Faculty Bibliography

He said news accounts during Mr. [Yasser Arafat]'s illness made him strongly suspect Mr. Arafat had AIDS. But after studying the records, he said that was improbable, given the sudden onset of the intestinal troubles. Many senior Palestinian officials say Mr. Arafat was poisoned. In a recent telephone interview from Amman, Jordan, for example, his personal doctor, Ashraf al-Kurdi, said he believed Mr. Arafat was poisoned. Theoretically, someone could have put the toxin in what Mr. Arafat ate. But Mr. Arafat did not have some of the features of this type of food-borne illness

Yasser Arafat's medical records from the French military hospital where he died in November, which have been held in secrecy, reveal that he died of a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection. A first independent review of the records, obtained by The New York Times, shows that despite extensive testing, his doctors could not determine the underlying disease that killed him. But the records dispel one significant and widespread rumor that Arafat died of AIDS. The course of his illness and pattern of his symptoms make AIDS highly unlikely, according to independent experts who have reviewed the records at the request of The Times. They also suggest that poisoning was highly unlikely, although senior Palestinian officials continue to allege that Arafat, who died Nov. 11 at age 75 after an illness lasting a month, was indeed poisoned. The records also indicate that Arafat did not receive antibiotics until Oct. 27, or 15 days after the onset of his illness, which was originally diagnosed as a flu. That was only two days before he was transferred to the Percy Military Training Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris, and it was probably too late to save him, according to the Israeli and American medical experts consulted by The Times, who agreed to review the records on condition that they not be identified by name. The specialists have no prior connection to the case. Israelis note that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw Arafat as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace, and had been on record as favoring his elimination. In 2002, Sharon told the newspaper Maariv that he regretted not 'eliminating' Arafat in 1982, during the Lebanese war. Arafat's death would have saved many lives, Sharon said, 'but we had a commitment' not to harm him, 'and commitments must be honored.' He also said then that 'we have no intention of harming Arafat personally.' Uri Dan, a Sharon confidant, wrote in November 2004 that he remembered meetings in 1982 held by Sharon, then defense minister, in his Tel Aviv office 'in which he asked the heads of the Mossad when they would finally carry out Prime Minister Menachem Begin's order to eliminate Arafat.' In September 2003, Sharon's vice prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said of Arafat that 'killing him is definitely one of the options.' He added: 'We are trying to eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of terror.' There have been reports in the Israeli press of a secret cabinet decision made in late 2003 to eliminate Arafat, which Dan describes as 'a deliberately vaguely worded decision to remove Arafat, since he was an obstacle to peace.' Officials have hinted that operational plans were drawn up to eliminate Arafat, although they say no action was taken

The Ramallah doctors initially thought Arafat had ''a flu.'' His own physician, Dr. Kurdi, was not allowed to come to Ramallah until Oct. 28, the day before Mr. Arafat was evacuated to Paris, an indication of the war over Arafat's care between Suha Arafat and his closest political colleagues, which continued until his death, and afterward. Israelis note that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw Arafat as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace. In 2002 Mr. Sharon told the newspaper Maariv that he regretted not ''eliminating'' Arafat in 1982, during the Lebanese war. Arafat's death would have saved many lives, Mr. Sharon said, ''but we had a commitment'' not to harm him, ''and commitments must be honored.'' The French records say Arafat died of natural causes. And Israel denies it had anything to do with Arafat's illness or death. On Wednesday a senior Sharon aide, Raanan Gissin, repeated the denial and pointed out that Mr. Sharon offered any medical help necessary last October to care for Arafat, allowed doctors to visit him and allowed him to seek medical care abroad

Many senior Palestinian officials say [Yasser Arafat] was poisoned. In a recent telephone interview from Amman, Jordan, for example, Arafat's personal doctor, Ashraf al-Kurdi, said he believed Arafat was poisoned

Dr. Ruge was lauded for insisting that Mr. Reagan be treated by the hospital's trauma team, instead of taking charge himself or summoning high-powered surgeons from other medical centers, as has occurred in many cases involving other dignitaries. Dr. Ruge instructed staff members at George Washington to make the same medical and surgical decisions for the president that they would make for any patient in the same condition. Dr. Ruge said he had studied the Constitution during the 10 weeks that Mr. Reagan had been in office and carried a copy of the 25th Amendment in his bag. Section 3 of the amendment should have been invoked to transfer executive powers to Mr. [George Bush] for at least a day or two, Dr. Ruge said, ''because Mr. Reagan could not communicate with the people a president is supposed to communicate with.'' As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Ruge was well qualified to observe Mr. Reagan closely. After Mr. Reagan disclosed in 1994 that he had Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Ruge said he had never detected any signs of Alzheimer's in talking with him almost daily from 1981 to 1985

Rehnquist, Stevens, O' Connor, Kennedy, [David H. Souter], [Ruth Bader Ginsburg], [Stephen G. Breyer] Rehnquist, Stevens, O' Connor, [Powell, Brennan, Marshall], White, Blackmun Rehnquist, Stevens, O' Connor, [Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy], Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer

With communication and transportation systems on the Gulf Coast severely damaged, there was no clear way to get the global view of the health care crisis in the region. Many hospitals, particularly in New Orleans, were being evacuated, including Charity and Tulane University Hospital and Clinic. While some patients were being sent to hospitals elsewhere in Louisiana, some of the most seriously ill patients have been sent by helicopter to hospitals in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. Tenet Healthcare, which has six hospitals directly affected in the region, was evacuating more than 3,000 patients, staff and others from four hospitals, said Steven Campanini, a spokesman: the Gulf Coast Medical Center in Biloxi, Miss., and three hospitals in the New Orleans area. The problems at Charity Hospital, a few blocks from the Superdome in central New Orleans, started Monday morning, Dr. [Kurtz-Burke] said, when water swept through the first-floor emergency room and dozens of windows were shattered by the wind. The power went out around 8 a.m., she said, and though the backup generators quickly clicked on, they too went out shortly afterward

Rats and mice are considered resistant and susceptible hosts, respectively, for experimental cryptococcosis. For both species, alveolar macrophages (AM) are central components of the host response to pulmonary Cryptococcus neoformans infection. We explored the role of AM in three strains of mice and three strains of rats during cryptococcal infection by comparing the outcome of infection after macrophage depletion using liposomal clodronate. AM depletion was associated with enhancement and amelioration of disease in rats and mice, respectively, as measured by lung fungal burden. The apparent protective role for AM in rats correlated with enhanced anti-cryptococcal activity as measured by phagocytic activity, oxidative burst, lysozyme secretion, and ability to limit intracellular growth of C. neoformans. Furthermore, rat AM were more resistant to lysis in association with intracellular infection. In summary, differences in AM function in rats and mice suggest an explanation for the species differences in susceptibility to C. neoformans based on the inherent efficacy of a central effector cell of the innate immune system.