Faculty Bibliography

Two small studies have shown that over the course of just a few weeks, one dose of experimental drugs injected directly into the heart can greatly relieve, or even eliminate, the chest pain of coronary artery disease by encouraging the growth of new blood vessels to bypass clogged arteries, according to researchers in the United States and Germany. One of the treatments under study is gene therapy to produce a protein called vegF, for vascular endothelial growth factor. The other entails injection of a protein called FGF-1, for fibroblast growth factor. The coronary gene therapy research, led by Dr. Jeffrey Isner of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Mass., and Tufts University, is reported in today's issue of Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association. The protein therapy is being developed by Dr. Thomas-Joseph Stegmann of Fulda, Germany, a leading figure in the field, who discussed his work in interviews

William H. Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda, will announce a gift of $100 million today to speed the delivery of vaccines against four childhood diseases to developing countries. The donation, to be announced in New York City, is Mr. Gates's second largest, and it comes as he is battling Government antitrust charges in Federal District Court in Washington. But Mr. Gates said in an interview that the donation was part of his expanding philanthropic effort, and that its timing with the trial was coincidental. Mr. Gates is the world's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of at least $60 billion. Mr. Gates, who has been criticized for not being more generous, said he and his wife had given $2 billion to create two foundations. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates said $164 million had been distributed. Mr. Gates has also said he would eventually give away about 95 percent of his fortune

[Bill Gates], chairman of Microsoft Corp., and his wife, Melinda, will announce a gift of $100-million today to speed the delivery of vaccines against four childhood diseases to developing countries. Mr. Gates, 43, is the world's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of at least $60-billion. Mr. Gates, who has been criticized for not being more generous, said he and his wife had given $2-billion to create two foundations. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates said $164-million had been distributed. Mr. Gates has also said he will eventually give away about 95% of his fortune

Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., and his wife, Melinda, will announce a gift of $100 million today to speed the delivery of vaccines against four childhood diseases to developing countries. The gift is believed to be among the largest single private donation for health care. It will go to a non-profit health organization in Seattle to find better ways to distribute recently developed vaccines. Gates, 43, is the world's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of at least $60 billion. Gates, who has been criticized for not being more generous, said he and his wife had given $2 billion to create two foundations. A spokeswoman for Bill Gates said $164 million had been distributed. Gates has also said he will eventually give away about 95% of his fortune

OBJECTIVE:To determine if there is a core subset of depressive symptoms that could be used to efficiently diagnose depression after administering the 2-item PRIME-MD a screening questionnaire for depression. METHODS:One thousand patients selected randomly and by convenience from 4 primary care clinics were assessed by PRIME-MD and completed a questionnaire measuring the following validation variables: functional status and well-being, disability days, somatic symptoms, depression severity, suicidal thoughts, health care utilization, and the physician-patient relationship. RESULTS:Four symptoms (sleep disturbance, anhedonia, low self-esteem, and decreased appetite) accounted for virtually all the depression symptom-related variance in functional status and well-being, with 8.3% of patients having 2 of these symptoms and 8.2% having 3 or 4 of these symptoms. There was excellent agreement between diagnosis based on core symptoms and major depression (K= 0.77; overall accuracy rate, 94%). There were significant differences (P<.001) among patients with negative depression screen, 0 to 1, 2, and 3 to 4 core symptoms with scores on each of the validation variables getting progressively worse in these 4 groups. A cutoff point of 2 core symptoms identified all but 3 patients with major depression and an additional 5% of the entire sample without major depression who were significantly (P<.05) worse than patients without depression on each of the validation variables. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:A strategy that includes the use of a 2-item depression screener followed by the evaluation of 4 core depressive symptoms is an efficient and effective way of identifying and classifying primary care patients with depression in need of clinical attention.

BACKGROUND: Porphyria cutanea tarda is known to be associated with HIV infection and hepatitis C virus (HCV). OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to evaluate whether early infection with HIV, with or without HCV infection, is associated with elevated serum porphyrin levels. METHODS: Serum porphyrin levels were measured in samples obtained from 103 patients with early HIV infection. The results were compared with those of 89 late-stage HIV-positive patients and 78 HIV-negative patients. RESULTS: The highest median porphyrin level was in early-stage HIV-positive/HCV-positive samples, followed in decreasing order by those in early-stage HIV-positive/HCV-negative, late-stage HIV-positive/HCV-positive, late-stage HIV-positive/HCV-negative, HIV-negative/HCV-positive, and HIV-negative/HCV-negative groups. Elevated porphyrin levels were independently associated with early-stage HIV infection (P < .0001) and HCV infection (P = .03). CONCLUSION: This finding suggests abnormal porphyrin metabolism is most noticeable in early-stage HIV infection; it becomes less severe with the progression of HIV disease

AIDS virus infections worldwide have risen 10 percent over the past year, showing a disturbing lack of progress in prevention, the United Nations AIDS Program in Geneva said in a report issued yesterday. The document, released as a prelude to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, also reported that the spread is largest among young people and more women are becoming infected. Overall, the number of people infected with H.I.V., the AIDS virus, rose by 5.8 million, to 33.4 million from 27.6 million. All but 5 percent of the infections occurred in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Half of the new infections -- nearly 3 million -- were among those 15 to 24 years old, the age when most people become sexually active. Because it is also a time when they are at their peak productive and reproductive years, AIDS is causing economic devastation in many countries. The number of children orphaned by AIDS is also rising significantly. ''This is gloomy news,'' said Dr. Peter Piot, the head of the United Nations AIDS Program

AIDS virus infections worldwide have risen 10 percent over the past year, showing a disturbing lack of progress in prevention, the U.N. AIDS Program in Geneva said in a report issued Monday. The document, released as part of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, also reported that the spread is largest among young people and more women are becoming infected. Overall, the number of people infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, rose by 5.8 million, to 33.4 million from 27.6 million