LVIV NATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
Lviv Medical University is one of the educational institutions known far beyond Ukraine.
More than 220 years of its existence are characterized by the devoted work of many generations
of scholars.
The first High School of Medicine in the territory of Ukrainian was Zamojski Academy,
founded in 1593, not far from Lviv. A year later, the Academy received a university status and
the right to confer the degrees of Doctor of Medicine. The first founders and teachers of the
Medical Department in Zamojski Academy were the Lvivites, Jan Ursyn and
Szymon Burkowski.
The history of development of Lviv Medical University goes as back as 1661, when for
the first time the Medical Department was opened along with other departments at the University
of Lviv. It was closed twice, and finally, its third arrangement started under the guidance of
Professor H. Kadyi. In 1894, the Chair of General Anatomy, headed by Professor H. Kadyi, was
opened. A year later, Professor A. Beck held the Chair of Normal Physiology and before 1908
specialized theoretical and clinical departments were created.
In the initial stages of the Medical Department renovation in Ukraine, the scientists from
Krakow, Vienna, Heidelberg and other cities came here. During the Polish rule, Lviv became a
source of the faculty for newly formed medical departments in Warsaw, Poznan and Vilnius. The
faculty of the Medical Department made a valuable contribution by its academic works to the
scientific treasury.
With the consolidation of the Polish authority in the Western regions of Ukraine and its
extremely unfavourable attitude towards the study of the Ukrainians at the University of Lviv, it
was necessary to create a separate Underground Ukrainian University. The Medical Department
of the Ukrainian Underground University was created in 1921. Dr. Vasyl Shchurat,
Dr. Markian Panchyshyn, Dr. Yevgen Davydyak were the rectors of the Ukrainian Underground
University during its existence. Medicine was taught only during the first two years of study, and
due to the lack of appropriate laboratories and clinics, the following basic disciplines were
taught: Anatomy, physiology, microanotomy, chemistry, etc. Students went abroad to continue
their studies. In 1925, the most active Ukrainian students were arrested, and then the Ukrainian
Underground University ceased to function. But 1,500 Ukrainian students had been educated in
the Lviv Underground Ukrainian University during the period of its existence, and it was
recognized in Czechoslovakia, and in the University of Vienna and other foreign universities,
thus becoming a unique phenomenon in the history of world culture.
In 1939, despite the long resistance of numerous professors, the Medical Department of
Lviv University was transformed into the Lviv State Medical University with only two
departments: Medical and Pharmaceutical. Professor, and later Academician A. Makarchenko
headed the institute.
In 1941, the German occupation authorities launched vocational training courses in
German at the Institute. These training courses retained all the properties of a high medical
school, first of all, due to the popular professor M. Panchyshyn.
Prof. M. Muzyka Prof. T. Hlukhenkyi, Prof. H. Skosohorenko, Prof. D. Panchenko,
Prof. L. Kuzmenko, Acad. M. Danylenko, Acad. M. Pavlovskyi were appointed as rectors at
Lviv State Medical Institute.
The Institute became one of the largest medical institutions in Ukraine. Now, more than a
thousand professionals work at the chairs and in the laboratories of the Institute solving a variety
of scientific issues. They include about 150 doctors and 1,000 candidates of sciences, in
particular academicians, state prize winners, full members of the Shevchenko Scientific Society,
honoured scientists, and laureates of State Prize of Ukraine.
Lviv medical schools continue their development, and their students, keeping the best
traditions of the University, create new research programs for public health improvement,
develop extensive contacts with the scientists of the Ukrainian Diaspora and leading foreign
universities.
On November 16, 2004, Lviv Medical University celebrated its 220th anniversary. Lviv
became the centre of higher medical education and further asserts its authority in Ukraine and
globally.
The conditions for renewing the sources of national culture and historical evaluation of
our past are being created in the course of development of Ukrainian statehood at the University.
The discovery of these achievements of our nation, formed on its historical path is an
indispensable basis for spiritual renaissance of the best traditions of the Ukrainian society. Their
augmentation and promulgation is our sacred duty.
HISTORICAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHAIR OF
NORMAL PHYSIOLOGY OF DANYLO HALYTSKY LVIV NATIONAL
MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
There was no separate Chair of Physiology at that time and physiology was taught
together with anatomy from 1784 till 1805, when the Medical Department was closed. The first
teacher of Physiology and Higher Anatomy was the Doctor of Medicine, Jakub Kostrzewski
(Died in 1798), who held the title of ordinary public professor of physiology and Materia Medica
(Medical material). Tomasz Sedey (1757-1816) was another professor of Physiology, Higher
Anatomy and Ophthalmology at the Medical Department. T. Sedey delivered lectures on
Physiology and Higher Anatomy in Lviv from September 1786 till 1805.
In 1817, the work of Lviv University was restored, however, there was no Medical
Department. It was substituted by the so-called Medical-Surgical Institute, which trained
surgeons that had completed secondary education. This institution existed by academic year
1873-1874. Since then, the teaching Medicine at the University of Lviv ceased completely.
Medical Department was restored only in 1894. On September 9, the opening ceremony of the
Teaching Block of Anatomy was held. Since 1895, Physiology had been taught here.
On October 15, 1895 the Head of Chair, Prof. A. Beck, the student of N. Cybulski,
delivered his first lecture on physiology. The newly-created Chair consisted of 17 classrooms, a
large lecture-room, where the conditions for lecture demonstrations and a range of scientific labs
were created.
A. Beck was born in 1863 in a modest family of Krakow craftsman. He studied at the St.Anna Gymnasium and at the Medical Department of Jagiellonian University, which he finished
in 1890. In 1892, he defended his thesis on the topic On the Physiology of Movement. During his
work at the Chair of Physiology in Krakow, Professor A. Beck together with
Professor N. Cybulski and under his direct supervision wrote a number of works, and a scientific
paper On Excitation of Different Parts of the Same Nerve (1893), caught a buzz among scientists
of that time. Physiology and Electrophysiology of the nervous system were the in the focus of
the scientific work of A. Beck. In 1894, A. Beck published a scientific work Determination of
Functional Localization in Cerebrum and Spinal Cord with the Aid of Electrical Phenomena that
resulted in further recognition by the physiologists of the world, and made him one of the
founders of modern electroencephalography. In 1896, Professor A. Beck published his next
scientific work dedicated to Further Research of Electrical Phenomena in the Cerebral Cortex
co-authored by Professor No. Cybulski, where the methodology of electrophysiological research
of localization of functions in the cerebral cortex of apes and dogs was developed and improved.
Also Professor A. Beck dealt with the issues of adjacent spheres of knowledge in his
research work. His scientific achievements are characterized by more than 79 scientific papers
published in prestigious scientific publishings, as well as 100 scientific reports delivered at the
scientific forums. Prof. A. Beck actively participated in the preparation and the work of the
International Congress of Physiologists that took place in Vienna, in 1910. Conversance with the
printed scientific works by Professor A. Beck allows dividing them into three main groups. The
first one is related to the issues of physiology of the nervous system, the second one — with
researching the issues of sensory physiology, and the third on — to historical aspects of
physiology and separate prominent physiologists.
In 1915, a two-volume textbook on human physiology (the second edition was published
in 1924) that served a good source of knowledge for many generations of the students of
medicine was issued, edited by Professor A. Beck and N. Cybulski.
Assoc. Prof. Tihovskyi, a versatile scholar, researcher with a broad worldview was
formed under the influence of such renowned scientists as G. H. Dale (Nobel Prize in Physiology
for establishing the chemical structure of neurotransmitters in the nervous system),
Ch. S. Sherrington (Nobel Prize in Physiology for discoveries concerning the function of
neurons), E. Starling (Priority research on the elucidation of cardiovascular system mechanisms)
was working at the University of Lviv at the Chair of Physiology from 1918 till 1937.
Victor Tyhovskyi was born on September 1, 1894 in Borshchiv, Galicia, in the family of
a veterinarian, successfully finished the prestigious Gymnasium Franz-Josef, and later on — the
University of Medicine. Since 1920, V. Tyhovskyi was working as a demonstrator at the Institute
of Physiology, and since 1922 —as a senior lecturer of the Chair of Physiology. His research
interests included the fundamental issues of neurophysiology, neuropsychology and biophysics.
In 1923, on receiving a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Victor Tyhovskyi went to
the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, the USA) for study placement, where he
cooperated with Prof. G. Pazetta. Since 1924 Tyhovskyi started working at the Woods Hole
marine biological laboratory, Massachusetts, with Professor J. Jacobs. V. Tihovskyi’s research
interests were extended by studying animal physiology. The scientist’s development continued in
the following world's most prestigious universities: Oxford, Cambridge, and London, in
collaboration with prominent physiologists G. H. Dale, and C. S. Sherrington.
In 1925, he returned to the University of Lviv and started working at the Chair of
Physiology as a junior scientific assistant. Collaterally he was working at Veterinary Academy,
at the Department of Agriculture and Forestry of Lviv Polytechnic. In 1930, Victor Tyhovskyi
became an associate professor, and since 1932, he headed the Institute of Physiology at the
Medical Department of the University. A brilliant lecturer, a highly educated man, a scientist of
sound reputation, a good teacher, Victor Tyhovskyi was awarded the Diploma and a medal For
Many Years of Service in 1938.
Since the academic year 1936-1937 and until the beginning of World War II,
Prof. M. Wierzuchowski, who wrote more than 60 scientific papers, headed the department. His
experimental research in the sphere of physiology of glands of internal secretion, modelling of
the diabetes, the conditions of hyperglycaemia, ketoacidosis with animals, and determination of
the biochemical basis of gluconeogenesis and phosphorus exchange in the body were interesting
and new.
The next stage of the development of the Chair is associated with the activity of the
Associate Member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Prof. A. M. Vorobiov, who was
holding the Chair from 1944-45 till 1952. He was also the first dean of the re-opened Medical
Department.
Anatolii Markovych Vorobiov was born in Kharkiv, in 1900. In 1925, he graduated from
Kharkiv Medical Institute. He started his scientific work, when he was a second-year student,
under the supervision of Vasyl Yakovych Danylevskyi, when he researched the effect of lecithin
and certain hormones obtained by V. Danylevskyi and the effects of electric potentials on the
body. After Georgiy Volodymyrovych Folbort held the Chair of Physiology at Kharkiv Medical
Institute, A. M. Vorobiov studied digestion processed. Since 1936 he has held the Chair of
Physiology at the Kharkiv Institute of Dentistry. At the same time, he also managed the
Department of Digestive Physiology at the Ukrainian Institute of Endocrinology. In 1940,
Anatolii Markovych defended his doctoral thesis The Role of Sympathetic Innervation of the
Nervous System and Pyloric Antrum in the Secretory Regulation of Gastric Glands (Kharkiv,
1940). During World War II, A. M. Vorobiov evacuated to the Caucasus and from 1941 till 1944
was working in Tbilisi at the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences in the Georgian
SSR. There he studied electrical potentials of the cerebrum. On his return to Ukraine, he was
directed to the Lviv Medical Institute. The main focus of research at his Chair was dedicated to
studying the nervous regulation of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract. During that period, he
trained a number of Candidates of Science, who later held the chairs at the Medical Institutes of
Ivano-Frankivsk (V. S. Raytses), Luhansk (E. Ya. Dumin), Lviv (I. A. Medianyk, and
I. V. Shostakivska).
In 1951, Anatolii Markovych was elected as an Associate Member of the Academy of
Sciences of the USSR, and appointed as a director of the Institute of Physiology named after
O. O. Bogomolets of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which he headed until his death.
Educational facilities and scientific laboratories of the Chair were rebuilt during the
period of work of Prof. A. M. Vorobiov. The scientific research on neurohumoral regulation of
digestion was fruitfully and successfully conducted.
In 1952, Assoc. Prof. I. V. Skorohod, who studied reflexive correlations in the digestive
organs, was holding the Chair for a short period of time.
In 1952, Prof. Ya. P. Sklyarov, who had held the Chair of Physiology previously and had
been the dean of the Medical Department of Chernivtsi Medical Institute, was elected the Head
of the Chair.
Ya. P. Sklyarov was born in 1901, in Poltava region. He graduated from the Poltava
Institute of Popular Education, and in 1933, from the Medical Department of Kharkiv Medical
Institute. While studying at the Institute, a talented student attracted the attention of
I. P. Pavlov’s student Prof. G. V. Folbort, and was offered a post-graduate training programme at
the Chair of Physiology. In this stage, his research was devoted to the study of conditioned
reflexes and the secretory processes of main digestive glands. Apart from scientific work,
Yakiv Pavlovych did active educational work. Upon his graduation he worked as an assistant of
the Chair of Physiology of Kharkiv Medical Institute, defended his Candidate’s dissertation and
in 1938 was promoted to Associate Professor.
During World War II, he was the chief of the general clearing station of the 10th Army.
He ensured the evacuation of the injured during the battles at Dvinsk, Rezekne, Koknese, Riga,
and Litava. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the World War of the
Fifth Degree, and many medals.
After demobilization, from 1946 till 1952, he was holding the Chair of General
Physiology and was the Dean of the Medical Department at Chernivtsi Medical Institute. He
defended his doctoral thesis in 1950, and he was awarded the degree of the Doctor of Medicine,
and a year later – the title of Professor.
From 1952 till 1974, Ya. P. Sklyarov was holding the Chair of Physiology at Lviv
Medical Institute. During this period, the main focus of research and the first school of
physiologists-gastroenterologists in the Western regions of Ukraine were formed under his
supervision. The main focus of research at the Chair became studying the physiology and
digestion, the secretion of the digestive glands, absorption, mediator and enzyme changes in
different functional states of the body and the effect of biologically active substances. As well
higher nervous activity was researched. The summary of this work is reflected in the monograph
Secretory Capacity of the Main Digestive Glands (1958) and collections of works Physiology
and Pathology of Digestion (1956), Physiological Mechanisms of Compensatory Reaction and
Recovery of the Processes (1958) and in the monograph Gastric Secretion (1954, 1961),
Ultrastructural and Microchemical Processes in Gastric Glands (1979) co-authored with
D. M Karpenko and Ye. M. Panasiuk. The issues of absorption in the small intestine
(Ye. O. Semen, E. O. Yaremko, V. T. Bulatova, I. S. Bohdanovych, M. V. Anastasieva) and
colon (B. V. Hataliak) were studied collaterally. These results were reflected in the monograph
by Ya. P. Sklyarov, The AbsorptiveCapacity of the Small Intestine (1966).
Studying of mediator- and enzyme-related processes and developing new experimental
surgical techniques on the organs of the digestive system was one of the focuses of the scientific
research of Professor Ya. P. Sklyarov. The regularities of unilateral conditioned reflexes and
paired cortical activity (Ya. P. Sklyarov, M. P. Yarosh, V. S. Kononenko) were defined, the
relationship between the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cerebral cortex, the
processes of mediation and activity of mediator splitting enzymes (V. S. Kononenko,
Ya. P. Sklyarov, L. M. Karpenko) were studied. The results were presented in the monograph
Physiology of Higher Nervous Activity (1955), which was translated into Japanese and published
at the University of Osaka.
Scientific research by the workers of the Chair were summarized in a collection of works
New Method of Experimental Surgical Research (1963) and Practical Policies of Defining
Certain Plasma Membrane-Bound Enzymes (1965).
Prof. Ya. P. Sklyarov was the author of 6 monographs, over 140 scientific papers, one of
the editors of the chapter Digestion in the Comprehensive Medical Encyclopaedia, the honorary
member of the All-Union Physiological Society.
While Ya. P. Sklyarov was holding the Chair, the 9th All-Union Conference on the
Physiology and Pathology of Digestion (1956), the 8th Congress of the UPS (1968), Symposium
Membrane Processes in the Organs of Digestive System (1968), All-Union Conference on
Higher Nervous Activity (1970), the 12th All-Union Conference on the Physiology and
Pathology of the Digestive System (1971) were organized and conducted at the Chair.
From 1953 till 1971, Yakiv Pavlovych was supervising the research work at the Lviv
Medical Institute. He initiated the research of the mineral waters of the Carpatian region
(Skhidnytsia and Truskavets), controlling hypothyroidism in the Western and other regions of
Ukraine.
12 Doctoral and 32 Candidate's theses were written under his supervision.
Ya. P. Sklyarov’s students hold the Chairs of Physiology in different universities of Ukraine and
CIS countries.
Prof. Ya. P. Sklyarov’s student, Academician, Honoured Scientist of Ukraine,
Yevhen Mykolaiiovych Panasiuk has held the Chair since 1974. Continuing and developing the
best scientific traditions of the Chair, he paid special attention to education, educational process,
increase of the methodological level of scientific research conducted in the following main
spheres: Regulatory mechanisms of neurotransmitter- and enzyme-related and electrolyte-related
processes in gastroenterology, mechanisms of the influence of magnetic field, laser radiation,
resort factors and biologically active substances on the body and recovery of the human health;
the effects of specific and nonspecific factors on the central nervous system and increase of
working capacity, endurance and recovery of the human body functioning. The monograph
Ultrastructural and Microchemical Processes in Gastrointestinal Glands (Ye. M. Panasiuk,
Ya. P. Sklyarov, L. M. Karpenko, 1979) was published, as a result of summarizing the research
of enzyme- and mediator-related processes and electrolyte exchange in gastric mucosa. The
results of longstanding research by Prof. Ye. M. Panasiuk, L. M. Karpenko, V. S. Kononenko,
and Associate Prof. B. V. Hataliak, Ye. R. Kosyi, A. I. Zhukova, M. R.. Hzhehotskyi,
L. B. Kutsyk, O. Ya. Sklyarov, Candidates of Medicine, M. P. Yarosh, O. V. Onyshchenko,
V. T. Slonska, O. M. Kopytko,. and N. P. Korpilova, provided for the basis for determining
Prof. Ye. M. Panasiuk’s concept of autoregulation of mediator-, enzyme- and ion-related
processes in the gastrointestinal tract, both in our country and abroad. The Faculty participated in
the International Congresses of Physiologists and Gastroenterologists (1976, 1977, and 1981)
(Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, and Bulgaria). Professor Ye. M. Panasiuk is the co-author
of the monograph Lectins (1981), and Lectins in Histological Chemistry (1985), which
systematized the knowledge about the obtained pure lectins, highlighted methodological aspects
of research and purification of lectins, considered the practical aspects of this class of proteins in
molecular biology and medicine for the first time in Soviet literature. The work on creating
neural network models was conducted at the Chair (Prof. Ye. M. Panasiuk,
Assoc. Prof. V. L. Kuzmenko).
Scientific research in experimental gastroenterology is the main sphere of activity of such
members of the Chair as Ye. Panasiuk, L. Karpenko, O. Sklyarov, M. Hzhegotskyi, B. Hataliyak,
Ye. Kosyi, Yu. Petryshyn, E. Kulitka, L. Kutsyk, V. Sergeiev, V. Slonska, Yu. Onyshchenko,
O. Mysakovets, N. Kornilova, Prof. O. S. Zaiachkivska, MD, O. Kulyk, Yu. Makeieva,
O. Melnyk, and I. Tsiupko.
The research of the effects of the mineral waters from Truskavets, Skhidnytsia, and Shklo
on the body was carried out along with the abovementioned work. (Z. O. Havryliuk,
V. P. Balanovska, A. A. Verbinets, L. H. Levkut). A textbook for the university students General
Physiotherapy and Resorts in Russian and Ukrainian was published in 1990-1991. (Ye. Panasiuk
and Ya. Fedoriv).
The Chair of Physiology remained the place for academic forums. All in all, 2 national
congresses of physiologists, 3 All-Union symposiums, and 9 conferences were arranged by the
Chair.
Magnetobiological, laser, psychophysiological laboratories and the laboratory of
subcellular structures with the appropriate equipment were founded at the Chair. Physical and
technical conditions, under which the methods of laser therapy may acquire biological and
therapeutic effects, were defined. (Doctor of Biological Sciences, O. M. Moroz,
Acad. I. I. Vlokh, and Z. V. Hubar). Also the staff of Central Scientific and Research Laboratory
and the Chair of Physiology ascertained sensitivity of ouabayin-resistant transport mechanisms
of monovalent ions to helium-neon laser radiation under experimental and clinical conditions
(O. M. Moroz, I. F. Dumalska, N. I. Pashchenko, L. P. Pavliust, O. I. Lysiuk, and O. A. Buryi)
and suggested a new concept of the action mechanism of this physical factor, taking into
consideration its ability to model ionic transport processes in excitable and non-excitable
membranes. The property of the hypogeomagnetic field to increase the sensitivity of smooth
muscles to the influence of biologically active substances, to lower the resistance of blood-tissue
interface of internal organs, to change different links in histamine and serotonin system was
ascertained in animal testing with different reactivity. The results were introduced into clinical
practice (Doctor of Biological Sciences, V. I. Babych, O. Lych).
The data allowing for substation of the effectiveness of adaptogene remedial effect on the
operator’s work, while recognizing and classifying complex visualizations considering
individual psycho-physiological characteristics were obtained in the psychophysiological
laboratory (Prof. V. S. Kononenko, Dr. of Medicine, O. Ya. Skliarov).
For the first time methodological approaches to the study of skin resorptive agents the
body receives from the water medium were developed in the laboratory to study new possible
chemical compositions. Forecasting and experimental analysis of stability and transformation of
the drugs under study intended for wide use in agriculture were conducted
(Prof. B. M. Shtabskyi, Prof. M. R. Gzhegotskyi, MD).
The research results are reflected in the monograph Chemical Pollutants of Air and
Human Performance (Ye. Panasiuk, I. Datsenko, B. Shtabskyi, et al.) – Health Publishing, 1985.
The device for simultaneous surface tension measurement and pH measurement in the
stomach and duodenum was designed, implemented in clinical practice and received the
certificate of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (Ye. M. Panasiuk,
Yu. S. Petryshin, O. V. Trotsenko, and B. V. Hataliak).
The Chair participated in a comprehensive research together with other domestic and
foreign scientific laboratories. The scientific and research sector, the staff of which included
32 persons, was formed on the basis of the Chair.
In order to improve the academic process, the Chair was equipped with thematic rooms
for studying the organism functions in accordance with thematic issues. For the first time in the
practice of medical universities of the country, electronic stands with the dynamic diagrams of
current physiological processes were set up. The guidelines for teachers were updated on a
regular basis, and slide sets, tables, etc., a number of textbooks for students and doctors,
including Physiology and Pathology of the Respiratory System (Ye. Panasiuk, Ya. Fedoriv,
Yu. Onyshchenko), 1993, Physiology and Pathology of Blood (Ye. Panasiuk, L. Korziuk),
Moscow, 1994, as well as the original textbook in two volumes Fundamentals of Human
Physiology (by Ye. Panasiuk), St. Petersburg, 1994, were replenished.
During the past 50 years the staff of the Chair has published about 2,000 scientific papers
in domestic and foreign journals, as well as 19 monographs, manuals, textbooks, and a number
of scientific collections and recommendations. Scientists of the Chair actively participated in
international, republican and regional scientific conferences.
25 doctors and over 80 Candidates of Science were trained at the Chair.
In order to improve the educational process at the Chair, for the first time scientific
conferences on teaching and students’ research work (From 1976), –conferences in the form of
games Experts in Physiology: What? Where? Why?, annual olimpiads on the subject
encouraging the winners were introduced at the University.
A student research team has been successfully working at the Chair from 1952. The
students of the research team were awarded gold medals and diplomas at the national
competition for the best scientific work in natural, technical sciences and the humanities.
Ass. Prof. Yu. S. Petryshyn, MD, Yu. M. Okhrimenko, L. B. Kutsyk, and O. V. Pinchuk were
awarded the prize Cut Glass Vase in 1980 at the International Student Congress in Prague
(Czech Republic).
The results of research conducted at the Chair had some economic effects on the national
economy. Acad. Ye. M. Panasiuk was awarded 4 (Gold, silver and bronze) medals for
achievement in the development of the national economy of the Exhibition of Achievements of
the National Economy, in 1981.
Professor M. R. Gzhegotskyi, MD, holds the Chair at present.
Training and education of young professionals at the Chair of Physiology is implemented
in an Educational Process complex system and have the same aim and management. The main
mechanism of improvement is scientifically grounded organization and clinical and
physiological manner of teaching, encouraging the students to acquire basic knowledge in
Normal Physiology. The educational process is an important means of forming a future
physician developing student’s active social position in life, and preparing to perform
professional and civic functions.
The staff of the Chair carries out significant work to assist public health authorities. It
consists in editorial work, reviewing and advisory assistance in performing clinical theses,
delivering lectures at Advanced Training courses on Gastroenterology, teaching techniques,
collaboration with clinical departments, scholarly supervision of dissertations written by
practitioners (Ternopil, Drohobych, and Truskavets).
In the 21st century, the medical science faced current critical problems of that scientists,
teachers and educators of the Chair of Physiology supervised by Prof. M. R. Gzhegotskyi, MD,
are solving, and the positive results of scientific and research activity will allow using a similar
approach in the clinical work of practical medicine. To achieve this goal, the following tasks are
being performed:
1) Environmental problem requires fundamental research on the adaptive compensatory
capacity of the body under modern conditions
2) The study of the peculiarities of hereditary and acquired pathological processes in
childhood and adulthood under the condition of joint influence of harmful environmental factors
and endemic peculiarities of Ukraine.
3) The search for means of overall protection of the Ukrainian population from harmful
environmental factors, development of health care programmes for different age groups,
occupational and endemic groups of people.
4) The development of new and implementation of well-known methods of diagnosis of
the functional state of the human body for the purpose of early detection and prevention of
possible abnormalities.
5) Conducting sanitary educational work and raising of the general cultural level of the
population of Ukraine. Teaching specialized subjects in schools, vocational schools, colleges;
publishing modern textbooks, manuals, scientific and popular science literature.
PAGE ON THE COMMON HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY OF THE
CHAIR OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY AND FOOD HYGIENE
This message is a brief outline of the scientific cooperation between the two chairs during
1977-1991 that was closely related to the experimental substantiation of the hygienic standards
of xenobiotics in water reservoirs. Studies were held by the order of the All-Union Scientific
Research Institute of Chemical Means of Plant Protection (Moscow) and its Shchyolkovo
Branch, Institute for Chemical Reagents and Highly Pure Chemical Substances (Moscow) and
the Ukrainian Research Institute of Printing Industry (Lviv). The work was performed by a
research team established in 1975 at the Chair of Physiology by Acad E. M. Panasiuk, and in
1977 was headed by Prof. B. M. Shtabskyi (Chair of Food Hygiene ).
The core of the team were Associate Professors, Prof. M.R. Gzhegotskyi, MD and
Ass. Prof. Yu.V. Fedorenko, MD, senior research assistant, B. V. Hataliak (all of them were
young junior research assistants, when they started working) and junior research assistant,
O. A. Zenina. After some time, L. Y. Tkachuk, junior research assistant, T. V. Rieznikova and
L. H. Tabachnyk, and over the years, Candidate of Chemistry, N. M. Lazorenko, O. M. Dub and
junior research assistant I. A. Shulman, I. I. Siarchynskyi, H. I. Vikhot, et al, joined their ranks.
The research was to study and provide qualitative assessment of acute and chronic toxicity and
mutagenic properties of substances, their impact on the organoleptic properties of water and
sanitary condition of model reservoirs, a well as stability and transformation in the water
medium. Morphological and embryological studies were conducted by Associate Professor
M. S. Avhustynovych and A. M. Yaschenko (Chair of Histology), allergological – by Associate
Professor Y. M. Fedchenko (Chair of Microbiology).
During the period 1975-1991, 10 research works were completed. Their nominal outcome
is developing of maximum allowable concentrations and estimated allowable levels of more than
50 compounds and technological mixtures of substances. At the time of completion of the team’s
work, more than 3% of hygienic standards were officially approved by the Ministry of
Healthcare and included in state water and sanitary legislation. The scope and level of
implementation prove the fruitfulness of the work of a small team of researchers. She has also
published about 150 articles and dozens of reports at scientific congresses, conferences and
symposia (Including international) of hygienists, toxicologists and physiologists, obtained
inventor's certificates, and silver medals of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National
Economy.
The internal logic of research required simultaneous development of the methodological
issues of hygienic standardization of xenobiotics that are important for environmental sanitation
food hygiene and public health, and occupational health. In this regard, a new methodological
pattern of acute experiments was suggested, the schedule of subacute experiment was modified
and the ratio of subacute and chronic experiments in determining the maximum ineffective dose
(MND) of xenobiotics according to general toxical action were reviewed based on the actual
material. A common basis for innovation is a consistent identification of the kinetics of
poisonous action and its dependence on the dose in different stages of toxicosis with the formal
analysis of time-effect and dose-effect dependencies and probabilistic estimation of effective
(Including threshold rate of) doses and MND of the substances under study.
In several fundamental methodological issues the important steps forward were made.
We refer only to materials of Candidate’s dissertation of Prof. M.R. Gzhegotskyi, MD (1981),
doctoral (1993) and doctoral (1994) thesis of Ass. Prof. Yu.V. Fedorenko, MD used in 8
methodological documents of the Ministry of Healthcare (5) and the Permanent Commission for
Public Health of CMEA countries (3). Thus, for the first time in the world the need for and
methodological approaches to identifying and accounting for the percutaneous action of
xenobiotics subject to water reservoirs; new conceptual and methodological basics to the study
of stability and transformation of substances during the hygienic rating in water were formulated;
original conceptual and methodological basics of toxicometry and hygienic assessment of the
synergistic action of xenobiotics.
Recently, the team and the same logic of studies highlighted the issue of prenosological
diagnostics in solving the tasks of regulation of xenobiotics in water reservoirs, including
conditions of chemical accidents. Development of physiological and hygienic basics of such
diagnostic was completed at that time by the Associate Professor M.R. Gzhegotskyi, MD. It is
worth mentioning a team of the staff of the Chair of Food Hygiene, whose theses were dedicated
to methodological aspects of the study of the accumulation in the toxicological and hygienic
research (I. H. Shatynska, 1986) and toxicity of xenobiotics in water and food (V. M. Tomkiv,
1991) were working together with the team for some time.
The life has turned the above page of the history. However, methodological standards and
found methodological solutions remain and will be in force. But the issues and ideas that should
be developed, as well as persons able to develop them, remain.