Faculty Bibliography

Mr. [Bush] fainted after a pretzel stuck in his throat and he gagged and coughed. Dr. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, said pressure from the pretzel on Mr. Bush's esophagus stimulated the vagal nerve, which connects the brain and the heart and other organs. The vagal action slowed Mr. Bush's heartbeat and lowered his blood pressure, making him faint, a reaction that is called vaso-vagal syncope. Dr. Tubb said in an interview that he based the diagnosis on his examination on findings from several standard tests. Dr. Tubb said a cardiologist and neurologist who had examined Mr. Bush during an extensive medical checkup on Aug. 4, Mr. Bush's first as president, concurred in the diagnosis. Ms. [Cindy Wright] checked Mr. Bush's blood pressure, which was 111/70 and pulse, which was 51, both normal levels for him. After Ms. Wright paged him and another White House doctor, Bill Lang, at 5:48 p.m., Dr. Tubb said, he drove to the White House and found Mr. Bush ''sitting on his couch.'' Mr. Bush was wearing his reading glasses, which were twisted, but the lenses were intact

The two scientists rigged a device about the size of a thin hockey puck, and on Oct. 8, 1958, Dr. [Ake Senning] cut open Mr. [Arne H. W. Larsson]'s chest to implant it. Eight hours later, the pacemaker failed. Dr. Senning then implanted the only backup, one with batteries that had to be recharged every few hours. The pacemaker worked, on and off, for three years. Subsequently, Mr. Larsson underwent 25 operations and procedures to replace pacemakers that failed for one reason or another and to receive newer devices that were smaller, smarter, safer and more durable and versatile. Implanting a pacemaker no longer requires the chest surgery that Mr. Larsson underwent

Abiomed said that because it had found evidence of clots on struts in the AbioCor hearts removed at autopsy from two patients, it was changing the design to remove a plastic cage on a surgical cuff that attaches to tissue in the recipient

Abiomed said that because it had found evidence of clots on struts in the AbioCor hearts removed from two patients at autopsy, it was changing the design, removing a plastic cage on a surgical cuff that attaches to tissue in the recipient. Abiomed officials said today that they expected to meet their goal of implanting an AbioCor heart in nine more patients at six centers by the middle of this year. The company is also expanding trials of the device to four centers abroad, in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Israel. *No patient suffered an infection related to the AbioCor. Infection is a life-threatening complication that has occurred among recipients of other types of heart devices; these include ventricular assist devices, which are implanted in piggyback fashion to help failing natural hearts pump more effectively. Such devices have wires or tubes that penetrate the skin, increasing the risk of infection. The AbioCor, which replaces the natural heart, has no such piercing wires or tubes

Helene Snihur, a spokeswoman for the university, said the first sign of distress was a slowing of Ms. [Janet Reno]'s speech. Ms. Reno then told the audience that she needed to sit, Ms. Snihur said, and started moving from the lectern before falling to the floor. She was taken by ambulance to Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center and was admitted for observation overnight. The fainting was at least the third such episode for Ms. Reno, and all three occurred under similar circumstances, said one of her doctors, William J. Weiner of the Parkinson's Disease Center at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Recalling his brother's recent fainting, and a well-remembered episode of rapid heartbeat that once afflicted his father, Mr. [Jeb Bush] said Ms. Reno was in good company. ''The president of the United States, who I can guarantee can outrun anybody, he collapsed once,'' the governor said. ''My dad did it once, much to the embarrassment of my mother, at a state dinner with the prime minister of Japan.''

Helene Snihur, a spokeswoman for the university, said the first sign of distress was a slowing of [Janet Reno]'s speech. Reno then told the audience that she needed to sit, Snihur said, and started moving from the lectern before falling to the floor. She was taken by ambulance to Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center and was admitted overnight for observation

Costs of angioplasty and clot-dissolving drugs vary among hospitals and regions. The drugs cost about $2,200; an angioplasty, $2,000 to $4,000. But up to two-thirds of patients who receive the drug also then need angioplasty because their arteries are still clogged. All nine hospitals in Boston and the Boston Emergency Medical Services have started a program to monitor the quality of angioplasty performed in the seven hospitals offering it, Dr. [Christopher P. Cannon] said. The researchers want assurance that all seven hospitals that perform angioplasty can do so around-the-clock daily so that all patients will get angioplasty and not T.P.A. He said he expected that in six months patients with ST elevation heart attacks would be taken only to hospitals that did angioplasty. He cautioned that the approach might not be feasible everywhere. After six months, 6.2 percent in the angioplasty group died, compared with 7.1 percent in the drug therapy group. An additional heart attack occurred in 5.3 percent of the angioplasty patients, compared with 10.6 percent in the T.P.A. group. Stroke rates were 2.2 percent for the angioplasty group and 4 percent for the T.P.A. group. Length of stay was also shorter in the angioplasty group, 4.5 days compared with 6

Focus groups conducted for a panel of scientists advising the government uncovered a catalog of misinformation about the smallpox vaccine -- the first vaccine to be developed (in 1796) and considered to be the most dangerous. Unlike most other immunizations, smallpox vaccine can harm recipients and their contacts

Instead of taking people who may have had heart attacks to the nearest hospital, as is now advised, the researchers said it may be better to send them farther, to a hospital where a trained team can perform angioplasty to open clogged coronary arteries

Focus groups conducted for a panel of scientists advising the government uncovered a catalog of misinformation about the smallpox vaccine -- the first vaccine to be developed (in 1796) and considered to be the most dangerous. Unlike most other immunizations, smallpox vaccine can harm recipients and their contacts. Resumption of vaccination on a large scale would probably lead to thousands of serious complications and hundreds of deaths, as it did when millions of Americans were routinely vaccinated. Current guidelines, published in June 2001, do not recommend smallpox vaccine for the public. Vaccination is limited chiefly to laboratory workers directly involved with smallpox virus or its close virological cousins. The limits were based largely on the lack of enough vaccine. At the time, the government had only 15 million doses. In the wake of the anthrax attacks last fall, the government has expanded its stockpile of smallpox vaccine. Tests have shown that the 15 million doses can be diluted to 75 million. The drug company Aventis Pasteur has donated about 80 million doses that have been frozen since 1958 and that the government says would be used only in an emergency. The government is also buying 220 million doses made by a new laboratory technique. Delivery is expected by year's end