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
82      July  2000


Human Genome Decoded:
With a dramatic flourish, President Bill Clinton announced the complete decoding of 97% of the human genetic code.  This monumental achievement (the remaining 3% is thought to be irrelevant) of the NIH’s Human Genome Project and Dr. Craig Venter’s Celera Genomics will accelerate medical diagnostics and therapeutics.

And on the Genetic Front:

For Asthma:  

an anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody cuts the number of episodes in adults with moderate to severe allergic asthma.
That finding comes from Dr. William Busse of the University of Wisconsin in a study of 525 patients.  Also, there was a 50% cut in the doses of inhaled steroids. IgE is what gets triggered by allergens.


For Colon Cancer:  

clinical trials are planned for a virus to carry a “suicide gene” that will be activated only by cancer cells and allow a more gentle chemotherapy.

Blood Substitute Success
is reported by an Army medical team..  Dr. John Mullon and colleagues treated a 21 year old woman who was destroying her own red cells due to an immune disease (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura).  She was given a polymerized bovine hemoglobin (Hemopure), and survived with a hematocrit (the percent of blood made up by red cells) of 4.4%!

For Macular Degeneration
the FDA has approved verteporfin (Visudyne).  The medicine is injected then a special laser light activates it, closing diseased blood vessels.  In studies, verteporfin  treated patients lost less vision than untreated controls.  Side effects in up to 1/5 included headache and blurred vision.

Type 1 Diabetes Reversal
for more than a year is reported in 8 patients at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. They received islet transplants and a new steroid-free antirejection protocol.  Dr. James Shapiro reported that the patients had required 15 daily insulin injections, and that the islets began making insulin almost immediately after transplant.



Hypertension: Moving the Goal Posts: The National Kidney foundation is calling for a new goal for diabetics: blood pressure of 130/80 or lower.  This updates the current Joint National Committee on Detection & Treatment of High Blood Pressure’s recommendation of 130/85 or better. Diabetes is now the #1 reason for dialysis.

PSA Screening Cuts Death
by 42% 5 years after a prostate specific antigen screening campaign was started in Tyrol, Austria.  During the same period, the death rate for prostate cancer in the rest of Austria did not change.  Dr. Georg Bartsch of the University of Innsbruck reported the results to the American Urological Association meeting in Atlanta.

“Statins” & Bone Fracture
A report from Dr. C. Meier and colleagues at the University of Basel in Switzerland report that the statin group of cholesterol drugs (Mevacor, etc) reduce bone fractures.  Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they say that the drugs reduced fracture risk by 45%.

Coumadin May Cut Cancer
according to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine.  Dr. Sam Schulman and colleagues at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm found that patients on Coumadin for 6 months had less cancer of the kidney, bladder, prostate, ovary and uterus than those treated for 6 weeks.

More Winners: Cathy Gregory and Raymond Petro join our previous monthly winners of 2 movie tickets each for getting their colon cancer screening cards in promptly.  Remember, everyone who sends in their cards wins in our fight against colon cancer, the most preventable of the major tumors.