Al-Dababsekh I. Diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic critical ischemia of the lower extremities (an experimental and clinical study).

The dissertation is devoted to studying a role for a hypoxia-induced factor HIF-1 in the de-velopment of chronic ischemia of the lower extremities, as well as improving methods for diagnosis and surgical treatment of patients with chronic critical ischemia of the lower extremities at the ex-pense of earlier and more specific diagnosis and optimized tactics of management.It was established that, with progressing the ischemic process, HIF-1 level in muscular tis-sue of the affected extremity grown gradually up to IIIb stage (critical ischemia stage). When ischemia had reached its critical level (IIIb-IV stages), there occurred an abrupt decline in HIF-1 concentration. The growth in HIF-1 level up to IIIa stage inclusive could be explained by its accu-mulation in the cells because of hypoxia, whereas its subsequent abrupt decline - by its uptake by genes responsible for anaerobic glycolysis and apoptosis as well as by autolysis of ischemic cells.