Faculty Bibliography

A sudden, serious shortage of a lifesaving blood-derived drug, intravenous immune globulin, used by tens of thousands of patients with immune system and other disorders, has Food and Drug Administration and industry officials searching for the causes and new supplies. Immune globulin is used by people with: impaired immune systems susceptible to many infections; Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory disorder that can cause serious heart problems; autoimmune disorders, in which the body acts against itself such as by destroying the blood clotting substances known as platelets; disorders of the brain and central nervous system; pediatric AIDS, and other ailments

A sudden, serious shortage of a lifesaving blood-derived drug used by tens of thousands of patients with immune system and other disorders has led Federal and industry officials to search for the causes and solution of the problem. The officials said yesterday that they did not know the extent of the shortage of the drug, the form of immune globulin that is injected intravenously, or when the problem would end. They said they were rushing to remedy the situation without compromising public health. Immune globulin is used for people born with impaired immune systems that make them susceptible to a broad range of infections; Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory disorder of unknown cause that can cause serious heart problems; autoimmune disorders, in which the body acts against itself such as by destroying the blood clotting substances known as platelets; disorders of the brain and central nervous system; pediatric AIDS and other ailments

With Hong Kong reporting two more cases of a new viral strain of influenza over the weekend, scientists are escalating efforts to develop a vaccine to avert a potential epidemic, United States health officials said yesterday. The new reports bring to six the number of cases attributed to a strain of influenza previously known to infect only poultry. Two of the six patients died, but none spread the disease, and it is a mystery how the virus is being transmitted, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The viral strain is entirely new, and it is far too soon to know whether the cases are the harbinger of a global epidemic or will end up as a medical oddity, said Dr. Robert G. Webster, of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, a member of the World Health Organization's influenza team. He was interviewed in a telephone conference call from London, where he is attending a meeting of virologists on his way home from Hong Kong

With Hong Kong reporting two more cases of a new viral strain of influenza over the weekend, scientists are escalating efforts to develop a vaccine to avert a potential epidemic, U.S. health officials said on Monday. The new reports bring to six the number of cases attributed to a strain of influenza previously known to infect only poultry. Two of the six patients died, but none spread the disease, and it is a mystery how the virus is being transmitted, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta

With Hong Kong reporting two more cases of a new viral strain of influenza over the weekend, scientists are escalating efforts to develop a vaccine to avert a potential epidemic, U.S. health officials said yesterday. The new reports bring to six the number of cases attributed to a strain of influenza previously known to infect only poultry. Two of the six patients died, but none spread the disease, and it is a mystery how the virus is being transmitted, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The viral strain is entirely new, and it is far too soon to know whether the cases are the harbinger of a global epidemic or will end up as a medical oddity, said Dr. Robert Webster, of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, a member of the World Health Organization's influenza team

No one was more skeptical about using magnets for pain relief than Dr. Carlos Vallbona, former chairman of the department of community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Vallbona had long been fascinated by testimonials about magnets from his patients, and even from medical leaders. But his interest in magnet therapy became more serious in 1994, when he and a colleague, Carlton F. Hazlewood, tried them for their own knee pain. The pain was gone in minutes. 'That was too good to be true,' Vallbona said. Vallbona knew that the power of suggestion can fool both patient and doctor. But he also wondered: Could strapping small, low-intensity magnets to the most sensitive areas of the body for several minutes relieve chronic muscular and joint pains among patients in his post-polio clinic at Baylor's Institute for Rehabilitation Research?

NO ONE was more skeptical about using magnets for pain relief than Dr. Carlos Vallbona, former chairman of the department of community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. So Dr. Vallbona was amazed when a study he did found that small, low intensity magnets worked, at least for patients experiencing symptoms that can develop years after polio. Dr. Vallbona had long been fascinated by testimonials about magnets from his patients, and even from medical leaders. But his interest in magnet therapy became more serious in 1994 when he and a colleague, Carlton F. Hazlewood, tried them for their own knee pain. The pain was gone in minutes. ''That was too good to be true,'' Dr. Vallbona said. First, Dr. Vallbona informally tested magnets on a few patients. One was a priest with post-polio syndrome who celebrated mass with difficulty due to marked back pain that prevented him from raising his left hand. After applying a magnet for a few minutes the pain was gone, Dr. Vallbona recalled, and, ''the priest said this was a miracle.''

Millions of Americans who took either of two diet pills removed from the market in September should get medical checkups for evidence of possible heart damage, Federal health officials said yesterday. Use of the drugs was linked in an earlier study to heart valve damage, and preliminary evidence from five surveys indicates that about 30 percent of those who used the drugs had heart valve abnormalities, although most had no symptoms. The health officials also urged that all users of the drugs -- whether or not they have symptoms of heart disease -- have an echocardiogram before any dental or other procedure for which antibiotics have long been recommended to prevent dangerous infections of a heart valve. An echocardiogram will help determine whether antibiotic prophylaxis is needed, the guidelines said

Millions of Americans who took either of two diet pills removed from the market in September should get medical checkups for heart damage, federal health officials said Thursday. The officials estimated that 1.2 million to 4.7 million people in the United States used the prescription drugs, fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine, either singly or with another drug, phentermine, a combination popularly known as fen-phen. Use of the drugs was linked in an earlier study to heart valve damage, and preliminary evidence from five surveys indicates that about 30 percent of those who used the drugs had heart valve abnormalities, although most had no symptoms

Over the last 25 years, anti-high blood pressure therapies have led to significant declines in deaths from stroke and coronary heart disease. But the latest health statistics show a rise in severe kidney disease and heart failure, a slight rise in the rate of stroke, and a leveling in the death rate for Americans with coronary heart disease. These conditions often occur as complications of long-standing high blood pressure, which is also called hypertension