Faculty Bibliography

Transplant surgeons who once concentrated on vital organs like hearts, livers and kidneys are branching out, transplanting an array of body parts with surprising success, and possibly heralding a day when tissues not essential to life are routinely given to others. To the astonishment of many experts, the two men recently given new hands in Lyon, France, and Louisville, Ky., are progressing well, without rejection crises. With less publicity, surgeons elsewhere have successfully performed experimental knee, larynx, trachea, femur, nerve and muscle transplants. As word of early successes spreads, doctors are beginning to stretch their imaginations. Leading transplant surgeons envision a future where they can put new faces on burn patients; give a woman new breasts, or even a uterus; transplant penises; and reconstruct jaws and neck tissues for patients with cancer, gunshot wounds, dog bites or accident injuries

Scientists reported yesterday that they had cured diabetes in monkeys by giving them transplants of insulin-producing cells along with an experimental drug that prevented rejection of the donor tissue. The findings are an important advance in diabetes research, ''strikingly different'' from all previously tested strategies, and a step toward the ultimate goal of curing diabetes in humans, the scientists said. Their findings involving the experimental drug known as anti-CD154 are to be reported this year in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which made the paper available ahead of publication. The islet cells, which were transplanted into the monkeys, are the parts of the pancreas gland that produce insulin to control blood sugar. Islet-cell transplants have been carried out in more than 300 people in recent years but with limited success, Dr. (Camillo) Ricordi said. After a year, the graft has functioned in fewer than 35 percent of such patients and fewer than 10 percent have been able to stop taking insulin. Thousands more people have received transplants of the entire pancreas gland, located deep in the abdomen

The findings are an important advance in diabetes research, 'strikingly different' from all other previously tested strategies, and a step toward the ultimate goal of curing diabetes in humans, the scientists said. Their findings involving the experimental drug known as anti-CD154 are to be reported later this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which made the paper available ahead of publication

The findings are an important advance in diabetes research, 'strikingly different' from all other previously tested strategies, and a step toward the ultimate goal of curing diabetes in humans, the scientists said. Their findings involving the experimental drug known as anti-CD154 are to be reported later this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which made the paper available ahead of publication

The drugs are alteplase, or Activase, and abciximab, or Reopro. Each drug is marketed in this country but for separate uses. The combination promises to spare many patients from angioplasty, a procedure to widen blocked coronary arteries, or even from coronary bypass surgery, experts said, citing the report in Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association in Dallas. Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the United States and in other developed countries. Most heart attacks result from blood clots that form after deposits of fat break open in the lining of coronary arteries that nourish the heart, stopping blood flow, destroying heart muscle and weakening the heart's ability to pump blood. This, in turn, increases the risk of dangerous abnormal heart rhythms and other complications. Alteplase, a standard drug often called T.P.A., can dissolve the clots if given within a few hours after chest pain and other symptoms of a heart attack begin. But sometimes, clots recur after such drug therapy, largely from the clumping of blood cells known as platelets

It was three years ago at the Roslin Institute in Scotland that [DOLLY], a Finn Dorset sheep, became the first large mammal to be from genetic material..

Women who test positive for a genetic breast cancer marker may have more than a 50% chance of developing the disease. Although past screening technologies have sought to identify actual breast cancers, as opposed to predisposition, the history of screening may help predict the societal response to genetic testing. For decades, educational messages have encouraged women to find breast cancers as early as possible. Such messages have fostered the popular assumption that immediately discovered and treated breast cancers are necessarily more curable. Research, however, has shown that screening improves the prognosis of some--but not all--breast cancers, and also that it may lead to unnecessary interventions. The dichotomy between the advertised value of early detection and its actual utility has caused particular controversy in the United States, where the cultural climate emphasizes the importance of obtaining all possible medical information and acting on it. Early detection has probably helped to lower overall breast cancer mortality. But it has proven hard to praise aggressive screening without exaggerating its merits. Women considering genetic breast cancer testing should weight the benefits and limitations of early knowledge.

It is important for people to stay active and get plenty of exercise. However, one must not push oneself too hard. There is a significant difference between "good" and "bad" pain