The diploma thesis deals with the quality of life with rheumatic diseases. The thesis focuses on patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in particular, since the rheumatic diseases are the most common chronic inflammatory rheumatoid disease spread worldwide. The aim of the diploma thesis is to explore the physical quality of life with RA of selected patients aged from 19 to 70 years. The theoretical part offers a literature review on the stated topic with focus on the quality of life with RA. The second part offers the results of a quantitative research which was conducted using a questionnaire in a rheumatologist´s office in Saint Anna Faculty Hospital in Brno and in the Hodonin Spa. The HAQ-DI index; GARS questionnaire; a visual-analogical scale rating the intensity of pain and DAS28 score assessing the activity of hospitals were used to achieve the aim. Two research hypotheses were proposed in order to conduct the research: 1. The patients who have been suffering from RA for up to five years will achieve significantly more positive score; 2. The differences between genders in the physical quality of life will be statistically more important. The hypotheses were statistically verified using the IBM SPSSS Statistics 24 software. The results of the thesis suggest, that the quality of life with RA is influenced by pain, which is more intense for women. We also claim that the patients suffering from RA might be less self-reliant, therefore, most of them are dependent on help of others or they need to use various devices. Furthermore, the results show that gender provides statistically crucial differences in the physical quality of life. The outcomes found by this thesis can be used for patients suffering from RA; to raise awareness of the disease and its impact on life.

Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN) is known to impact negatively on patients' quality of life. It has been reported that these patients tend to have sensitivity thresholds to stimuli, such as pain and temperature, that are different from those of normal subjects. The effect of chemotherapeutic agents on the central nervous system (CNS) has been observed; however, most of the mechanisms involved are not exactly understood. A quantitative investigation into the temperature sensitivity changes in the spinal cords and brains of chemotherapy patients would provide important information in understanding the side effects of this treatment modality. In the first part of the project, the temperature perceptional changes in terms of brain activation patterns of the chemotherapy patients with CIPN are studied using brain function MRI. In the second part of the project, the structural changes of the brain and spinal cord of chemotherapy patients with CIPN are studied using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). High b-value (b = 1500 s/mm2) and low b-value (b=650 s/mm2) settings will be use during the spinal cord DTI scans. Due to the sample size limitation, no comparison between healthy volunteers and CIPN patients can be done based on the existing temperature fMRI data. However, the developed temperature fMRI protocol shows good reliability in detecting temperature response. Based on the spinal cord DTI result using b = 1500 s/mm2, decrease in FA value has been observed. The corresponding FA values of CIPN patient and healthy volunteers are 0.28±0.10 and 0.41±0.02 , respectively. (t-test = 2.63 >2.447, p=0.05 level of significant) However, no significant difference is observed in other diffusion parameters. This results also suggests that application of high b-value setting is more suitable as it is better at detecting diffusion at microstructure. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)