Faculty Bibliography

Officials involved in the WHO's attempt to eradicate polio worldwide are alarmed by an outbreak of the disease among immunized populations in Oman. A few similar outbreaks have occurred in Taiwan, Gambia and Brazil. Steps proposed to escalate the attack on polio, proposed in the British journal The Lancet, are cited

Scientists reported on Oct 1, 1991 that injections of an experimental drug, Ampligen, into the veins of a small group of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome sharply improved their conditions

Michael Templeton, of Humble TX, has become the first person with a failing heart to recover with a portable, battery-powered heart assist device

[Michael Templeton] is the second recipient of the device, which is made by Thermo Cardiosystems Inc., a subsidiary of Thermedics Inc. in Woburn, Mass. The first recipient died about two weeks after the device was implanted in May from complications that [Frazier] said were unrelated to the device. A tube from the device enters the left ventricle of the diseased heart. Blood naturally drains from the heart into the pumping chamber of the mechanical device. When the device fills, the blood is propelled out of the pump into the aorta, the main artery of the body. Under conditions of the experiment set by the Food and Drug Administration, Templeton agreed to accept the experimental device as a temporary bridge to a heart transplant and not as a permanent treatment. Frazier said Templeton's own heart is recovering some function but not enough that he could live without the device

In a step toward developing a blood test for the syndrome, scientists have begun testing 56 people in Georgia, said Dr. Walter J. Gunn, who heads the disease centres' program on the syndrome. [W. John Martin] said he had isolated a spuma virus from the blood and spinal fluid of 10 patients with various forms of chronic fatigue syndrome. Martin said he made the first finding of a spuma virus last winter and told officials at the disease centres in March. He said he did not know how the spuma virus, if it is the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, was transmitted

To speed up news about life-saving drugs and treatments, the American Association for the Advancement of Science said that it would produce an electronic medical journal

Scientific experts meeting in Boston over the Sep 20-22, 1991 weekend were unable to identify any of three viruses as causative factors in chronic fatigue syndrome, and remarked on Sep 23 that no conclusive evidence has yet been found

The K.G.B. effort was probably as misdirected as phrenology and many other earlier studies conducted in the United States and elsewhere. Saving neurons from smart Russians may have been as futile a scientific effort as Communism was an economic policy, American experts say. They note that if the Russians found anything of significance, not a word has been communicated in any standard scientific journal. It is not known whether Western scientists will be allowed to examine the brain specimens or whether an invitation, if extended, would be worthwhile to accept. American experts say that if the K.G.B. did not use modern techniques to preserve the brains within an hour or so after death, little could be learned. Not that scientists plan to ask former Presidents of the United States for permission to examine their brains after death, although Dr. [Arnold B. Scheibel]'s team, including his wife, Dr. Marian C. Diamond, has examined a tiny portion of Einstein's brain. In that study, Dr. Scheibel's team found a significantly larger number of certain cells, called oligodendroglia, than was found in the brains of 11 less gifted individuals that were used as scientific controls. Studying human brains for clues to intelligence and genius will require long-term cooperation from gifted individuals and their families. Among the needs would be good documentation of I.Q. and other mental status exams throughout life. A complete set of medical records would also be needed to exclude damage that could be produced by disease late in life, said Dr. Edward D. Bird, a neuroscientist who heads the brain bank at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. Tissue from the bank for the study of nerve disorders is not being used for studies of human intelligence, but could be by qualified investigators, Dr. Bird said

President Bush's doctors pronounced him in excellent health after a checkup that focused on his heart at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda MD, clearing the way for his reelection campaign in 1992

An international AIDS meeting originally scheduled to meet in Boston in 1992 has been moved to Amsterdam due to President Bush's requirements that short-term visitors to the US declare whether they are infected with the AIDS virus