JHM HEALTH NEWS
An e-news service from Johns Hopkins Medicine
Vol. 1. No. 3, November/December 2006
NOTE TO EDITORS/REPORTERS: Happy Holidays and welcome to the third and final edition of JHM Health News for 2006. We look forward to providing continued and timely service in 2007. Look for the next transmission on Tuesday, Jan. 16. As always, Hopkins welcomes comments and suggestions for improving this means of sending you monthly health and medicine story ideas for your direct use or follow up. Contact John Lazarou at mednews@jhmi.edu to set up interviews, to localize a story with patients in your area, and to arrange for photographs or other services.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
- AT LAST, A MORE PRECISE PACEMAKER
- ANTIBIOTIC EYEDROPS HALT AN AGGRESSIVE OCULAR GROWTH
- CHOCOLATE OFFENDERS TEACH SCIENCE A SWEET LESSON
- SCLERODERMA: INCURABLE, NOT UNTREATABLE
- A RUPTURED ANEURYSM IN THE RIGHT PATIENT
AT LAST, A MORE PRECISE PACEMAKER
When Johns Hopkins cardiologist Kevin Donahue considered his elderly patient’s weakening heart, he worried over the possible downside of installing a traditional pacemaker. The patient had suffered a series of heart attacks and now courted heart failure. A pacemaker was certainly in order, but Donahue knew all too well how its constant drumbeat could put undue stress on a cardiac muscle that only needed an occasional boost.
ANTIBIOTIC EYEDROPS HALT AN AGGRESSIVE OCULAR GROWTH
Bryant Centofanti suddenly stopped shaving and sidled in for a closer look at the reddish oddity he’d glimpsed in the inner corner of his left eye. What he discovered there was a fine, transparent film, maybe three cells thick, that looked like it was growing over the surface of the eye. At first Centofanti dismissed it, hoping the whatever-it-was would resolve on its own. When it didn’t - - - and in fact seemed to be enlarging - - - the electrical engineer headed for his eye doctor at Johns Hopkins.
CHOCOLATE OFFENDERS TEACH SCIENCE A SWEET LESSON
Some “chocoholics” who just couldn’t give up their favorite treat to comply with a study to test blood stickiness have inadvertently done their fellow chocolate lovers - - - and science - - - a big favor. Their “offense,” say researchers at Johns Hopkins, led to what is believed to be the first biochemical analysis to explain why just a few squares of chocolate a day can almost halve the risk of heart attack death in some men and women by decreasing the tendency of platelets to clot in narrow blood vessels.
SCLERODERMA: INCURABLE, NOT UNTREATABLE
During the winter of 2000, 66-year-old Nancy Bechtle’s hands morphed into alien appendages - - - blanching and going numb at the merest temperature dip, aching with carpal tunnel pain, ballooning to clumsy paws. Soon her feet followed suit, swelling to the point that donning shoes was impossible. Then, her skin grew hot, stiff and tight. At that point, Bechtle went to the heads of three of the nation’s top medical schools to ask for the name of the finest scleroderma specialist in the country. Each gave her the same response: Fred Wigley at Johns Hopkins.
A RUPTURED ANEURYSM IN THE RIGHT PATIENT
Early last summer, Henrietta Bartecki felt the worst pain she’d ever known - - - a terrible piercing on the right side of her abdomen. Bartecki had suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition so lethal that the massive internal bleeding kills half of victims before they even make it to the hospital. By the time she reached the Johns Hopkins emergency department, “Man, I was screaming and hollering,” she says.
For previous issues of JHM Health News go to:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/mediaII/MNU/index.html
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