Faculty Bibliography

The government will provide unlimited free access to its AIDS-related electronic data bases in order to expand public knowledge about the disease and to help ease the financial burden on private AIDS organizations. The AIDS data bases list articles, books and abstracts about AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes the disease, as well as information about licensed and experimental drugs. In general, the data bases provide references and abstracts but not full texts

President Clinton was declared to be 'in excellent health' after he underwent his first annual medical check-up as president

President Clinton was declared to be 'in excellent health' yesterday after he underwent his first annual medical check-up as President. Mr. Clinton spent six and a half hours at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland undergoing the routine examination; he later told reporters he felt 'great.' Mr. Clinton's cholesterol count was 204 milligrams per deciliter, which is considered borderline high according to guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program. But Dr. Robert Ramsey, the White House physician, found 'no indication of heart disease or other serious disorders' on the basis of an electrocardiogram and a treadmill exercise test, Ms. [Dee Dee Myers] said. Fluctuating Weight

Researchers say they have made a discovery that paves the way for the development of new and more powerful drugs to combat tuberculosis, some strains of which have become resistant to the drugs that have long controlled the deadly disease

Common colds affect the sinuses as much as the nasal passages, concluded researchers at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville from CT scan studies of volunteers. Their study was reported in the Jan. 6 issue of the weekly New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors had long assumed that the common cold was largely confined to the nasal passages and the throat. But because they lacked proof, [Jack M. Gwaltney Jr.]'s team undertook the new study and turned to CT scans for a more precise determination of how the common cold affected all the upper airways. CT scans were chosen because they provide clearer detail of the sinuses than the other common type of scan, the MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, Gwaltney said

In a new study that may help diminish a longstanding dispute about the safety of the standard vaccine against whooping cough, researchers have found that the vaccine does not lead to increased risk of serious neurological illness. All major vaccine advisory groups in the US, Canada and Britain have concluded that the benefits of protection against whooping cough clearly outweigh potential risks from the vaccine--a recommendation backed by new evidence concerning the safety of the vaccine

The new research showed that 'viral sinusitis is part of the cold, almost an integral part of the disease,' said Dr. Jack M. Gwaltney Jr. He headed the research team from the University of Virginia that made the findings from CAT scan X-rays of 31 volunteers among 356 people who took part in the research project

Still another reason was statistical. Asthma now affects an estimated 12.4 million Americans, nearly double the 6.8 million in 1980. About 4.2 million asthmatics are 18 years or younger, said the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a unit of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. A major puzzle is why deaths from asthma have increased in many countries during a period when experts say treatment has improved significantly. In the United States, the number of deaths nearly doubled to 4,650 in 1992 from 2,598 in 1979. The increase has been chiefly among blacks. [Ruurd Van Roorda]'s team, which has conducted pioneering studies on asthma, undertook the new one because it wanted to gain a more precise understanding of what doctors did to influence the outcome of the disease. Roorda's study involved 406 children who were referred for care of asthma at the University Hospital in Groningen in the Netherlands from 1972 to 1976. All were 8 to 12 at the time of the initial visit, most had moderate to severe asthma and all came at least twice a year in follow-up visits until they became adults. At that point, they were advised to seek care from a specialist in internal medicine, family medicine or chest diseases. Of the 406 patients, 350, or 86 percent, responded to an invitation from Roorda's team to undergo a new examination and a new set of tests of their lung function. Such evaluations were made on average 15 years after the children first went to the Groningen clinic

The brave struggle of Virginia Clinton Kelley, President Clinton's mother, in the last weeks of her life is detailed. Kelley died on Jan 6, 1994 from complications of breast cancer and had been receiving intensive treatment for her condition over the last several months

A new international study shows that women, the elderly, diabetics and those with high blood pressure should be added to the groups of patients who should be given aspirin after they have survived heart attacks or strokes to prevent the risk of recurrence