Faculty Bibliography

The four participating medical centers are Penn State's Hershey Medical Center, the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, and the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. The Hershey and LDS teams received the first devices last week. ''We're ready to go,'' said Dr. Michael T. Snider, a professor of anesthesiology who heads the Hershey team. With the flu season and winter respiratory problems at hand, Dr. Snider said he expected to implant a device for the first time within three weeks. ''If the device can do a third or more of the normal breathing,'' Dr. [J D Mortensen] said, ''then the ventilator can be turned down to lower and safer levels or turned off completely, and the assistance from the IVOX can buy enough time for the lungs to recover.'' ''The studies were absolutely essential to show that the IVOX did not hurt the animals,'' Dr. Mortensen said. ''But the reason for going to humans now is that there is no other good model for treating true respiratory failure in an intensive care unit except humans.''

The aims of the initial human experiments are to substantiate data established in animals and to confirm the safety of the device in humans. The experiments have been approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration and the ethics committees at each institution. The device's chief developer, Dr. J.D. Mortensen, developed an earlier version of the device with financial support from the National Institutes of Health. That version did not exchange enough oxygen and carbon dioxide to be clinically useful. Mortensen, who is chairman of Cardiopulmonics, said the device could help tens of thousands of people each year recover from acute episodes of respiratory failure resulting from inhalation of smoke or noxious agents, drugs, severe pneumonia and scores of other ailments

Black & White Photo; Graphic, Diagram; (Dr. [Calvin R. Stiller].) Stiller: Implanted old organ in boy University of Pittsburgh Science News Bureau; Pioneer: Dr. [Thomas E. Starzl] at the University of Pittsburgh last month performed what is believed to be the first heart, liver, kidney transplant in the world. The recipient is in critical condition New York Times graphic; Multiples: It's been 25 years since the first transplant. Now, cdoctors implant multiple organs For Desperate Patients, Desperate Measures: Each year, hundreds of people receive multiple-organ transplants. As anti-rejection drugs and surgical techniques improve, the operations are expected to increase. Heart, liver, kidney: First performed in December, for a woman rejecting a transplanted heart. Her kidneys were damaged by anti-rejection drugs and liver by hepatitis. Liver, pancreas, stomach, small and large intestine; The most organs ever transplanted together. Used for defects in intestinal tract, with associated liver damage. Heart, lung: One of the earliest multiple transplants, first done in 1960s. Often needed because heart problems can damage lungs. Pancreas, kidney: Most common multiple transplant, first done in 1966. Used for severe diabetes involving kidney damage. Often includes duodenum, part of the small intestine

Barbara Bush began the first of 10 radiation treatments to her eyes to relieve the double vision, discomfort and tears that she has suffered as part of a thyroid condition

The length of hospital stays for elderly people dropped by more than half from 1982 to 1986, the latest figures available, Dr. [Nicole Lurie] said. ''Our study raises warning flags that the same phenomenom may be occurring unrecognized elsewhere,'' Dr. Lurie said in an interview. ''When you see as drastic an increase in death rates as we have seen in Minneapolis, you need to be deeply concerned.'' Dr. Lurie said, ''If hospitals are discharging sick patients who are not terminally ill to nursing homes that do not have the staff or equipment to care for them properly, then we have a serious problem.'' In earlier studies, Dr. Mark A. Sager and a team at the University of Wisconsin found that the proportion of deaths occurring in nursing homes increased significantly after the regulatory changes, while there were fewer deaths in hospitals. Because nursing homes seem to have assumed a greater burden in tending to sicker people, Dr. Sager said it is critical to learn whether the homes provide enough nursing and physician care. If the findings are attributable to this combination of factors, ''the study has significant national policy implications,'' Dr. Sager said. ''The question is: how hard should Medicare push to enroll everyone in Medicare H.M.O.'s? Maybe they should not push very hard.''

As success with single-organ transplants is allowing many people to live longer, some are developing complications that can be treated only with more organ transplants. In Pittsburgh this month, Dr. Thomas Starzl, who has pioneered many of the multiple-organ transplant procedures, led a team that gave 26-year-old Cindy Martin a heart, liver and kidney in a 22-hour operation. It is believed to be the first simultaneous transplant of these three organs performed anywhere in the world. The survival rates for multiple-organ transplants are generally a few percentage points lower than for a single organ, but the figures depend on the surgical team. Only a small fraction of teams are qualified to do multiple-organ transplants

Intense efforts to find new ways to treat enlarged prostates have led to new alternatives in drugs, hormones, mechanical devices, new kinds of surgery and intense heat. The problem is examined

Results of blood tests for Lyme disease vary greatly among different laboratories and even with the same laboratory, a new study shows. Experts said the variation in testing could lead to erroneous diagnoses and subject patients to unnecessary treatment

''The chronological cutoff doesn't make a lot of sense because someone who dies at 75 can be biologically younger than someone at 50,'' said Dr. Calvin R. Stiller, the head of transplant surgery at the University of Western Ontario in London and a leader in transplantation. ''There are donors currently not being used because of age,'' Dr. Stiller said. ''Better we find out whether they are usable and, if necessary, take the lobes out of those and put them into small children.'' Another bold step in transplantation occurred in Pittsburgh earlier this month, when a team led by Dr. Thomas E. Starzl gave Cindy Martin a new heart, liver and kidney. Mrs. Martin, who is 26 years old, is now in critical condition. Equity issues could become more important if multiple transplants are done on a larger scale, Dr. Starzl said, adding that in such cases, ''If Solomon were around, I'd turn the matter over to him.'' Ethics and Transplants: New Questions Multiple Transplants: Should three organs be used to save three lives or just one? When should single organs be kept for use at local centers instead of making clusters available for multiple transplants elsewhere? Should doctors, who have long been taught not to abandon a patient, consider the issue of equitable distribution of scarce resources? Living Donors: What risks to a living donor are acceptable? Under what circumstances should a donor give part of an irreplaceable organ like the liver? Restrictions on Donated Organs: How old is too old for a donor? What are the limits on using a flawed organ as a temporary transplant until a healthy organ is found?

The AIDS virus is more prevalent in the blood of infected people than scientists had believed, and there is no period of infection when the virus is dormant, new research shows. The two reports, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, provide new clues about how the human immunodeficiency virus causes infection and then multiplies in cells to destroy the body's immune system, causing AIDS. The authors, from Los Angeles and Seattle, said the findings may have practical importance by helping to speed the identification of new drugs and therapies that attack the virus