Faculty Bibliography

The suggestion that garlic has protective effects against heart disease has been challenged by a study in England that found that a powdered form of the clove was no better than a dummy pill in lowering cholesterol and fats in the blood. Earlier studies had suggested several benefits of 'the stinking bulb' in protecting against heart disease and heart attacks. One is to reduce the level of cholesterol and other lipids, or fats, in the blood. A second is to block the action of platelets, the tiny fragments that help blood clot. A third is to enhance the activity of antioxidants

The Alger Hiss case continues to raise questions about liberalism's romance with Communism and conservatism's assault on civil liberties. The latest evidence is not kind to Hiss, who died just last month at the age of 92

Heart bypass surgery leads to serious physical and mental impairment from strokes and other brain damage more often than many experts had previously believed, a large study has found. Six percent, or 129, of the more than 2,100 participants suffered new and severe neurological complications, including stroke or substantial deterioration of memory, concentration or other intellectual function similar to Alzheimer's disease. Of these, eight participants died from strokes. [Dennis] Mangano said that drugs and other methods were needed to help reduce the incidence of such adverse effects, which may be permanent in many cases. Many medical centers are beginning more routine use of new techniques to reduce the incidence of such complications, Mangano and Dr. O. Wayne Isom, the head of heart surgery at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, said in interviews

A study being published on Dec 19, 1996 in The New England Journal of Medicine found that heart bypass surgery leads to serious physical and mental impairment from strokes and other brain damage more often than many experts had previously believed. Six percent of participants suffered new and severe neurological complications. Details of the study are discussed

[Dennis Mangano] said that drugs and other methods were needed to help reduce the incidence of such adverse effects, which may be permanent in many cases. Many medical centers are beginning more routine use of new techniques to reduce the incidence of such complications, Mangano and Dr. O. Wayne Isom, the head of heart surgery at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, said in interviews. Among the complications, eight participants died of strokes and another 55 had nonfatal strokes by the time they were discharged from the hospital. Another 55 participants suffered new deterioration in intellectual function or memory and eight suffered seizures

The vaccine with some weakened doses was Fluogen, made by the Parke-Davis division of Warner Lambert Co. Eleven lots distributed to all 50 states and the District of Columbia lost potency, said Stephen Mock, a spokesman for Warner Lambert. Parke-Davis is one of four manufacturers of influenza vaccine used in this country. Parke-Davis made a total of 13 million doses of the vaccine, or about 18 percent of the U.S. supply, Mock said. Parke-Davis's vaccine is safe, but the problem is its lowered potency, [David A. Kessler] said. In recent weeks, Parke-Davis found in tests of people who had received shots from the 11 lots that the ability of the vaccine to promote resistance to one of the three influenza strains was about 25 percent to 30 percent lower than the recommended standard, Kessler said. The strain, Nanchang, is the one that is causing many of the current cases of influenza, Kessler and officials of the centers said

Because 5.8 million of the 75 million doses of flu vaccine produced in 1996 were not full strength, federal health officials on Dec 17, 1996 advised doctors to consider giving another flu shot to roughly two million recipients who are at highest risk from complication of the viral infection. People over 65 and those with chronic heart and lung disease are among those considered at highest risk

In the year since an AIDS patient in San Francisco received an experimental transplant of baboon bone marrow, he has gained weight and strength, and remained free of severe infections, even though the transplant did not take. The transplanted baboon cells stayed in [Jeff] Getty's body for about two weeks and failed to grow. 'Clearly, the baboon bone marrow transplant did not take,' said Dr. Paul Volberding, a member of Getty's research team at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, where the experimental procedure was performed. Yet Getty's astonishing improvement has led the University of California researchers to design new experiments aimed at restoring immune function. The new studies focus on the radiation and chemotherapy that he received to kill some cells in his marrow to make space for the baboon cells. The new experiments also include combinations of drugs that attack HIV, the virus that causes AIDS