News Media Home | Hopkins Medicine Home
January 24, 1994
Media Contact:Michael Purdy
Phone: (410) 955-6680
E-mail:
Mpurdy@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu
MEDICAL NEWS TIPS
Listed below are story ideas from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. To
pursue any of these
stories, call the contact person listed.
NEW AIDS RESEARCH AIMS TO PROTECT MOTHER AND FETUS
Researchers at Johns Hopkins are recruiting volunteers to participate
in a test of an
AIDS vaccine in pregnant women infected with HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS.
'If the results of this trial are promising, further studies would
show if the vaccine
prevents transfer of HIV-1 from a pregnant woman to her fetus," says John
Lambert, M.D.,
medical director of the AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Unit at Hopkins and chairperson
of the national
study that includes five other institutions.
The study is looking for HIV-infected pregnant women between the ages
of 16 and
40 who are free of ADDS symptoms, not currently using illegal drugs, and have a
CD4 T cell
count of at least 400.
"This is an important new strategy in the fight against AIDS," Lambert
explains. 'We hope that the study will help us develop a vaccine that can both
save mothers and
prevent the spread of this virus to a new generation."
Other institutions in the multicenter clinical trial conducted by the
AIDS Vaccine
Evaluation Group of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
include St. Louis
University (St. Louis, Mo.), the University of Rochester (N.Y.), University of
Washington
(Seattle), Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenn.) and the University of
California at San
Francisco.
To participate in this study, please call 410-955-SAVE.
For more information, call Marc Kusinitz at (410 955-8665).
DYING OF
SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH: A PROBABLE BRAIN LINK
The major killer in stroke patients, says neurologist Stephen
Oppenheimer, M.D.,
is not actually a second stroke. Surprisingly, more than 60 percent of deaths
after stroke are
related to lethal changes in the normal rhythm of the heart. Oppenheimer has
studied the little-
known link between what happens in the brain - mostly strokes - and sudden
death from heart
failure or heart attacks. He's mapped nerve pathways in the brain that connect
to the heart and
that probably are a key in triggering sudden death. (The same pathways, he
believes, are active
when people die of fear.) Oppenheimer is an expert at identifying stroke
patients who are most
prone to a repeat stroke. Now he's studying ways to predict heart death by
monitoring changes
in heart rate and other variations.
For more information, call Michael Purdy at 955-8725
RESEARCHERS MAP THE PLACE FOR NAMES
It as scientists believe, our humanity is largely a function of our
language, then
neuroscientists Barry Gordon, M.D., and Ron Lesser, M.D., are teasing out our
humanity bit by
bit. Using grids of electrodes that Lesser employs to diagnose epilepsy, he
and Gordon have
mapped parts of patients' brains thought responsible for objects. Because of
epilepsy, some
patients temporarily lose this ability. By following them as this ability
returns, the researchers are
getting insights into how the brain lays down language.
For more information, call Michael Purdy at 955-8725.
IMPORTANT HEART TEST NOW AVAILABLE TO IMMOBILE PATIENTS
Scientists at Johns Hopkins are using a "no-stress" stress test to
assess the damage
caused by a heart attack in elderly, incapacitated and handicapped patients.
The new test eliminates the need for patients to exercise on a
treadmill or bicycle.
"Until now, patients with little or no mobility were not able to
benefit from the
technology of stress echocardiography," says Joao Tima. M.D.
Now, an injectable hormone called dobutamine can force the heart to
contract in the
same way Mi exercise might he explains.
The test is safe, painless and reliable, and often reduces the need
for more invasive
procedures like catheterizations," says Lima. The dobutamine test offers
results as good as, or better than conventional exercise stress
testing,"
Echocardiography uses ultrasound waves to create images of the heart
as it beats.
Scientists compare images of the resting heart with those of the "exercising"
heart to find
weaknesses in the wall that could signal a heart attack or heart
ischemia.
In the future, Lima plans to use the dobutamine stress test to
estimate how long
muscle will function before a transplant is needed, and to determine how much
viable heart muscle
remains after a heart attack.
For more information, call Debbie Bangledorf at (410) 223-1731.