 95th percentiles for age and gender) and hypertension (the mean blood pressure equals or exceeds the 95th percentiles on at least three occasions).

The aim of the study was to develop waist circumference (WC) percentiles in Polish children and youth and to compare these with the results obtained in other countries. The study comprised a random group of 5663 Polish children aged 7-18 years. Smoothed WC percentile curves were computed using the LMS method. The curves displaying the values of the 50th (WC(50)) and the 90th (WC(90)) percentile were then compared with the results of similar studies carried out in children from the UK, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Cyprus, Canada and the USA. WC increased with age in both boys and girls and in all observed age periods the boys were seen to dominate. For 18-year-old Polish boys and girls the values of WC(90) were 86.5 and 78.2, respectively, and were lower than the current criteria developed by the International Diabetes Federation. Both WC(50) and WC(90) were higher in Polish boys and girls compared with their counterparts in the UK, Turkey and Canada and significantly lower than in children from the USA, Cyprus and Spain. The percentile curves for Polish children and youth, which were developed here for the first time, are base curves that can be applied in analysing trends as well as making comparisons with results of similar studies performed in other countries.