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The surgeon, Dr. Randas Batista, says he has often had dramatic success in performing the operation on more than 300 patients since 1994 near Curitiba in southern Brazil. Several heart surgeons say they have come away amazed after watching Batista do the operation in Brazil or in visits to hospitals in the United States. After shedding their skepticism, several surgeons have performed a small number of the operations at hospitals in the United States, Britain, Italy and other countries. The operation is 'mind-boggling' and 'one of the most important developments in heart surgery in years,' Dr. Tomas Salerno, chief of cardiovascular surgery at Buffalo General Hospital, said in an interview. He and Batista grew up in nearby towns in Brazil but did not meet until Batista trained under him in Toronto from 1978 to 1982

Randas J. V. Batista, a Brazilian surgeon, has developed a bold new operation for heart failure that supporters say promises ultimately to allow tens of thousands of people to resume daily activities, stop many medications and avoid transplants. The operation defies conventional medical wisdom because it removes living tissue from the heart. The size of an enlarged heart is reduced by cutting out a large slice of living muscle from the main pumping chamber, which is then stitched together while the heart is beating

Working under primitive conditions in a small rural hospital in Brazil, a surgeon has developed a bold new operation for heart failure that supporters say promises to allow tens of thousands of people to resume daily activities, stop many medications and avoid transplants. The operation defies conventional medical wisdom because it removes living tissue from the heart. The size of an enlarged heart is reduced by cutting out a large slice of living muscle from the main pumping chamber, which is then stitched together while the patient's heart is beating

The operation defies conventional medical wisdom because it removes living tissue from the heart. The size of an enlarged heart is reduced by cutting out a large slice of living muscle from the main pumping chamber, which is then stitched together while the patient's heart goes on beating. The surgeon, Dr. Randas Batista, says he has often had dramatic success from the operation, which he has performed on more than 300 patients since 1994 near Curitiba in southern Brazil. Several heart surgeons say they have come away amazed after watching Batista do the operation in Brazil or during visits to hospitals in the United States. After shedding their skepticism, several surgeons have performed a small number of the operations at hospitals in the United States, Britain, Italy and other countries

A new study being published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Jun 11, 1996 warns that ticks can deliver other illnesses besides Lyme disease, and that doctors must take care to treat each correctly. One such disease is human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, also known as H.G.E., which produces flu-like symptoms without the distinctive bull's-eye rash of Lyme disease. The study also identified the white-footed mouse as the reservoir from which the ticks pick up the causative organisms of not only H.G.E. and Lyme disease, but also of a third disease, Nantucket Fever or babesiosis

In a study that underscores the risks of oral sex, scientists have found that an AIDS-like virus can infect monkeys after it is dabbed on the backs of their mouths. Six of seven rhesus monkeys in the experiment became infected with the monkey AIDS virus, or SIV, even though there were no sores, cuts or gum disease in their mouths, the scientists report in an article being published today in the journal Science. She said it is highly unlikely that the human AIDS virus, HIV, is transmitted by casual contact, like kissing or the sharing of eating utensils and toothbrushes, as distinguished from oral sex

In a study that underscores the risks of oral sex, scientists have found that an AIDS-like virus can infect monkeys after it is dabbed on their backs of their mouths. Six of seven rhesus monkeys in the experiment became infected with the AIDS monkey virus even though there were no sores, cuts or gum disease in their mouths, scientists report in the journal Science on Jun 7, 1996

In a study that underscores the risks of oral sex, scientists have found that an AIDSlike virus can infect monkeys after it is dabbed on the backs of their mouths. Six of seven rhesus monkeys in the experiment became infected with the monkey AIDS virus, SIV, even though there were no sores, cuts or gum disease in their mouths, the scientists report in today's edition of Science. Two main reasons are that epidemiological studies have limited evidence of such transmission, and 'the risk for oral infection appears to be limited to higher' amounts of virus than have been found in saliva, said the researchers, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Tulane University in New Orleans

In a study that underscores the risks of oral sex, scientists have found that an HIV-like virus can infect monkeys after it is dabbed on the backs of their mouths. Six of seven rhesus monkeys in the experiment became infected with SIV, the monkey version of the virus that causes AIDS, even though there were no sores, cuts or gum disease in their mouths, the scientists reported in today's issue of Science. These and other findings 'should be a warning that oral sex is not safe sex,' said Dr. Ruth Ruprecht, head of the research team from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Tulane University in New Orleans