Faculty Bibliography

A chronology of former President [Ronald Reagan]'s health difficulties: 1967: While governor of California, Reagan had about 30 seedlike stones removed from his urinary tract. He had a transurethral prostatic resection, the same kind of operation performed during his second presidential term in 1986. 1979: He complained of pain in the right thumb, which was determined to be osteoarthritic. March 30, 1981: A bullet fired at Reagan in an assassination attempt hit him in the upper chest below the left arm, traveled downward and was deflected into the left lung, coming to rest an inch from his heart. The bullet was removed during three hours of surgery, and Reagan returned to the White House after 12 days in the hospital. April 1, 1982: Reagan underwent a routine urological examination at Bethesda Naval Hospital after complaining of discomfort. Doctors found no evidence of malignancy. Sept. 7, 1983: Reagan, having grown noticeably hard of hearing, was seen wearing a small hearing aid in his right ear when he appeared before a group of business and education leaders. He has attributed his hearing loss to the firing of a handgun too near his ear on a movie set many years ago. Reagan later began wearing a hearing aid in the left ear as well. May 18, 1984: A small polyp was discovered in the president's colon, but an examination showed the polyp was non-cancerous and it was not removed. March 11, 1985: The White House disclosed that doctors examining Reagan earlier that month found evidence of blood in his stool and a growth in his lower intestine. A statement said tests of occult, or hidden, blood in the feces were positive but 'physicians believe this may be from the polyp or from diet and will be monitored.' March 29, 1985: Reagan suffered a burst blood vessel in his left eye, causing it to fill partially with blood. White House spokesman Larry Speakes said no treatment was needed. July 12, 1985: Doctors removed a small, benign polyp from Reagan's colon and found a larger one that was removed the next day along with 2 feet of the president's intestinal tract. The larger, 2-inch, polyp was cancerous, but doctors said the cancer had not spread beyond the tissues that were removed. Aug. 1, 1985: The White House, responding to questions, said an irritated patch of skin had been removed from Reagan's nose two days earlier. A statement said the tissue 'was submitted for routine studies for infection, and it was determined no further treatment is necessary.' Four days later, Reagan told a news conference that the 'pimple' had been skin cancer. Jan. 17, 1986: Reagan had three small polyps removed from his intestine during a six-hour visit to Bethesda in his first major post-cancer colon checkup. They measured 1 millimeter to 2 millimeters in size. A shaving of facial tissue from a growth on the right side of Reagan's face also was taken. Lab tests showed that the three polyps and facial tissue were benign. June 21, 1986: In a five-hour visit to Bethesda, Reagan had two small polyps removed from his colon

For Ms. [GILDA RADNER], as for many patients, early detection of ovarian cancer was particularly difficult. In her best-selling book, ''It's Always Something,'' published by Simon & Schuster just after her death, she described an arduous trek from doctor to doctor as she tried to find out what caused her to feel exhausted, bloated and have abdominal cramps. She was sick for nine months before the cancer was diagnosed. In Ms. Radner's family, a cousin, an aunt and possibly her grandmother had ovarian cancer. Ms. Radner knew her cousin had the cancer, but she believed that her aunt, the cousin's mother, and her grandmother had died of stomach cancer. An unusual feature of Ms. Radner's case is that doctors twice examined her ovaries within two years of the onset of symptoms; the doctors presumably found the ovaries normal. They were observed when Ms. Radner and her husband, the actor Gene Wilder, tried in vitro fertilization in an attempt to become parents. The ovaries were seen again when she had surgery to open blocked fallopian tubes. This suggests that the cancer developed later and grew rapidly, or if present was microscopic

The US has had to turn to Europe more and more frequently for blood supplies. US demand has increased to the point where domestic supply cannot meet the deficit. Some blood centers say that it is cheaper to buy donated blood from Europe than to collect it locally

The Harvard report grew out of studies that began in 1983 when Dr. Daniel Cramer's team picked up on clues from other researchers who had linked galactose and transferase enzyme to ovarian failure that might be a precursor to cancer. Transferase converts galactose into glucose. Researchers believe the suspected danger derives from galactose, but how galactose might lead to ovarian cancer is unknown. Cramer speculated that it might result from ovarian failure leading to cancer. Cramer's team said it believed its study provided 'a credible basis' for the links between ovarian cancer, increased galactose consumption, and lower amounts of transferase

The evidence linking cytomegalovirus with coronary artery disease among transplant patients came from two studies by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Stanford University. Cytomegalovirus infection developed in 32 recipients. Coronary artery disease developed in 16, and 10 of them had cytomegalovirus infection. Coronary artery disease accounted for 10 per cent of the deaths of heart transplant recipients who had cytomegalovirus infection, but only 2 per cent of those who did not have the viral infection

Reliance on insecticides to kill the mosquitos has ''created a false sense of security'' and is misleading because it reinforces the belief that mosquito control is the Government's responsibility, not the individual's, Dr. [Duane J. Gubler] wrote in the current issue of The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. ''Ae. aegypti has reinvaded nearly every country in the American region that had achieved eradication during the 1950's and 1960's,'' Dr. Gubler wrote. The mosquito was never eradicated from the United States. Only Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Chile remain free of the mosquito. ''The only long-term, cost-effective approach to mosquito control is to convince the people who live in the homes where most transmission occurs to help the government control the mosquito vector,'' Dr. Gubler said in an interview. ''We must have the assistance of the people who unwittingly create the problem.''

Medical researchers discovered that people whose treatment greatly reduces their high blood pressure apparently suffer far more heart attacks than those whose treatment results in moderate declines

Although the chemicals are far from being tested in humans, the discovery is important because it identifies an entirely new class of chemicals that can be studied for effectiveness against AIDS, said the scientists at the National Cancer Institute who conducted the research. The active chemicals are combinations of sugars and fatty acids called glycolipids. [Michael R. Boyd] said the chemicals have stopped the growth of the virus in laboratory experiments, although his team has yet to learn how the glycolipids do this

People whose treatment greatly reduces their high blood pressure apparently suffer far more heart attacks than those whose treatment results in moderate declines, researchers have found. They also emphasized that the results should not deter the estimated 20-million Americans who are being treated for hypertension from continuing to lower their blood pressure. A moderate reduction of blood pressure does reduce the risk of heart attack, and reduction overall reduces the risk of stroke, they said. The researchers said they could not identify precisely what caused the increased risk of heart attack in patients whose blood pressure dropped greatly. But the head of the research team, Dr. Michael H. Alderman, suggested that a large drop in blood pressure might reduce the flow of blood to the heart too much in patients with hardening of the coronary arteries, depriving the heart muscle of oxygen and vital nutrients

Federal scientists have reported that several chemicals derived from blue-green algae were 'remarkably active' against the AIDS virus in test-tube experiments