From the office of Robert S. Grimshaw Jr MD FACP Internal Medicine 3535 Hill Blvd Yorktown Hts NY 914 962-3180 NEWS Recognized Provider  “With Distinction” by the American Diabetes Association/National Committee for Quality Assurance 2/99-2/02

94                          January-February  2001

Our biennial laboratory inspection by the Committee on Laboratory Accreditation is over and we’ve been granted full certification for 2 years.  Our overall grade was 92.3%, and our latest proficiency testing (“getting the right answer”) was 100%.  We are all very proud of the efforts of our laboratory technologists: Terri Bissionette, Cathy DeMaio, and Jean Narod.

Chicken-Soup For Colds: Grandma was right –chicken soup can help patient with the common cold. Drs. Stephen and Barbara Rennard report in Chest a controlled trial of a recipe from her Eastern European grandmother. The University of Nebraska researchers showed inhibition of migration of neutrophils (a type of white cell involved in inflammation). The effect was seen with clarified broth from the soup also, implying a soluble factor or factors. They also tested 13 commercial chicken soups; several were even more potent inhibitors; several did nothing.

Wine, Alcohol Protection:Three reports recently show the benefits of light to moderate alcohol intake. From Harvard, Dr. Klaus Berger and colleagues show that as little as 1 drink a week reduced the overall risk of stroke in 22,071 US male physicians. They report on the Physicians’ Health Study in The New England Journal of Medicine. They found a reduction of risk of 21% over a 12.2 year period. Drinking more than 1 drink a week did not improve things; more than 1 drink a day was somewhat less protective.

In another report from Harvard and the Physicians’ Health Study, Researcher Lisa Hines found that it was the alcohol, not the other chemicals in wine that are responsible for raising the "good" HDL cholesterol and lowering heart risk. The third report comes from SUNY Stony Brook’s Dr. Catherine Mes-sina, who reported to the American College of Gastroenterology that wine drinkers had a lower rate of colonic polyps (1% in 1500 patients) than either beer/liquor drinkers (18%) or abstainers (12%).

New Therapy for Lupus? One of the more difficult of the diseases of joints and other tissues to treat is systemic lupus erythematosis. Primarily (but not exclusively) a disease of women, lupus - the "wolf" in Latin - has had little attention paid to it. Now the natural hormone, dihydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), also called prasterone, has been shown to cut the need for prednisone-type drugs in lupus patients. Dr. Robert Lahita of our own New York Medical College (based at St. Vincent’s Medical Center) reported on prasterone to the American College of Rheumatology. Of 265 women with active lupus on entry to the study, 66% improved on the drug compared to 49% on placebo. Side effects included acne in 1/3rd and excess facial hair in 1/5th of patients. SUNY-Brooklyn’s Dr. Ellen Ginzler found that patients on prasterone gained bone density, even while on prednisone.

Chronic Fatigue: New Developments The disorder of prolonged, debilitating fatigue known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is the subject of 2 reports.

1) Dr. Stephen Straus (who first described CFS) and others at the NIH and Johns Hopkins University report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that a steroid hormone, fludrocortisone does not help CFS patients with 1 of their main symptoms. CFS patients frequently get very light-headed on standing, a condition called neurally-mediated hypotension. 100 patients were studied. Dr. Straus hopes to study other medications or combinations.

2) Harvard’s Dr. Anthony Komaroff reports that a blood test may some day help diagnose CFS patients. Dr. Komaroff reported that patients with CFS make an abnormal type and amount of 2,5-oligoadenylate. 2,5-A is made by cells in response to viral infection. Dr. Komaroff feels that a chronic viral infection may be the cause of CFS.

Insulin-Producing Cells: From the American Diabetes Associa-tion meeting comes a hint of the future in treating insulin-requiring diabetes. A group at the University of California-San Diego is growing human beta cells to make insulin. And an Alberta, Canada group has now transplanted 11+ patients suc-cessfully. Declared Scientific Session chair Dr R Paul Roberts,"it’s a cure. The ‘c-word’ can be used."