The accomplishments of your colleagues and associates are making a significant impact. Detailed news releases and/or source material are available at the News Bureau of the Stanford University Medical Center Office of Communications, 701 Welch Road, Suite 2207, Palo Alto, CA 94304; phone (650) 725-5376 or 723-6911; and on the Web |
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SNORING - Radiofrequency energy is effective in shrinking the tongue base to reduce obstructive sleep apnea via a wand-like device previously shown to reduce snoring. Nelson Powell, co-director of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center and clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, reported the success Sept. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, held in San Antonio.
NSAIDS - Gastrointestinal bleeding, a common side effect of prescription-strength nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, can occur even with lower non-prescription doses, according to preliminary findings repored Sept. 8 at the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Vienna, Austria, by Gurkirpal Singh, a senior research scholar and clinical assistant professor of medicine (immunology and rheumatology). Singh found that patients taking over-the-counter doses of NSAIDs were nearly four times more likely to suffer "serious gastrointestinal events," such as stomach bleeding, than patients taking no drugs or the non-NSAID acetaminophen. LASIK - One of the first U.S. trials - approximately 200 patients - has begun of a new laser treatment to correct vision in people who are naturally farsighted with or without astgmatism, or who have become farsighted as a result of earlier eye surgeries. Principal investigator Edward Manche, assistant professor of ophthalmology and director of refractive surgery, says the technique - called LASIK, or laser in-situ keratomileusis - offers promise for many patients, including those whose farsightedness occurred as a result of overcompensation by an earlier surgical technique, radial keratotomy, to correct nearsightedness. IVF - Nineteen women have become pregnant - and one has already delivered a healthy baby boy - as a result of a new in vitro fertilization technique developed at Stanford to minimize the risk of high-order multiple births by using a specialized culture that allows doctors to pick more mature embryos with a better chance of survival. Barry Behr, director of Stanford's IVF and Assisted Reproductive Technology Laboratory and acting assistant professor of gyn/ob, reported in San Francisco in mid-October to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine that the new technique is showing success rates of about 63 percent for the 19 women studied so far, said Amin Milki, medical director of the IVF program and associate professor of gyn/ob, who treated many of the patients. GRANULYSIN, a protein manufactured by killer T cells, has been found to destroy the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, reported a 14-member research team in the Oct. 2 issue of Science. Stanford co-authors included granulysin co-discoverer (in 1987) Alan Krensky, professor of pediatrics and chief of pediatric immunology and transplantation biology, and immunology graduate student Dennis Hanson. SEIZURES - Heat shock protein 72, made in times of cellular stress, can protect the brain from damage induced by a stroke or seizure, reported Gary Steinberg, professor and chair of neurosurgery and co-director of the Stanford Stroke Center, in the October Annals of Neurology. The study involved gene-transfer experiments with rats. |
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