Human life is affected by illness and the loss of self-sufficiency. The aim of social work in hospitals is to help clients and their families come to terms with the problems associated with illness and to restrict and eliminate these problems. The theoretical part of the paper looks at health and illness, the needs people in hospital have, the changes that come about in the course of illness and illnesses as social events. I also look at social work in hospitals, the work of health/social workers and the theories and methods that are applied to social work in hospitals. The aim of the paper is to map out the influence of social work in hospitals on the health of patients. The main research question set out was, in what way does social work in hospitals influence the health of patients? In order to answer this question, I asked the following sub-questions: 1. What influence does social work in hospitals have on the physical side of the health of patients/clients? 2. What influence does social work in hospitals have on the mental side of the health of patients/clients? 3. What influence does social work in hospitals have on the social situation of patients/clients? 4. What methods or techniques of social work are used in social work at hospitals? The strategy of qualitative research was used to achieve the objectives set out. Questioning in the form of a semi-structured interview was the method chosen for obtaining information and questioning was supplemented by the method of monitoring. Interviews were conducted with 6 health/social workers and 15 clients/patients of such health/social workers. This paper could contribute towards an improvement in the social work services provided in hospitals and may also serve to broaden the knowledge level of the general and expert public.

The subject of the diploma thesis is unilateral nephrectomy from the point of view of the patient. The work is divided into a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part focuses on kidney diseases, the nephrectomy problems from the patient's as well as the nurse´s perspective, and further on the role of nurses. . The second part is research. The research was realized in urological departments in selected hospitals of South Bohemia. For the research was selected qualitative research was conducted through semi-structured interview with two sets of research. The first experimental group consisted of 10 patients after nephrectomy, five respondents after classical open nephrectomy and five after laparoscopic nephrectomy. The second experimental group consisted of 10 nurses working in the urology department of the bed. This thesis diploma was focused on the experiences (feelings) or if at how the patient perceives surgical removal of the kidney. We wanted to know how is the issue seen from the perspective of a patient who is in the hospital experiencing a number of concerns and negative emotions. We also investigated whether a different view of nurses and patients on the issue exists. We have identified three objectives and six esearch questions for this work. The first objective was to determine how the patient perceives urological unilateral nephrectomy. The second objective was to determine what are the most common fears which faces the urology patient before and after surgery. The third objective was to determine what proportion of the nurse to patient information. The first research question was how the patient perceives urological unilateral nephrectomy. The second research question was, how urological patient after unilateral nephrectomy perceive their body image. The third research question was, what are the most common concerns of the patient before surgery. Further, patients who often address their concerns. The fifth research question was how the nurse involved in patient awareness. The last research question was, how often nurse informs the patient. The results of the diploma thesis can serve to nurses when working with urological patients and for the improvement of the nursing care for them. We have created an information map that can serve to patients as an assistant, through which they can prepare themselves for the entire course of hospitalization.

The word infection is a term which causes uncertainty among people. After all, it is not too long ago when people were dying in pandemics of plague, cholera or influenza. A human can be infected by viruses, bacteria, fungal organisms or parasites, many of which can infect several animal species. Diseases transmissible from animals to humans are called zoonoses. For efficient surveillance of zoonoses the cooperation of both veterinary and hygienic services is required. Its aim is timely detection and elimination of infection sources. It is based primarily on pointed veterinary and hygienic-epidemiological surveillance. In this thesis, I focused on the importance of collaboration of veterinary and public health services in the prevention of infectious diseases. One of the objectives of this work is to compare the occurrence of selected human zoonosis diseases in South Bohemia in the years 2002-2010. The second objective is to compare the extent of anti-epidemic measures adopted by veterinary services and public health authorities. In this thesis, a qualitative-quantitative research was utilized. The research aimed to determine the importance of cooperation of public health authorities and veterinary services in the prevention of infectious diseases. The quantitative part of the survey was conducted through the method of secondary data analysis. In the qualitative part of the survey, a semi-structured interview was held with the head of the epidemiology department of the District Hygienic Station of České Budějovice and with the director of the Regional Veterinary Administration for the South Bohemian Region. On the basis of the results of the research and implemented interviews I came to this conclusion: 1) The co-operation during the transmission of infectious diseases is ensured sufficiently. 2) The range of anti-epidemic measures adopted in the veterinary field and in the field of public health is sufficient. This thesis can serve as an educational material for students studying Bachelor or Master Degree of public health protection, because as public health service employees they will deal with issues related to veterinary supervision in practice.

The thesis has a theoretical characteristic, it focuses and desribes the current age issue from the demographic, biologic, psychological and social prospective. It addresses the relationship of the society and senior citizens and describes the demonstration of age, the needs of senior citizens, their adaptability to different types of changes and also to health conditions of older people. It also focuses on the end of life, dying and etical principles.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant inherited neuro-psychiatric disease with usual onset in the middle age. The mutation, located on the short shoulder of chromosome 4, is an expansion of a nucleotide triplet, containing cytosine, adenine, guanine (CAG), with critical limit of 40+ repetitions. The principal symptoms include motor symptoms (chorea, dystonia, disorders of voluntary movements), progressive cognitive deterioration and neuropsychiatric symptoms (behaviour disorders, affective symptoms and so on). The clinical diagnosis is confirmed by a genetic test, which may also be carried out presymptomatically in offsprings of the diseased person. The objective of the 1st study consisted in the characterization of differences in psychiatric examination and neuropsychological testing among the people at risk (PAR), in whom it was recommended to delay the test, and people at risk, who were recommended to continue in the so-called predictive protocol. The total of 52 people have been examined (32 females, 20 males). In addition to the common psychiatric examination we have also administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-A), self-rating scale of general psychopathology (SCL- 90), three short cognitive tests - Trail making test, test of Verbal fluency and...

Media are considered to be the public's primary source of information regarding mental illness. Evidence suggests that media representations of people with psychiatric disorders are frequently negative and contribute to their stigmatization. On the other hand, media can play an important role in reducing this stigmatisation by providing adequate information about this topic and engaging in antistigma campaigns. Up to now there was no standardised measurement of the stigma of mental illness in print media using clearly operationalized definitions. The objectives of this project were twofold; to develop a standardised and objective instrument to measure stigma of mental illness in print media; and to conduct an analysis of the current coverage on mental health/illness issues in Czech, Croatian, and Slovak print media. The development of the Picture of Mental Illness in Newspapers (PICMIN) instrument was based on the principles of content analysis, a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from text to the kontext in their use. The instrument consists of eleven descriptive and five analytical categories. The most interesting findings based on the analysis of media representations of mental illness were; a similarly high level of stigmatizing articles across countries, clearly...

Deficits in interval timing have been described in focal brain lesions and in various neuropsychiatric disorders including Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study was to explore brain areas responsible for human time perception and for the timing deficit in PD. We used a time reproduction task (TRT) which consisted of an encoding phase (during which visual stimuli of durations from 5 to 16.6 sec were presented) and a reproduction phase (during which interval durations were reproduced by a button pressing). In our first fMRI study, we used a parametric modulated analysis searching for brain areas with activity, expressed as Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal, correlated with the duration of time interval. During the encoding phase, there was a gradual deactivation of the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) and cingulate gyrus. During the reproduction phase, there was a gradual deactivation in precuneus and an accumulation of activity in the left PFC, primary motor area, right caudate and supplementary motor area (SMA). The second study aimed at supporting the role of two of these areas, SMA and precuneus in interval timing by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Accuracy and variability of time estimates were compared before and after rTMS. Accuracy of estimates was not...

Cognitive impairment is considered as essential feature of non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). It is a result of underlying pathological processes in the brain of PD patients and it leads to decreased quality of life. In this thesis an analysis of the structure and profile of cognitive impairment is presented with special emphasis on executive functions and memory. We take diagnostic entities developed for the description of PD cognitive spectrum such as mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and dementia (PD-D) as examples of heterogeneity and different severity of cognitive impairment in PD. However, neuropsychological methods in Czech version that would measure these diagnotic units were not adequatly validated. In the experimental part we test a hypothesis, if gait disorder with falls in PD is interconnected with cognitive impairment, and if PD-fallers have more severe cognitive deficit than PD-non-fallers. On the basis of nine validity or normative data studies we show psychometric properties and clinical utility of several basic neuropsychological methods in the Czech population for memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition, Memory For Intentions Screening Test and Enhanced Cued Recall Test), sustained attention and executive functions...

Objective: Mutations in the parkin (PARK2) gene have been associated with autosomal recessive early-onset Parkinson's disease (EOPD) with various frequencies in different populations. The aim of the study is to describe phenotypic characteristics of Czech EOPD patients, to evaluate the influence of environmental risk factors, and to determine the frequency of parkin allelic variants in patients and healthy controls. Methods: A total of 70 EOPD patients (age at onset ≤ 40 years) and 75 controls were phenotyped and screened for the sequence variants and exon rearrangements in the parkin gene. Results: The main features in the phenotype of the patients' sample were: the absence of cognitive deficit, high occurrence of dystonia, depression, hyperhidrosis, an excellent response to dopaminergic therapy, early onset of dyskinesia and motor fluctuation. Patients with mutations in the parkin gene had significantly lower age at onset. The agricultural occupation and work with chemicals increased the risk of EOPD, however the coffee drinking appeared to be a protective factor. Parkin mutations were identified in five patients (7.1%): the p.R334C point mutation was present in one patient, four patients had exon deletions. The detected mutations were observed in the heterozygous state except one homozygous...

Acute leukemias (AL) comprise a heterogeneous group of hematologic malignancies, and individual patient responses to treatment can be difficult to predict. Monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) is thus very important and holds great potential for improving treatment strategies. Common MRD targets include immunoglobulin heavy chain or T-cell receptor gene rearrangements, recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities and mutations in important hematological genes. Whereas in the majority of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients a suitable MRD target can be identified, in adult acute myeloid leukemia patients well-characterized targets are found in only half of cases. The identification of new specific molecular markers of leukemic blasts for MRD assessment, particularly in AML patients, is therefore highly desirable. Our aim was to develop a flexible strategy for mapping of cytogenetically identified unique clone-specific abnormalities down to the single nucleotide level and, based on the sequence, design a specific real-time PCR assay for MRD assessment in AL patients without any previously described MRD marker. Using a combination of cytogenetic (chromosome banding, chromosome microdissection), molecular cytogenetic (mFISH, mBAND) and molecular biological (next- generation sequencing, long-range...