WHSC News Releases for March 1999

Mar 26 '99	SHORT-TERM COSTS OF SMOKING GENERALLY OMITTED FROM NATIONAL STUDIES, ACCORDING TO EMORY RESEARCH National studies of the cost of smoking generally have omitted short-term costs related to smoking during pregnancy and exposure of young children to environmental tobacco smoke, according to a review article published this month in the journal Medical Care Research and Review. FULL STORY
Mar 26 '99	AN ASPIRIN A DAY TO KEEP STROKE AWAY? Emory Receives $14 Million Federal Grant to Coordinate 50-Site Brain Attack Prevention Trial Doctors don't know how best to prevent stroke caused by clogged arteries in the brain a condition known as intracranial arterial stenosis. To better evaluate two potential tactics for preventing this type of stroke in high-risk patients, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health has funded the Warfarin-Aspirin Symptomatic Intracranial Disease (WASID) study. FULL STORY
Mar 25 '99	PERSONS WITH MEMORY PROBLEMS SOUGHT FOR STUDY EVALUATING VITAMIN E IN DELAYING ALZHEIMER'S Persons with mild cognitive impairment, characterized by memory problems, are being recruited by Emory University neurology reseachers based at Wesley Woods Health Center to participate in the national "Memory Impairment Study." FULL STORY
Mar 23 '99	SIMPLE NEW OUTPATIENT TECHNIQUE REVOLUTIONIZES TREATMENT FOR CHRONIC EAR INFECTIONS The scenario is all too common -- parents return over and over again to the pediatrician's office, hoping desperately that this time an antibiotic will cure their child's recurrent ear infection once and for all. Often the frustration finally ends with the treatment of last resort -- a trip to the hospital for general anesthesia and tubes inserted into the ears to drain trapped fluid. FULL STORY
Mar 22 '99	HIV/AIDS & THE SPIRITUAL' TO BE ADDRESSED BY NURSE/PRIEST AT APRIL 8 JOWERS LECTURESHIP A truly inspiring individual who ministers to the physical pain of AIDS and nurses the bruised spirits of those living with HIV/AIDS will discuss "HIV/AIDS & THE SPIRITUAL" at 3 p.m., Thursday, April 8 at Emory University in the Winship Ballroom of Dobbs University Center, 605 Asbury Circle, Atlanta. FULL STORY
Mar 20 '99	EMORY MEDICAL RESEARCHERS AND STUDENTS TO BENEFIT FROM $17 MILLION GIFT FROM MRS. REUNETTE HARRIS Emory University School of Medicine recently received a bequest of more than $17 million from the estate of Mrs. Reunette W. Harris. The gift is part of a legacy of generosity to the school begun decades ago by W. Clair Harris of Winder, Ga.; his wife, Reunette; and their daughter, Lucy Clair. FULL STORY
Mar 20 '99	PILLS & PLANTS: An Update on St. John's Wort, Kava Kava and Other Medicinal Herbs in Mental Health Emory University School of Medicine recently received a bequest of more than $17 million from the estate of Mrs. Reunette W. Harris. The gift is part of a legacy of generosity to the school begun decades ago by W. Clair Harris of Winder, Ga.; his wife, Reunette; and their daughter, Lucy Clair. FULL STORY
Mar 19 '99	EMORY NEUROLOGIST TO DISCUSS 'DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENTS OF PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHIES' AT APRIL 14 SUPPORT GROUP Emory University neurologist Jonathan D. Glass, M.D., will discuss "Diagnosis and Treatments of Peripheral Neuropathies" at the Wednesday, April 14 meeting of the Atlanta Peripheral Neuropathy Support Group. FULL STORY
Mar 16 '99	HUMAN DISSECTION:Author Spends Semester in Emory Anatomy Lab to Chronicle Med School Rite of Passage A semester is a long time to hold one's breath, but for one author, the result was worth the effort. Albert Howard Carter III Ph.D., chronicles in his book First Cut: A Season in the Anatomy Lab (Picador, 1997), the semester he spent as an observer in the anatomy lab at the Emory University School of Medicine. A course in human dissection is required of all first year medical students at Emory and from Dr. Carter's humanist perspective, represents a rite of passage into physician-hood. FULL STORY
Mar 12 '99	BALLOONS IN THE BRAIN: Southeast's First Intracranial Angioplasty using StentsPerformed at Emory for Stroke Prevention A 65-year-old school teacher this week became the first patient in the Southeast and one of the first in the country to undergo intracranial angioplasty with stents. FULL STORY
Mar 11 '99	EMORY SURGEON ADVANCES SURGICAL TREATMENT FOR PROSTATE CANCER An Emory University surgeon has developed a less invasive surgery for prostate cancer than the traditional radical prostatectomy. Fray F. Marshall, M.D., chair of the Department of Urology at Emory, originated the minilaparotomy radical retropubic prostatectomy for patients with advanced prostate cancer and is one of the few people in this country trained to perform the procedure. FULL STORY
Mar 11 '99	CONDOM USE IN PRISONS AMONG TOPICS BRAITHWAITE TO EXAMINE DURING CRIMINAL JUSTICE FELLOWSHIP Condom use in correctional facilities is among one of many health care issues to be addressed by Emory University's Ronald Braithwaite, Ph.D., recent recipient of a criminal justice fellowship from the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture. FULL STORY
Mar 10 '99	UROLOGY BECOMES NEW MEDICAL DEPARTMENT AND GAINS NEW CHAIRMAN Fray F. Marshall, M.D., recently was named the first chair of the new Department of Urology in the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Marshall, a leading urologic surgeon and clinical researcher, comes to Emory from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. FULL STORY
Mar 10 '99	INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS DEVELOP ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR PREVENTING PEDIATRIC AIDS A group of prominent AIDS researchers and policy makers from academia and government gathered last summer at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health in response to controversy concerning the ethics of using particular kinds of perinatal interventions in developing countries. FULL STORY
Mar 10 '99 *previously embargoed*	ANGIOGENESIS: RESULTS OF PHASE 1 CHIRON TRIAL ARE ENCOURAGING "A single intracoronary (IC) dose of recombinant fibroblast growth factor-2 (rFGF-2) was safe over a wide range of doses and associated with decreased angina frequency, increased exercise tolerance and improved regional left ventricular (LV) function and perfusion by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)," according an abstract being presented at this week's American College of Cardiology meeting. Researchers from Emory University and Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, evaluated the safety of rFGF in 52 persons with severe coronary artery disease during the Phase I trial for Chiron Corp. FULL STORY
Mar 10 '99	GLOBAL AIDS EPIDEMIC DRAMATICALLY OUTPACES U.S., ACCORDING TO EMORY AIDS EXPERT Thousand of AIDS patients in the United States and Europe have escaped death and debilitating illness over the past few years due to the advent of HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy). The new drugs were responsible for a 47% reduction in mortality due to HIV in this country from 1995 to 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These optimistic statistics are in shocking contrast, however, to the devastation resulting from the worldwide AIDS epidemic. FULL STORY
Mar 9 '99	ST. JOHN'S WORT STUDY BEGINS AT EMORY; VOLUNTEERS WITH DEPRESSION NEEDED Persons over 18 years of age with moderate to severe depression are being recruited by Emory psychiatry researchers for a federal study evaluating the use of the botanical product St. John's wort for treating depression. FULL STORY
Mar 9 '99	EMORY CHOSEN AS SITE FOR NATION'S FIRST MULTICENTER STUDY OF ST. JOHN'S WORT FOR DEPRESSION A research team in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the Emory University School of Medicine is among 12 groups chosen to conduct the nation's first multicenter clinical trial of St. John's wort for depression. FULL STORY
Mar 9 '99	OUTCOMES RESEARCH: ACADEMIC MEDICINE AND MANAGED CARE FORUM AWARDS THREE GRANTS TO EMORY Is it worth the effort? Do treatment benefits outweigh costs? Researchers at the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University have been awarded more than $850,000 to apply these questions and others to a number of aspects of health care delivery. FULL STORY
Mar 1 '99	NEW TREATMENTS FOR RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME DISCUSSED An Update on New Developments and Treatments for Restless Leg Syndrome will be given by Ray L. Watts, M.D., at the March 13 meeting of the Atlanta Restless Legs Syndrome Support Group. A question and answer session and discussion will follow the lecture. FULL STORY

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