Faculty Bibliography

The coronary gene therapy research, led by Dr. Jeffrey M. Isner of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Mass., and Tufts University, is reported in today's issue of Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association. The protein therapy is being developed by Dr. Thomas-Joseph Stegmann of Fulda, Germany, a leading figure in the field, who discussed his work in interviews. But the researchers said in interviews that they were struck by the improvements reported by more than 20 participants in these early trials, even patients whose pain could not be controlled by other drug therapy or bypass surgery. And the editor of the journal decided that Dr. Isner's results, though preliminary, were significant enough to warrant publication. St. Elizabeth's Hospital, with which Dr. Isner is affiliated, has formed a company to test his therapy in larger trials. As for Dr. Stegmann, he is a co-founder of Cardio-Vascular Genetic Engineering Inc. of Irvine, Calif., which aims to develop angiogenesis treatment for coronary artery disease

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the marketing of a vaccine against Lyme disease for the first time. But the Federal agency was unusually cautious in recommending use of the vaccine, known as Lymerix, which is manufactured by SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals of Philadelphia. For one, Lymerix, which will be available in January, does not protect everyone who takes it against Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted through tick bites. For maximum protection, three injections of the vaccine must be taken over a year. Studies have shown that taking three injections provides 78 percent protection against Lyme disease, while two injections provides only 50 percent protection. Lymerix is made from a genetically engineered protein known as OspA, located on the outer surface of the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease. The manufacturer said that protection seemed to result from the vaccine stimulating the body's immune system to produce antibodies against the spiral bacteria. When a vaccinated person is bitten by an infected tick, the antibody is taken up into the tick's intestine where it kills the bacteria, preventing infection

The importance of death certificates has grown in recent years as the autopsy rate has plummeted to about 10 percent from about 50 percent in the 1960's. Without autopsies, death certificates become official declarations of why people have died. Still, death certificate information is often flawed, and that misinformation can affect policy. New evidence of flawed death certificate information comes from researchers at the federally financed Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts. The study, begun in 1948 and involving some 10,000 people, suggests that doctors overstate coronary artery disease as a cause of death on death certificates, particularly among the elderly. Apparently, coronary artery disease is the default diagnosis for the death certificate when doctors are not sure of the cause of death. The situation, however, is complicated: Many cases are so medically complex that assigning a single cause, particularly in older people with multiple ailments, can be virtually impossible, but doctors still must cite a primary cause and can add secondary causes. In such cases, doctors may differ about the main cause

For one, Lymerix, which will be available in January, does not protect everyone who takes it against Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted through tick bites. For maximum protection, three injections of the vaccine must be taken over a year. Studies have shown that taking three injections provides 78 percent protection against Lyme disease, while taking two injections provides only 50 percent protection

Two small studies have shown that over the course of just a few weeks, one dose of experimental drugs injected directly into the heart can greatly relieve, or even eliminate, the chest pain of coronary artery disease by encouraging the growth of new blood vessels to bypass clogged arteries, according to researchers in the United States and Germany. One of the treatments under study is gene therapy to produce a protein called vegF, for vascular endothelial growth factor. The other entails injection of a protein called FGF-1, for fibroblast growth factor. The coronary gene therapy research, led by Dr. Jeffrey Isner of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Mass., and Tufts University, is reported in today's issue of Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association. The protein therapy is being developed by Dr. Thomas-Joseph Stegmann of Fulda, Germany, a leading figure in the field, who discussed his work in interviews

Two small studies have shown that, in just a few weeks, one dose of experimental drugs injected directly into the heart can greatly relieve, or even eliminate, the chest pain of coronary artery disease by encouraging the growth of new blood vessels to bypass clogged arteries, according to researchers in the United States and Germany. One of the treatments under study is gene therapy to produce a protein called vegF, for vascular endothelial growth factor. The other entails injection of a protein called FGF-1, for fibroblast growth factor. The coronary gene therapy research, led by Dr. Jeffrey Isner of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Mass., and Tufts University, is reported in today's issue of Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association. The protein therapy is being developed by Dr. Thomas-Joseph Stegmann of Fulda, Germany, a leader in the field, who discussed his work in interviews

For the first time, scientists have calculated the devastating toll of cigarette smoking in China and declared the nation on the verge of a calamitous epidemic of smoking-related deaths that might well kill one in three Chinese men. In a nation where 70 percent of men smoke, there are now 2,000 smoking-related deaths a day, the researchers said. That number will increase to 8,000 a day by the middle of the next century unless public health measures are taken. 'There is an unprecedented epidemic of smoking deaths, Dr. Chen Zhengming of Oxford University told a news conference Thursday in Beijing. And China is still in the early stages of the epidemic

For the first time, scientists have calculated the devastating toll of cigarette smoking in China and declared the country to be on the verge of a calamitous epidemic of smoking-related deaths that may well kill one in three Chinese men. In a country where 70 percent of men smoke, there are now 2,000 smoking-related deaths a day, the researchers said. 'There is an unprecedented epidemic of smoking deaths,' Dr. Chen Zhengming, a Chinese researcher now based at Oxford University, told a news conference yesterday in Beijing. 'And China is still in the early stages of the epidemic.'

For the first time scientists have calculated the devastating toll of cigarette smoking in China and declared the country to be on the verge of a calamitous epidemic of smoking-related deaths that may well kill one in three Chinese men. In a country where 70 percent of men smoke, there are now 2,000 smoking-related deaths a day, the researchers said. That number will increase to 8,000 a day by the middle of the next century unless public health measures are taken. 'There is an unprecedented epidemic of smoking deaths,' Dr. Chen Zhengming, a Chinese researcher now based at Oxford University, told a press conference Thursday in Beijing. 'And China is still in the early stages of the epidemic.'

For the first time, scientists have calculated the devastating toll of cigarette smoking in China and declared the country to be on the verge of a calamitous epidemic of smoking-related disease that could ultimately result in the deaths of 1 in 3 Chinese men. ''There is an unprecedented epidemic of smoking deaths,'' Dr. Chen Zhengming, a Chinese researcher now based at Oxford University, told a news conference today in Beijing. ''And China is still in the early stages of the epidemic.'' For example: In China, middle-aged smokers are three times more likely to get lung cancer than nonsmokers. They are twice as likely to die of tuberculosis. Today, more than 12 percent of deaths among men are related to smoking and that proportion is increasing