Faculty Bibliography

Radiologists sometimes made house calls, usually for patients bedridden with a fractured hip. Dad's ''black bag'' was a portable X-ray machine the size of a large suitcase and heavy. Use of portable X-rays was limited, because the radiation exposure time was long and the quality of the films seldom matched those taken in an office. X-ray films were developed in a darkened room with the type of chemical solutions used for camera film. A technician mixed fresh solutions daily, and they stank. Radiologists would give a preliminary ''wet reading'' after looking at the X-rays before they dried. The digital age has eliminated those steps by making X-ray film obsolete. ''The more experienced eye can take in a complex pattern of shadows and images almost at a glance and become instinctively sensitive to an abnormal contour or shadow,'' said Dr. Joseph T. Ferrucci Jr., the emeritus chairman of radiology at Boston University, whose radiologist father was one of my dad's colleagues

An even more serious form, known as XDR-TB for extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, does not respond to any of the fluoroquinolone class and to at least one of three second-line drugs (amikacin, capreomycin and kanamycin) that are given by injection. There are about 450 laboratories in the world now that can detect drug-resistant tuberculosis, although many are not performing to capacity, Dr. Mario C. Raviglione, who directs the health agency's tuberculosis department in Geneva, said in a telephone interview. Under the plan, all laboratories would perform 1.8 million cultures for tuberculosis in 2007 and 2.2 million in 2008, up from the estimated 200,000 in 2006. The laboratories would perform 750,000 drug susceptibility tests in 2007 and 900,000 in 2008, up from 75,000 in 2005

The two drugs, which could be approved for marketing this year, would add two new classes of drugs to the four that are available to battle HIV, the AIDS virus. That would be especially important to tens of thousands of U.S. patients whose treatment is failing because their virus has become resistant to drugs already in use. While there are now 20 approved drugs to treat HIV and AIDS, there are only four different mechanisms by which the drugs work. In many patients, the rapidly replicating virus evolves resistance to one or more drugs, usually because patients don't take their drugs on time as prescribed

''The new analyses are both disappointing and puzzling'' because they offer no explanation for the vaccine's failure, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a partner in the vaccine trial. The findings raise questions about whether adenovirus can ever be used as a crucial ingredient in an AIDS vaccine and whether new tacks will be needed. Use of a modified virus as a vector to deliver H.I.V. genes is a new and evolving way to make an AIDS vaccine. The Merck vaccine included three synthetic H.I.V. genes. ''We did a beautiful experiment, but it definitely was a disappointment,'' Dr. Larry Corey of the University of Washington, who led the investigators, said in an interview. ''One lesson is that scientists will have to look at vector-based immunity more thoroughly than we have in the past.''

The new reports create even more scientific confusion about how to develop a vaccine to stop the global HIV pandemic, which has infected an estimated 39 million people and killed 25 million more. The findings raise questions about whether adenovirus can ever be used as a crucial ingredient in an AIDS vaccine and whether new tacks will be needed. Use of a modified virus as a vector to deliver HIV genes is a new and evolving way to make an AIDS vaccine. The Merck vaccine included three synthetic HIV genes

The increased risk was principally among a group of people who had pre-existing levels of immunity to a common cold virus known as adenovirus type 5, which was modified to become a critical part of the vaccine. Researchers emphasized that the vaccine itself could not cause AIDS, but one theory is that the cold virus may have activated the immune system in some way to make certain recipients more susceptible to becoming HIV-infected when exposed to the AIDS virus. The vaccine was being tested among 3,000 volunteers at high risk of developing AIDS in nine countries, including those at immunization centers organized by the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Merck's was seen as one of the most promising experimental AIDS vaccines to have been tested on people. Many scientists and AIDS advocates have called the failure of the experimental vaccine a major setback

Chlamydia and gonorrhea are the two most common diseases among those doctors must report in the United States. And the 1,030,911 cases of chlamydia in 2006 are the highest ever recorded for any nationally reported disease in any year, the officials said in releasing their annual report on sexually transmitted diseases. They said that because of underreporting, a more accurate estimate is 2.8 million new chlamydia cases annually. ''Chlamydia is now the most common S.T.D. ever reported,'' Dr. [John M. Douglas Jr.] said, but not by much. The next most common is gonorrhea, with just over one million cases reported each year from 1976 to 1980. The peak for gonorrhea was 1,013,00. Gonorrhea cases then declined steadily. African-Americans account for 69 percent of all gonorrhea in this country. ''The biggest increase in gonorrhea regionally has been in the South, and we do not have a ready explanation for that,'' Dr. Douglas said

''It was not watered down in terms of its science,'' Ms. [Dana Perino] said. ''It wasn't watered down in terms of the concerns that climate change raises for public health.'' The testimony that remained said, ''Climate change is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans and the nation's public health infrastructure.'' But a line saying ''the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed'' was gone, and the testimony focused on the ways health agencies were already prepared to tackle any problems

The Journal of Biological Chemistry initially rejected Dr. Kornberg's two classic papers. He said the journal told him that a peer, the noted scientist Erwin Chargaff, had written ''an exceedingly sarcastic letter'' in assessing his findings. In 1967, Dr. Kornberg and his team became the first to produce the active inner core of a virus in a laboratory. President Lyndon B. Johnson hailed the report of the feat as ''one of the most important stories you ever read'' because it ''opens a wide door to new discoveries in fighting disease and building healthier lives.'' He complained bitterly, however, that too few scientists studied polyphosphate, largely, he said, because of science's proclivity to work ''in a clannish way.'' With more scientists struggling for grants in an era of tight budgets, he said, ''nobody is going to propose doing anything that is bold or creative,'' like working on polyphosphate

In 1959, Arthur Kornberg was awarded a Nobel Prize in medicine for the discovery of DNA polymerase, an enzyme needed to synthesize the master molecule of heredity.