Expert Guidance

Although the diagnostic criteria for most diseases are clearly defined, there are still many diseases in which they remain ambiguous. At the same time, to diagnose many diseases it is necessary to perform invasive procedures, potentially associated with a risk of complications. Another problem is availability of highly specialized imaging tests, often necessary to make a diagnosis. “The solution to these problems may lie in biomarkers, ultimately available in everyday clinical practice,” wrote Grzegorz Procyk, a fifth-year medical student and a second-year doctoral student at the Doctoral School of the Medical University of Warsaw.

Polluntants inhaled with ambient air are obviously harmful to our lungs and immune systems. The degree to which they damage small airways and the regenerative potential of respiratory epithelium exposed to contaminants are the key research objective in a project led by Magdalena Paplińska-Goryca, Doctor habilitatus of Medicine, from the Chair and Department of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Allergy of the University Clinical Center of the MUW.

Today at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM), we can still check before transplantation whether an organ will take up its function. We perform split liver transplants. We transplant livers to oncological patients, such as those with metastatic colorectal cancer. Michał Grąt, MD, PhD, head of the Department of General, Transplantation and Liver Surgery UCC WUM, talks about state-of-the-art methods that can save more and more patients.

According to the data from Poland’s National Health Fund, about 1.2 million people suffer from depression in Poland. Approximately 30% of them are unresponsive to conventional treatment. The first medication program for “Treatment of patients with treatment-resistant depression” in psychiatry was launched several months ago. It involves treatment with esketamine, a drug which will be refunded. The recommended treatment cycle duration is 7 to 8 months and the success rate ranges around 40%. We talk to professor Agata Szulc, head of the Department of Psychiatry at WUM Medical University of Warsaw.

4.92 is the highest grade average accomplished at the WUM Faculty of Medicine for the last 10 years. This is the final grade of Wiktoria Grycuk. This year, there were 26 women and 10 men among the top graduates. And ladies only in the top 10.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections in humans, mainly caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Around 30% of patients, notwithstanding adequate antibiotic therapy, experience recurrent infections (RUTI) caused by the same UPEC strain as in the case of the original infection. The reason of this chronic character of URIs is a small fraction of transitionally not growing UPEC cells called persister cells, yet the mechanisms leading to URI recurrence remain unknown – writes Marcin Równicki, PhD from the Microbiota Lab.

Contemporary universities no longer focus on professional training only. What is becoming equally important is to give students growth opportunities, to teach them critical thinking and problem solving. We talk to Piotr Dziechciarz, PhD hab., leader of the Education Quality Workgroup at the University, about the contemporary teaching goals and methods and the challenges and limitations that follow.

Targeted therapy with alpha particle emitters is a chance for patients with recurrent gliomas. Further development of this innovative treatment method depends, among others, on quantitative molecular imaging and assessment of the absorbed radiation dose. This will probably allow us to individualize the proposed therapy even more — writes Eng. Monika Tulik, Ph.D. medical physicist from the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw.

In the near future, the recruitment of patients for a new scientific project will begin at the Medical University of Warsaw, the aim of which will be to compare three different methods of inducing liver parenchyma hypertrophy. The study will be carried out by a team of researchers from the 2nd Department of Clinical Radiology, the Department of Nuclear Medicine and the Department of General, Transplantation and Liver Surgery at the University Clinical Center of the Medical University of Warsaw. We hope that the results obtained will allow us to answer the question: which of the tested methods is the most effective and safest for patients - writes Karolina Grąt, MD, PhD, the main researcher of the project.

It is commonly believed that a doctor who orders a lot of tests is a good specialist. They are committed and they care about the patient’s health. One that refuses to refer a patient for examination is suspicious. Hence, to avoid being suspected of bad faith, to prevent grievances from patients or complaints from families, doctors undertake defensive medical decision-making. What it means in practice and what consequences it has - prof. Tomasz Pasierski from the Department of Medical Ethics and Palliative Medicine at WUM.