All conventional immunosuppressive tree drugs-protocols are based on Cyclosporine; consisting of low doses of Cyclosporine (CsA), Azathioprine (AZA) or Mycophenolate Mofetil (MMF) and Prednisolone. AZA has been used in clinical transplantation for more than 30 years and was the first immunosuppressive agent to achieve widespread use in organ transplantation. MMF was introduced in clinical practice in 1995 after several clinical trials proved that it was more efficient than AZA for prevention of acute rejection episodes. Our aim was to evaluate influence of AZA and MMF on renal graft function in early post-transplant stage. Study recruited 74 patients who underwent kidney transplantation in University Clinical Centre Tuzla. All patients received CsA and corticosteroid-based immunosuppression, as a part of triple immunosuppressive regiment, 40 patients received AZA and 34 MMF. In order to assess renal graft function, following parameters were evaluated: glomerular filtration rate GFR (ml/min) creatinine clearance (CrCl) (ml/min), 24 h urine output (ml/day), and from the serum potassium, sodium, urea and creatinine (mmol/dm3). Significantly higher average values of 24 hour urine output were recorded during first seven postoperative days in patients receiving MMF compared to those treated with AZA. Serum creatinine values showed statistically significant decrease, starting with the second postoperative day, in MMF vs. AZA group (168,7+/-70,5 vs. 119,9+/-42,6; p<0,0007). GFR was significantly higher in MMF compared to the AZA group of patients. On the first post-transplant day CrCl was higher in AZA group (24,3+/-10 vs. 17,5+/-7,3; p=0,01), next six days situation is reversed CrCl is significantly higher in the MMF group (43,7+/-15 vs. 53, 4+/-22, 8 p=0,006). MMF vs. AZA therapy was associated with protective effect against worsening of renal function in first seven post-transplant days.

Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) are at high risk of death as a result of the cardiovascular disease (CVD), which cannot be explained by the conventional risk factors only. Haemodialysis patients frequently have elevated serum concentrations of the cardiac troponins T, specific markers of myocardial injury. Plasma levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are elevated in fluid volume overload and heart failure, and decreased during dialysis. Currently, LV hypertrophy and LV dysfunction are considered the strongest predictors of cardiovascular mortality in dialysis population, and the synthesis of cardiac natriuretic peptides is high in the presence of alterations in the left ventricular (LV) mass and function. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors associated with the increased serum levels of BNP and CTN in haemodialysis patients, and their impact on cardiovascular morbidity. In this cross-sectional study we included 30 patients with ESRD, without coronary symptoms, who were subjected to regular dialysis treatment three times a week for the duration of four hours. Heart failure was defined as an ejection fraction (EF) of < 35%, and dyspnoea associated with either elevated jugular pressure or interstitial oedema evidenced in chest X-ray. All patients were in sinus rhythm at the time of the study. Twenty-five patients were on erythropoietin treatment. Blood samples were taken before and after the dialysis session. Our study included 30 patients (17 males, 13 females). The average age was 53,8 years (total range 31-74) divided into two groups: euvolemic and hypervolemic. The average dialysis time was 70,3+/-46,95 months. All haemodialysis patients had excessively high levels of BNP 2196,66+/-4553,86 ng/cm3. Plasma cTnT was found to be increased in 33,3% of patients. Patients with hypervolemia had significantly higher cTnT levels (0,0577+/-0,0436), as compared to the euvolemic patients 0,0184+/-0,0259 p<0,05. The elevated cTnT significantly correlated with the level of BNP (p<0,01), while average post-dialysis BNP was not significantly lower (1698,06+/-3499,15; R=0,191; p-ns.) as compared to the pre-dialysis BNP (1839,13+/-3691,55; R=432; p<0,01). The pre-dialysis cTnT was lower (0,0315+/-0,0372) as compared to the post-dialysis cTnT (average 0,0399). Euvolemic patients had BMI 24,28+/-3,15, as compared to the hypervolemic patients BMI 25,71+/-4,20 (p-n.s.). Increased BNP was not in correlation with older age (R-0,271 p-ns.) and duration of dialysis (R-0,198). The hematocrit level increases significantly during haemodialysis (39,9%; p<0,05). Patients with higher BNP and cTnT have significantly higher indexed left ventricular mass, as compared to the patients with normal ventricular function. Our study shows that 33,3% of asymptomatic patients on haemodialysis have elevated cTnT while all patients have elevated BNP. Measuring the plasma concentration of brain natriuretic hormones may be useful for identification of the dialysis patients with LVH.

Let T be a competitive map on a rectangular region R ⊂ R 2 , and assume T is C 1 in a neighborhood of a fixed point x ∈ R. The main results of this paper give conditions on T that guarantee the existence of an invariant curve emanating from x when both eigenvalues of the Jacobian of T at x are nonzero and at least one of them has absolute value less than one, and establish that C is an increasing curve that separates R into invariant regions. The results apply to many hyperbolic and nonhyperbolic cases, and can be effectively used to determine basins of attraction of fixed points of competitive maps, or equivalently, of equilibria of competitive systems of difference equations. Several applications to planar systems of difference equations with non-hyperbolic equilibria are given.