Acute and chronic stress are two of the most challenging issues faced by men situated in warzones. According to the main concept of G. Selye, stress response is the most important link during the adaptation of an organism to environmental factors. However, excessively intense or prolonged exposure to stress creates the threat of sustained homeostasis disorder. At present, the primary indicators in clinical studies are the general biochemical parameters of blood alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, creatine, urea, total protein, and glucose levels. But these indicators are not classical markers for determining the state of the nervous system itself and cannot reflect a patient's mental state. In this regard, we tested for a different biomarker; we made an attempt to determine the neurospecific S100b protein in the blood serum by analyzing the correlation between classical and specific methods for diagnosing the state of the nervous system. For this study, blood was collected from 20 patients aged 25 to 45 years old. Participants were divided into two groups: one group of provisionally healthy men and another group of patients who were admitted to the Department of Neurology of the I. Mechnikov Regional Clinical Hospital after military operations (from the territory of the ATU). The standard test kits of PrAT Reagent Company (Dnipro) were used to assess biochemical indicators in accordance with the given instruction in the supplier’s protocol. The activity of each of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, direct and total bilirubin content, creatine, urea, total protein levels, and astrocyte-specific protein S100b was examined. The level of alanine aminotransferase in the men from the warzone was 23.9 ± 3.9 μmol/l, compared with the healthy men 31.2 ± 0.7 μmol/l. The level of aspartate aminotransferase in the group of men at the neurological department was similar to that in the healthy group. The content of direct bilirubin in the patients at the neurological department increased by 28.0%, compared with the healthy men. The concentration of creatinine, total protein, urea, and glucose levels did not significantly change, compared with healthy volunteers and were in the range of the standard reference data. The content of astrocyte-specific protein, S100b, in the blood of the patients was 0.011 μg/ml, 36.0% more than in the conditionally healthy men 0.007 μg/ml. Prolonged stress could, therefore, induce profound changes in blood brain barrier and registration of neurospecific protein in the blood of men in warzones. These changes could become chronic if or when these men develop other social and economic problems that can be monitored with the specific marker for S100b.

Pathologies of the thyroid gland are one of the most common diseases in endocrinology today. Hormones of the thyroid gland carry out hormonal regulation of the cell cycle, the physiological and post-traumatic repair of cells. The hormones of the thyroid gland secrete and enhance the oxidative processes and control the heat production, which can affect the mental state and the ability of the body to adapt to adverse environmental factors. In the case of a lack or almost complete absence of thyroid hormones, normal development and function of any functional system in the body is not possible. In the context of an increase in the incidence of thyroid gland pathology inUkraine, this article presents an analysis of the thyroid status of the conditionally healthy population of Prydniprovia, related to age and gender. For the study, 120 patients of both sexes aged between 20 to 70 were selected. All patients were divided into 3 age groups of 40 people. Each age group was divided into 2 subgroups – male and female, with 20 people in each subgroup. Patients who, in the past and during the experiment, had no cases of thyroid gland disease were selected for accurate and reliable results. The study of thyroid status of the population showed that most of the adult and healthy population of Prydniprovia was not severely affected. All indicators were included in the age and gender limits of the norm, which are established by the preanalytical requirements of the independent laboratory Invitro (Dnipro,Ukraine). In women aged 50–70 years, there is an increased risk of hypothyroidism, which is confirmed by low levels of free thyroxine and triiodothyronine in the blood against the background of increased thyroid stimulating hormone and thyroglobulin levels. In the adult, conditionally healthy population of the Dnipro region aged between 20–70 years, the following correlation relations were observed between thyroid stimulating and thyroid hormones: at a younger age for men, the relationship between TSH and fT4 was –0.97, for TSH and fT3 –0.96, women also had a negative interdependence between these hormones (–0.95 and -0.98 respectively). The age of the men who underwent the test did not change this dependence but in women after 50 years, the Pearson correlation coefficient decreased between the studied hormones TTG and fT4 and fТ3 to –0.94 and –0.93, respectively. Indicators of total thyroxine and total triiodothyronine in the blood serum are not indicative for determining the risk of hypothyroidism.