Faculty Bibliography

Johns Hopkins officials have questioned whether FDA approval was required for the asthma study; nonetheless, they said they have temporarily halted any studies involving drugs for which the FDA has not given permission for experimental use until they consult with the drug agency. The FDA licensed hexamethonium as a pill for treatment of high blood pressure in the 1950s, but the manufacturer withdrew it from the market in the 1970s after new laws required that drugs meet both safety and effectiveness standards instead of the earlier standard of safety, said Dr. David Lepay, an FDA official. Johns Hopkins officials last night said the researcher who led the study, Dr. Alkis Togias, and the review board did not believe that they needed FDA approval for inhaled hexamethonium because it was being used for basic physiology tests and not to test its therapeutic value

Whether the device that was implanted near Mr. [Dick Cheney]'s left shoulder will prevent him from casting with his right arm this week is uncertain. At a news conference on Saturday, Dr. Jonathan S. Reiner, Mr. Cheney's cardiologist, said his team had advised Mr. Cheney against vigorous upper body exercise ''for the next several days certainly, and maybe the next couple of weeks.'' Dr. Reiner said his team wanted Mr. Cheney to continue his regular aerobic exercising. The temporary ban on upper body exercise is to provide enough time for the device, known as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or I.C.D., to settle in place near his left shoulder and for the incision to heal. It will take several weeks for Mr. Cheney's body to form the scar tissue that will secure the device, a model known as Medtronic GEM III DR

[Jonathan Reiner] said his team wanted [Dick Cheney] to continue his regular aerobic exercising. The temporary ban on upper-body exercise is to provide enough time for the device, known as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, to settle in place near his left shoulder, and for the incision to heal. It will take several weeks for Cheney's body to form the scar tissue that will secure the device. Cheney needed the device because an electrocardiogram test performed two weeks ago detected four episodes of a very rapid and potentially fatal heart rhythm known as ventricular tachycardia, which stopped on their own after two seconds or less

Whether the device that was implanted near [Dick Cheney]'s left shoulder will prevent him from casting with his right arm this week is uncertain. Saturday, Dr. Jonathan S. Reiner, Cheney's cardiologist, said his team had advised Cheney against vigorous upper- body exercise 'for the next several days certainly, and maybe the next couple of weeks.'

[Jonathan Reiner] said he had been explicit in telling [Dick Cheney], 60, that 'this procedure and this device would not in any way impair his ability' to perform his duties. Cheney has been hospitalized three times since November. He suffered a minor heart attack during the recount that followed the presidential election, and doctors installed a wire mesh stent to keep a clogged coronary artery open. That artery narrowed again, requiring another procedure to reopen it in March. Assuming that Cheney's disease proves manageable for the next three years, the big political decision for [Bush] would come in 2004, when he would have to decide whether Cheney should once again be his running mate

In less than two hours, while [Dick Cheney] slept under mild sedation, his doctors concluded that his heart was susceptible to abnormal, rapid heartbeats and installed the device as what they and Cheney called 'an insurance policy.' By lunchtime, Cheney was awake, eating and talking with President Bush, who called from Camp David in Maryland. [Jonathan Reiner] said he had been explicit in telling Cheney, 60, that 'this procedure and this device would not in any way impair his ability' to perform his duties. That was significant because while announcing Friday that he would receive the implant, Cheney said that his continued service as vice president was in the hands of his doctors. Assuming that Cheney's disease proves manageable for the next three years, the big political decision for Bush would come in 2004, when he would have to decide whether Cheney once again should be his running mate. But by that time, Cheney may not be needed to establish maturity and credibility for Bush, as he did last year

Assuming that Mr. [Dick Cheney]'s disease proves manageable for the next three years, the big political decision for Mr. [Bush] would come in 2004, when he would have to decide whether Mr. Cheney should once again be his running mate. But by that time, Mr. Cheney may not be needed to establish maturity and credibility for Mr. Bush, as he did last year. The doctors said they had received no guidance from the White House or Mr. Cheney's family about what kind of information they could disclose about Mr. Cheney's health. Earlier this year the White House came under considerable criticism for declining to disclose some details of Mr. Cheney's medical history, and he declined numerous requests for an interview with The New York Times about his health. Dick Cheney and his wife, [Lynne], leaving the hospital yesterday. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)(pg. 1); One of Dick Cheney's doctors, Dr. Sung W. Lee, right, holding the type of device implanted in the vice president yesterday. Dr. [Jonathan S. Reiner], left, and Dr. Alan Wasserman were also on the medical team. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)(pg. 16)

After nearly 25 years of heart disease, Vice President Dick Cheney had a sophisticated device implanted in his upper chest that is ready to correct an abnormal heart..

The recent admission by historian Joseph J. Ellis that he misled students at Mount Holyoke College when he claimed to have spent the 1960's as a combat veteran in Vietnam, a civil rights worker in Mississippi, and an antiwar protester at Yale has raised some questions. But such behavior is hardly unique; American history is littered with public figures who embellished their war records and took immense liberties with their past

11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (11beta-HSD) perform prereceptor metabolism of glucocorticoids through interconversion of the active glucocorticoid, cortisol, with inactive cortisone. Although the immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory activities of glucocorticoids are well documented, the expression of 11beta-HSD enzymes in immune cells is not well understood. Here we demonstrate that 11beta-HSD1, which converts cortisone to cortisol, is expressed only upon differentiation of human monocytes to macrophages. 11beta-HSD1 expression is concomitant with the emergence of peroxisome proliferator activating receptor gamma, which was used as a surrogate marker of monocyte differentiation. The type 2 enzyme, 11beta-HSD2, which converts cortisol to cortisone, was not detectable in either monocytes or cultured macrophages. Incubation of monocytes with IL-4 or IL-13 induced 11beta-HSD1 activity by up to 10-fold. IFN-gamma, a known functional antagonist of IL-4 and IL-13, suppressed the induction of 11beta-HSD1 by these cytokines. THP-1 cells, a human macrophage-like cell line, expressed 11beta-HSD1 and low levels of 11beta-HSD2. The expression of 11beta-HSD1 in these cells is up-regulated 4-fold by LPS. In summary, we have shown strong expression of 11beta-HSD1 in cultured human macrophages and THP-1 cells. The presence of the enzyme in these cells suggests that it may play a role in regulating the immune function of these cells.