Faculty Bibliography

Federal health officials on Sep 20, 1996 proposed new guidelines for transplants of animal organs and tissue into humans, responding to concerns about their potential for causing outbreaks of new and previously known diseases

Federal health officials Friday proposed new guidelines for transplants of animal organs and tissues into humans, responding to concerns about their potential for causing outbreaks of new and previously known diseases. The guidelines 'aim to walk a tightrope' in protecting public health while not impeding promising research efforts to find new ways to alleviate the shortage of human donor organs and tissues, said Dr. David A. Kessler, commissioner of Food and Drugs

A standard procedure used more than a million times a year on seriously ill patients in this country offers no benefit and may kill some people, according to a new study that is causing consternation among many doctors. For 25 years, doctors working in the high-technology world of intensive care units have relied on the procedure to diagnose, monitor and treat very sick patients, like those experiencing heart, lung or multiorgan failure. But the authors of the study, led by Dr. Alfred F. Connors Jr. of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said doctors had never tested the procedure in a large randomized controlled trial, the most scientifically rigorous type of study

Pulmonary artery catheterization, a standard procedure used more than a million times a year on seriously ill patients in the US, offers no benefit and may kill some people, according to a new study that appeares in the Sep 18, 1996 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The procedure involves inserting a thin tube into the heart through the neck vein to collect data to guide minute-to-minute therapeutic decisions

A standard procedure used more than a million times a year on seriously ill patients in this country offers no benefit and may kill some people, according to a new study that is causing consternation among many doctors. For 25 years, doctors working in the high-technology world of intensive care units have relied on the procedure to diagnose, monitor and treat very sick patients, like those experiencing heart, lung or multi-organ failure. But the authors of the study, led by Dr. Alfred F. Connors Jr. of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said doctors had never tested the procedure in a large randomized controlled trial, the most scientifically rigorous type of study

The White House released a packet of brief statements from President Clinton's doctors on Sep 13, 1996, seeking to counter accusations by Bob Dole that Clinton had only partially disclosed information about his medical records. The statements offered a picture of a 50-year-old man in vigorous health and were largely an elaboration of what the White House had previously said

Unexpected findings from a new study being reported on Sep 11, 1996 in the Journal of the American Medical Association add to concerns about possible dangers of calcium channel blockers, specifically isradipine, or DynaCirc. A small apparent increased risk of angina, heart attacks and strokes was found among those who took isradapine in the study, which involved nearly 900 patients with high blood pressure

James Muller, the head of cardiology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, who has worked at the Moscow center, said many patients leave American hospitals about five days after heart surgery and recuperate further under supervision at home. 'But most patients do not feel like themselves for six months,' Muller said. He and Isom said they had not been consulted about [Boris Yeltsin]'s case. They and spokesmen for the American College of Cardiology in Bethesda, Md., the American Heart Association in Dallas and several medical schools and hospitals said they did not know of any American doctor who had been consulted in Yeltsin's case. Wayne Isom, head of cardiovascular surgery at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in New York City, said he had operated with [Renat Akchurin] at the Moscow center and agreed with [Michael DeBakey]'s view

The cardiology center where Russian President Boris Yeltsin is likely to have heart surgery in Sep 1996 has high success rates that are comparable to those in many American hospitals, leading American heart surgeons said on Sep 5