Faculty Bibliography

According to a study reported on Nov 11, 1992 in the Journal of the AMA, about half of all special X-ray procedures to examine the heart performed in the US are unnecessary or could be safely put off for long periods

By outlining the contour of the arteries and defining the degree of blockage in them, coronary angiograms help doctors determine whether patients will benefit from additional procedures such as angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery. Nevertheless, in the article, in a news release from the American Medical Association in Chicago and in an interview, [Thomas B. Graboys] said his team believed that about half of the coronary angiograms performed in the United States every year were not needed. He said he hoped the new findings would 'chip away' at the soaring number of angiograms, which he described as 'the funnel into' other procedures and heart surgery. A rigorously controlled study to more specifically address the problem of overuse of coronary angiograms would have to involve thousands of patients and cost millions of dollars, Graboys said, and would not provide an answer until the year 2000

Known as BCG, it is the most widely used vaccine in the world but has long been disdained in the United States. American doctors are now wrestling with their well-founded objections to see if the renewed threat of tuberculosis makes the case for BCG any more compelling. BCG does not protect a person from infection, but it is supposed to avert the life-threatening complications of tuberculosis. Experts in the United States believe the vaccine does lower the risk of such complications in children, but they consider its efficacy in adults to be unproved. And the vaccine has a serious public-health drawback: It renders useless the standard skin test for assessing infection with the tuberculosis bacterium. There have been five trials of the only BCG vaccine that is licensed for use in the United States, said Dr. George W. Comstock, an expert in BCG vaccines at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore

A new Canadian study shows that people 65 years and older who took modest daily amounts of a broad array of vitamins, minerals and other supplements had stronger immune defenses and fewer infections than those who did not receive them

People 65 and older who took modest daily amounts of a broad array of vitamins, minerals and other supplements had markedly fewer infections and stronger immune defenses than those who did not receive them, a new Canadian study says. The study, involving 96 healthy men and women who lived on their own, examined the role of 18 vitamins, minerals and other supplements suspected of influencing the immune system. [Ranjit Kumar Chandra] is a pediatrician and immunologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He said Thursday that he is interested in the relationships between essential vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients and the immune functions among older people

The case that passive smoking increases the risk of lung cancer among non-smoking spouses has been strengthened by a study based on autopsies. The risk was higher among non-smoking women who were married to smokers than among those married to non-smokers, concluded Greek, Italian and American researchers in a study made public recently

'There is no change in his condition,' said Dr. David D. Ho, a virologist at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Center in New York and one of [Magic Johnson]'s doctors. 'He's been exactly the same for a long time.' 'We have had 12 years of experience with AIDS, and thousands of H.I.V.-infected athletes have participated in probably millions of athletic contests, and there is not one documented case of H.I.V. infection transmitted in this setting,' [David E. Rogers] said. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Insititute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Johnson's decision was 'sending a really bad signal to the workplace and to the H.I.V.-infected population, because people look up to Magic.'

Dr. Michael J. Horan, an official of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, said that in recommending more frequent blood pressure tests for children, who are far less likely to have the condition than adults, his Federal agency had introduced 'a slight discrepancy' in its recommendations. He also said he had not checked the guideline with the one made by the American Academy of Pediatrics in Chicago that calls for less frequent blood pressure checks. 'We have no good defense' for the recommendation for yearly checks, Dr. Horan said, adding that he would ask the National High Blood Pressure Education Program to modify its recommendations. The program is run by a coalition of Federal, state and community health officials, experts on hypertension and professional organizations, as well as industry, labor and management groups. 'The unpleasant reality is that now, a decade or more after their introduction, we do not know how well calcium channel blockers or converting enzyme inhibitors stack up against their predecessors in ability to extend healthy hypertensive lives,' Dr. Michael H. Alderman, who heads the department of preventive medicine at Albert Einstein Medical School in the Bronx, recently wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association. He is a member of the panel that wrote the report

Mr. [Ross Perot] has also declined to be interviewed about the issue. But in refusing to provide even a doctor's letter attesting to his health, Mr. Perot has become the least forthcoming about his health of any leading Presidential candidate in the general election in the last 20 years. Would 'Deflect' Attention Sharon Holman, Mr. Perot's campaign press secretary, told reporters on Thursday that releasing Mr. Perot's medical records a few days before the election would only 'deflect' attention from the major issues of the campaign. In describing Mr. Perot's health as excellent at a news conference, Ms. Holman did not say whether the characterization was hers, Mr. Perot's or his doctor's. Bush Gave Interview

In two sweeping reports, the officials set forth a new way to classify high blood pressure; challenged the food industry to substantially lower the amount of salt and calories in processed foods; and recommended more public education programs, such as labeling the salt and caloric content of food items in supermarkets, and yearly checks of blood pressure among children 3 or older. Dr. Edward Roccella, coordinator of the high blood pressure program, calculated that treatment of the condition probably prevented about 180,000 fatal strokes from 1970 to 1990. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects one in four adults. It can lead to strokes, heart attacks, blindness, kidney failure and pain in walking as a result of leg arteries that have become clogged with deposits of fat from atherosclerosis