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The 35-year-old unidentified man who was the world's first recipient of a baboon liver died after a stroke on Sep 6, 1992, 70 days after the transplant

The researchers measured the amount of ferritin, a protein that binds iron in the blood. Tests for ferritin are commonly used in medical practice. Because iron is stored in the bone marrow, liver and spleen, the ferritin levels in the blood were used to indicate the total amount of iron in the body. Laboratory experiments have shown that iron is a strong promoter of oxidation of lipids such as LDL. The hearts of rats with large amounts of iron are more susceptible to such damage. Other animal experiments suggest that the removal of iron limits or protects damage from heart attacks. Sullivan said iron was not included among 246 proposed risk factors for heart attacks when he published his theory in The Lancet in 1981 after The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association rejected the manuscript. In other writings, he has said that it might turn out that people with high iron levels who donate blood might be benefiting themselves as well as performing a community service

Proof that iron causes heart attacks and that drugs or other measures aimed at reducing the amount of iron in the body prevent them will still require much more research. * Why heart attacks are rare among premenopausal women. The female hormone estrogen may not necessarily be the reason for the low rate of heart attacks in this group, as many scientists suspect; rather, the reason may be that menstruating women lose blood, and iron, each month. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. [Jukka T. Salonen]'s epidemiological study was called 'a landmark paper' by Dr. Jerome L. Sullivan, director of clinical laboratories at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, S.C., who originally proposed the iron theory. Dr. Sullivan and other experts said further findings could challenge current recommendations for the amount of iron in the diet because the amounts now considered normal may turn out to be harmful

Officials at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said that the world's first recipient of a baboon liver died on Sep 6, 1992 after suffering a severe stroke. The transplant was performed on Jun 28

Dr. [Eric K. Noji] said the possibility of an outbreak of cholera or typhoid was extremely unlikely because no such infections had been reported to health departments before the hurricane. But because so many people in the part of Florida where the hurricane struck have come from Latin America and other countries where cholera is now epidemic, there is a remote possibility that a carrier of cholera or typhoid could spread the bacteria.

Among the possibilities are severe infection resulting from manipulation of the bile ducts; a syndrome affecting the liver, kidneys and blood; damage from shock; an unusual type of rejection, and reaction to the chemical used in the X-rays. A biopsy was performed Monday night, [John J. Fung] said, and a tissue examination showed suppression of the normal flow of bile but no evidence of a rejection reaction in the liver cells. Fung said he suspected that the complication was a combination of sepsis, or widespread infection, from manipulation of the bile ducts, and a mild rejection reaction

Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh said on Sep 1, 1992 that the world's first recipient of a baboon liver had gone into shock after undergoing a diagnostic X-ray procedure and that his prognosis is guarded

Among the possibilities are severe infection resulting from manipulation of the bile ducts; a syndrome affecting the liver, kidneys and blood; damage from shock; an unusual type of rejection; and reaction to the chemical used in the X-rays. An operation to biopsy the liver was performed Monday night, and an examination of the tissue under a microscope showed suppression of the normal flow of bile but no evidence of a rejection reaction in the liver cells, [John J. Fung] said. Fung said he suspected that the complication was a combination of sepsis, or widespread infection, from manipulation of the bile ducts and a mild rejection reaction

The meeting, at the Centers for Disease Control, focused on reports that surfaced at an international AIDS meeting in Amsterdam three weeks ago of a small but growing number of cases of severe immune deficiency without evidence of infection with the two viruses known to cause AIDS, HIV-1 and HIV-2. Arguably, the greatest thrills for a scientist are in discovering a new microbe, a new disease, cure and prevention. Yet few scientists ever experience such a thrill. Many more know how quickly the exhilaration that comes from believing they are on the verge of making such a discovery vanishes when findings cannot be confirmed. A dominant theme that emerged from the meeting was the need for scientists to keep an open mind on the public health significance of the mysterious syndrome and to avoid focusing solely on a microbe as its cause. But [Anthony S. Fauci] said it would be difficult for scientists to withstand public demands not simply for facts as they slowly emerge but for conclusions about what the facts mean

Until recently, complacent scientists thought they had conquered infectious diseases. However, the recognition of AIDS, Legionnaires disease and several other new diseases has shaken scientists from their overconfidence. An underlying concern of the meeting here was whether the mysterious syndrome was an old one that has occurred in low numbers; whether the numbers, though fewer than 50, are on the rise, and what relevance it has to AIDS. C.D.C. says the syndrome now under study is idiopathic, meaning its cause is unknown. But Dr. James Curran, a top AIDS official at the C.D.C., pleaded with reporters not to call it a baffling illness. Dr. Curran said it should not be called an AIDS-like illness, either, because AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Dr. Curran said the public should not necessarily jump to the conclusion that the syndrome is acquired. For example, the mysterious syndrome might reflect a genetic problem. Dr. James Curran, standing, and Dr. [Harold Jaffe] of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, at a meeting Friday about the small but growing number of cases of immune deficiency syndrome without evidence of either of the two viruses known to cause AIDS.; Dr. David Ho, left, of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Center, New York, and Dr. Sudhir Gupta of the University of California, Irvine, are investigating whether new viruses might be linked to an AIDS-like syndrome