Faculty Bibliography

Hiroshi Nakajima, a Japanese doctor, was re-elected the head of the World Health Organization on Jan 20, 1993 by a vote of 18-13. Nakajima won re-election despite a vigorous diplomatic campaign by the US and its European allies to unseat him

The second recipient of a baboon's liver has failed to regain consciousness since the transplant operation on Jan 10, 1993, a sign that his body may be rejecting the organ

Based on the statement, Dr. Vincent DeVita, an expert in Hodgkin's disease and former head of the National Cancer Institute, a Federal agency in Bethesda, Md., said that [Mario Lemieux] 'is very likely to be cured.' [Thomas Hodgkin]'s disease can spread to bones. Lemieux has had surgery for a chronic back problem. But doctors not connected with his case said it was unlikely that Hodgkin's disease was a cause of Lemieux's back problem because he has presumably undergone a number of scans and other diagnostic tests that would have detected the cancer in the vertebral bones of the back. Although highly curative, radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease is often more complicated than for other cancers, like breast, said DeVita, who is now at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. 'It is not an easy therapy to give,' and steps have to be taken to determine the anatomical areas that should receive radiation and those that should be spared to avoid side effects, DeVita said

Byrd's doctor said he was encouraged to see such steady improvement in function six weeks after Byrd fractured his neck and nearly severed his spinal cord. But the doctor emphasized, as he and other members of Byrd's medical team have all along, that any further recovery would be slow and that the extent of it cannot be determined now. 'He's going to walk some day, I believe that,' said Angela Byrd. 'I don't know if they can say that medically. I know that [Dennis Byrd] is going to walk some day, and everything is going to be wonderful again. We're just going to stick together until that time comes, then we're just going to rejoice together when it's over.' 'Coming Back Daily' Expressing hope that Byrd 'continues to surprise me and goes all the way,' Dr. [Kristjan T. Ragnarsson] said, 'It is unlikely he will make a full recovery, but I hope I'm wrong.'

Broader issues emerge from the nitroglycerin shortage. They include: difficulties in making drugs, even old ones like nitroglycerin; difficulties in deciphering trade secrets used by the company that innovated the drug; lack of standards for judging whether a generic drug is equivalent to a previously patented one; small profit margins from low-volume sales of a drug, and consolidation of the drug industry. It is widely believed that when a drug goes off patent, the monopoly ends, resulting in increased competition and lowers prices. But that is often not the case. Some drugs are still made exclusively by one manufacturer, although they are no longer protected by patent. Many experts say they do not know why that is. When only a few generic companies make a much needed drug, 'we need to find out the reasons,' said Dr. Raymond Woosley, chairman of the pharmacology department at Georgetown University. Another difficult area is determining the bio-equivalence of the metered amount of asthma drugs delivered by inhalers. The asthma drugs are prescribed to widen the bronchial tubes in the lung. But because most of the drug is delivered to the lungs, and little gets into the blood, 'we do not know how to test generic and patented bronchodilators to make sure they are equivalent,' Dr. Woosley said.

Several critical shortages in the US of important drugs in the last year are discussed. Most recently, machinery problems at Parke-Davis created a shortage of nitroglycerin pills, which are commonly used to ease the pain of heart patients with angina

A recipient of a baboon liver was in critical but stable condition after receiving the transplant, only the second of its kind, on Jan 11, 1993. The baboon's liver is expected to grow to the size of a human adult's liver in the next few weeks

[John Fung] and Dr. Thomas Starzl, the head of the Pittsburgh transplant program, declined to give a prognosis for the man because the baboon transplant was so experimental. Without the procedure, Fung said, the man probably would have died in 30 days. Fung said the man had been referred to a number of other medical centers for a human liver transplant, and all turned him down. Fung did not identify the medical centers. Surgeons from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center prepare a baboon liver for transplantation into a 62-year-old man during the world's second baboon-to-liver transplant Saturday in Pittsburgh. AP PHOTO

A 62-year-old man dying from hepatitis B became the second recipient of a liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh utilizing an organ from a baboon. The livers of baboons are believed to be resistant to the virus