Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1961-12-01 / 12. szám
14 FRATERNITY BLOOD CLOTS Two New Jersey scientists reported finding a way to open clogged blood vessels with use of a drug in place of surgery. The drug is said to have been tested successfully on several hundred patients. When used early enough, the scientists said, it cuts a patient’s stay in a hospital by 50 per cent. The drug is derived from a body substance known as fibrinolysin. "STROKES" A safe and speedy new means of finding the exact cause of brain “stroke” was described by a New Jersey neurosurgeon. He said the technique consists of injecting a patient with a new contrast agent, diatrizoate sodium, so that a series of X-ray films can spot clearly the blood stoppage that brought on the “stroke”. The technique was called safer than any other involving the use of X-rays and injections. GOUT A Canadian medical researcher, Dr. D. B. Montgomery of Toronto, produdced evidence to show that a drug named sulfinpyrazone is “the most potent agent for the relief of gout.” During two years of observation of patients treated with the drug, Dr. Montgomery said he found it virtually free of any toxic effects. HEART ATTACKS Dr. Oliver Kuzma, of the University of Southern California, described a treatment that appears to prolong the lives of men who have had heart attacks. The treatment involves tiny daily doses of the hormone estrogen, which is made primarily by the female sex glands. In a group of several hundred men receiving the treatment, the death rate three years after their heart attacks was found to be nearly two-thirds lower than the death rate of another large group of heart-attack sufferers who were not treated in this way. EYE CATARACTS Operations for cataract of the eye can now be made easier and safer by means of a potent drug obtained from slaughtered cattle. So reported a committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology that studied the drug’s performance in more than 13,000 operations. OVERWEIGHT Latest drug developed to curb appetite and hold down weight is known as diethylpropicn. In one study of 300 patients, the drug is said to have brought a “satisfactory progressive weight loss” in 88 per cent of them. The patients were reported to have lost an average of 3 to 5 pounds the first week, about 1.5 pounds a week after that. A big advantage claimed for the drug is that it does not affect the nervous system or blood pressure.
