Faculty Bibliography

For undisclosed reasons, Sen. John Glenn has been dropped from one of the main age-related experiments in which the 77-year-old former astronaut had planned to take part during his return to space next week, NASA officials confirmed yesterday. NASA had rated the melatonin experiment as one of the two top priorities in the human studies aboard Glenn's shuttle flight. Glenn will still participate in two other experiments - monitoring sleep and use of protein - that focus on studying similarities between aging on Earth and flying weightless in space. Sleep disorders are a particular problem among the elderly and astronauts, who in adjusting to the 90 minute day-night cycles in space often take sleeping pills and sometimes stimulants. The experiments have been cited as the principal reasons Glenn is going into space for the second time. In 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, and aboard Discovery he will become the oldest person to fly in space. Glenn, a Democrat, lobbied NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies

For undisclosed reasons, Sen. John Glenn has been dropped from one of the main age-related experiments in which he had planned to take part during his return to space next week, NASA officials confirmed Tuesday. Glenn, 77, a former astronaut, will still fly aboard the shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29. The studys principal investigator, Dr. Charles A. Czeisler of Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, said in interviews during the weekend that he was surprised when he had to disqualify Glenn

NASA had rated the melatonin experiment as one of the two top priorities in the human studies aboard Mr. (John) Glenn's shuttle flight. Mr. Glenn wi ll still participate in two other planned experiments -- monitoring sleep and use of protein -- that focus on studying similarities between aging on Earth and flying weightless in space. Sleep disorders are a particular problem among the elderly and astronauts, who in adjusting to the 90 minute day-night cycles in space often take sleeping pills and sometimes stimulants. The experiments have been cited as the principal reasons Mr. Glenn is going into space for the second time. In 1962, Mr. Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, and aboard Discovery he will become the oldest person to fly in space. Mr. Glenn, an Ohio Democrat, won his seat on the shuttle flight by lobbying NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies. Dr. John B. Charles, an official at Johnson Space Center in Houston who helps coordinate the human studies aboard the Discovery, said that in his studies, Dr. (Charles A.) Czeisler had put ''strict requirements that don't apply to people who buy melatonin off the shelf in health food stores.'' Once Dr. Czeisler's team recognized a problem, NASA decided ''the best thing was to eliminate the melatonin aspect of the experiment and continue with the circadian rhythm aspects of the study'' that are ''at least as important as the melatonin study,'' Dr. Charles said

Forty years ago this month, Mr. (Arne H. W.) Larsson, now 83, became the world's first recipient of an implanted cardiac pacemaker, a battery powered device that electrically stimulated and regulated his dangerous heart rhythms. Since then, Mr. Larsson has undergone 25 operations and procedures to replace pacemakers that failed for one reason or another. Over those four decades, pacemakers have become smaller, smarter, safer, more durable and versatile. And implanting the device no longer requires chest surgery. I met Mr. Larsson and his wife, Else-Marie, in 1973, when he came for a checkup at a hospital in Stockholm and I renewed their acquaintance during their recent visit to New York. Mr. Larsson, who looks much the same, has sold his engineering business yet remains active and often strolls along Stockholm's rocky shore. As a frequent traveler, he often speaks out about how pacemaker users can lead normal lives. ''I forget I have a pacemaker,'' he said. Dr. (Ake) Senning and Dr. (Rune) Elmquist rigged a device about the size of a thin hockey puck, and Dr. Senning cut open Mr. Larsson's chest to implant it. Eight hours later, it failed. In the middle of the night, Mr. Larsson went back to the operating room where Dr. Senning put in the only backup. The batteries had to be recharged every few hours, but the pacemaker worked, on and off, for three years. ''He was lucky that he had few attacks when the pacemaker didn't work,'' Dr. Olof K. Edhag, a pacemaker expert who was one of Mr. Larsson's doctors, said in a recent interview in Stockholm

The crew of the space shuttle Discovery spent much of day seven of its nine-day flight speaking jocularly to journalists, students and Vice President Al Gore. The crew members said yesterday they were healthy, sleeping well and meeting a rigorous schedule for scientific experiments. Dr. Scott Parazynski, a medical doctor, said he and the six other Discovery crew members had been 'exceptionally healthy.' The evaluation applied to John Glenn, who at 77 is the oldest person to fly in space

The leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide can be effectively treated by a single dose of an antibiotic once a year, health workers said Tuesday, and they announced a major push to distribute the drug in five countries. The World Health Organization set up a new strategy earlier this year in an effort to eliminate trachoma as a major cause of blindness by the year 2020. Tuesday, officials of Pfizer Inc., which sells a long-acting antibiotic against the disease, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, a leading charity organization in New York, announced that they were starting a $66 million program to help carry out WHO's strategy in Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Tanzania and Vietnam

An Australian man who received a transplanted hand and forearm in France seven weeks ago has begun moving each finger of the donor hand and is gaining function with surprising swiftness, his doctors said last week. They said that so far the man, Clint Hallam, had not shown any signs of rejection and had escaped adverse effects of potent immune-suppressing drugs. Mr. Hallam, 48, is ''far ahead of schedule, doing superbly and better than any of us ever would have hoped,'' said Dr. Earl Owen, an Australian microsurgeon who headed the international team that performed the transplant. Much of Mr. Hallam's early success is because of the prescribed intense exercise program he performed on the muscles of his handless right arm in the year preceding the operation. The muscles of both forearms were equally strong when the transplant was performed at Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyons on Sept. 23, and they remain strong with twice-a-day physical therapy, Dr. Owen said

The eye infection trachoma dims the vision of six million people, making it the world's leading cause of preventable blindness

The patient, Clint Hallam of Australia, underwent the experimental operation because he lost his right hand in an accident with a circular saw in a jail in New Zealand in 1984. Surgeons reattached the severed limb but amputated it five years later because it did not function. He received a donor hand and forearm in surgery on Sept. 23. 'It is as if my arm was put on ice for 15 years and now I have it,' a joyous Hallam said in speaking publicly for the first time since the transplant operation. His arm and hand were wrapped heavily in bandages

The disease, trachoma, is caused by strains of the chlamydia bacterium. An estimated six million people worldwide are blind because of trachoma, ranking it only behind cataracts as a cause of blindness. The World Health Organization set up a new strategy earlier this year in an effort to eliminate trachoma as a major cause of blindness by 2020. Yesterday officials of Pfizer Inc., which sells a long-acting antibiotic against the disease, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, a leading organization in New York, announced that they were starting a $66 million program to help carry out W.H.O.'s strategy in Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Tanzania and Vietnam. In the hardest-hit areas, trachoma has created a common, disturbing scene of a child leading a blind parent, said Dr. Joseph Cook, an official of the Clark Foundation. The aim of the campaign is to help make such scenes a part of history