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Subject: health Mon, Nov 2 1992
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 04:47:35 EST
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11-02 0000
DECISIONLINE: Health
USA TODAY Update
Nov. 2, 1992
Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network
    
ALZHEIMER'S TEST PROMISING:
   A high-tech method for recording electrical activity in the 
brain shows promise of becoming the first inexpensive, 
non-invasive test to distinguish Alzheimer's disease from other 
common forms of senility in older adults. The finding is important 
because non-Alzheimer's memory problems may be treatable, says Dr. 
Andrew Leuchter of UCLA Medical School.
(For more, see special Alzheimer's package below.)
    
HOLD THE SALT:
   The National Institutes of Health has launched a national 
education campaign to prevent high blood pressure. The Institute 
recommends limiting salt intake to six grams a day, or about three 
teaspoons; losing excess weight; increasing exercise; and limiting 
alcohol.
    
DONOR EYES NEEDED FOR RESEARCH:
   Sickle cell anemia, a hereditary disease of the red blood cells 
that occurs most often in blacks, can cause blindness in about 30% 
of its victims. Researchers at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the 
Johns Hopkins Hospital are asking people arrange for their eyes to 
be donated to eye banks after their deaths, so they can do better 
research into ways of preventing sickle cell-related blindness.
    
HALFTIME WARMUPS GOOD:
   Football fans use halftime to warm up with cups of coffee or 
hot chocolate, but the team should be using that time to warm up, 
too, according to a study published in a recent Family Practice 
Research Journal. Penn State researchers found three minutes of 
running in place and stretching cut third-quarter strains and 
sprains dramatically.
    
WOMAN'S METRODORA BEATS MERCK:
   A brief medical text written in Greek 1,500 years ago is 
probably a forerunner to today's Merck Manual, a University of 
Cincinnati classics professor believes. The 40-page text, written 
by a woman doctor named Metrodora, lists cures for ailments and 
beauty tips in alphabetical order. It is "as far as we know, the 
first ever medical encyclopedia," says translator Holt Parker.
    
TREATMENT FOR HEMOPHILIA SAFER:
   The risk of becoming infected with HIV as a result of 
treatments for hemophilia has plunged over the last five years, 
reports the American Association of Blood Banks. Thousands of 
hemophiliacs contracted the AIDS virus from factors used to help 
their blood clot in the late 1970s. But a study that began in 1987 
found no HIV infection among those who used a new clotting factor.
    
RITODRINE GETS BAD REVIEW:
   A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has found Astra 
Pharmaceutical's ritodrine effective in halting premature labor 
but ineffective in preventing prolonging pregnancy, Bloomberg 
Business News reports. Ritodrine has no place in the practice of 
obstetrics, the fertility and maternal health drugs advisory 
committee panel agreed unanimously.
    
HELP YOUNG CANCER VICTIMS:
   Order Christmas and Hannukah cards, ornaments and other items 
featuring the artistic works of young cancer victims and help pay 
for educational, recreational and emotional support programs for 
patients. To order or get a free brochure call the M.D. Anderson 
Cancer Center at 800-231-1580, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday to 
Friday.
    
LILY DRUGS TO HIT MARKET FASTER:
   Drug maker Eli Lily and Co. plans to convert its Tippecanoe 
Laboratories, just southwest of Lafayette, Ind., from a 
large-scale maker of antibiotics to producing smaller amounts of a 
variety of drugs. The plan, aimed at reducing duplication and 
shortening the time products need to reach the market, will be a 
"vital link" between research and the market," says Lily's James 
Kleck.
    
SPECIAL PACKAGE ON ALZHEIMER'S:
    
TEST PINPOINTS ALZHEIMER'S:
   The only way to diagnose Alzheimer's disease now is after 
death. But Dr. Andrew Leuchter of UCLA Medical School is using 
computer-aided EEGs - electroencephalograms. Electrodes pick up 
signals in the brain. Results on 116 adults 60 to 90 years old 
show the test separates Alzheimer's from other forms of senility 
in three out of four patients in those diagnosed with haveing one 
or the other.
    
BOTH CONDITIONS ARE PICKED UP:
   For many whose test results differed from their clinical 
diagnosis, the test detected both conditions, and the patients may 
have both, says Leuchter. "What we're particularly optimistic 
about," says Leuchter, "is that the people we looked at were 
mildly to moderately impaired. The earlier we can intervene, the 
better."
    
LARGER STUDIES NEEDED:
   Other scientists have been getting good results using PET scans 
-positron emission tomography - to identify Alzheimer's. But that 
requires drawing blood and injecting radioactive material, and 
costs several thousand dollars, while EEG runs a few hundred, he 
says. Larger studies with EEG, and on brain tissue after death, 
are needed to confirm these results, he adds.
(End of package.)
    
Health Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of 
USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution 
violates federal law.
    

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