Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1978)
Page 1C lyperbaric laboratory pioneers ligh-pressure oxygen research I By FLAVIA KRONE Battalion Staff ■The white pressure chamber in T*as A&M’s Hyperbaric Labora tory looks like nothing more than a tifi empty steel tank. iBut Texas A&M researchers, Ider the direction of physiologist lilliam Fife, are using the chamber I pioneer new discoveries in the lid of high-pressure oxygen re- areh. Fife and his associates use the Jperharie chamber to treat persons pering from a variety of afflictions nging from gas gangrene to failing grafts and osteomyelitis, an in- mmatory bone disease. |An average of three patients a day treated in the chamber, five lys a week, year-round, Fife said. Il patients come on a referral-only ADVERTISING INDEX FOR SECTION C OTOMOTIVE Joe Faulk Auto ....kk: YIATION i k: IANKS Citv National Bank ...... k: koiHlNG The Gentleman s Quarter ... .sc Top Drawer 12< EDUCATIONAL Stanley Kaplan . . UK ENTERTAINMENT OPAS .. ‘K IAIR STYLING Shear Class . . KK [EWELRY (arl Bussell s Jexvelrs 3( (.(mart s Jeweln . . 1( NEWSPAPERS PET SUPPLIES Animal World H( 5ESTAU RANTS M.S.C. Cafeteria 2( 3( Victor s Chicken 6s Shakes 5C SCHOOL SUPPLIES Texas A6;M Bookstore .. ,fic:-7c TOBACCO & ACCESSORIES Saritas Smoko Shop MUSIC SUPPLIES Music BikiIIi basis from local doctors. During the two-hour treatment, patients inside the pressurized chamber are put under pressure equal to being “taken down” to a depth of 45 feet underwater. They are given pure oxygen to breathe. Exposing patients to high- pressure oxygen increases the level of oxygen in body tissues, Fife said. The higher oxygen levels tend to kill disease-causing bacteria and stimu late the growth of capillaries into damaged tissue, he said. Some diseases can be arrested or cured in days. Others may take months of treatment. Many diseases are not helped at all by the hyper baric therapy, Fife said. High-pressure oxygen seems most effective in arresting the spread of gangrene, and many gan grene patients’ arms, legs and even lives have been saved by the treat ment. In addition, Fife s team has enjoyed some success using the chamber to treat the infectious bone disease, osteomyelitis, and in help ing failing skin grafts to take hold and grow. However, Fife said scientists still do not know’ how or why the high pressure oxygen treatment works. “All we know is that it seems ef fective in curing some diseases,” Fife said. “But we don’t know why.” Fife is quick to say that he and his team of researchers do not practice medicine and that experiments are not conducted on the hyperbaric laboratory patients. “These cases only serve as a train ing experience for our students,” Fife said. “The referring physician still is medically responsible for the patient.” The Hyperbaric Laboratory, lo cated near Easterwood Airport, con tains seven pressure chambers! One chamber is rated for use by people such as the medical patients, Fife said. There are two large animal chambers and four small ones that will hold animal test subjects like rats and mice. Fife's graduate students are given direct responsibility for operating the chambers. Fife said the nature of the hyperbaric work demands that his graduates be on call and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Medical treatment is only one as pect of the hyperbaric research being conducted by Fife. Once a deep-sea diving bell, this high-pressure tank has been converted by Texas A&M researchers into a high-pressure hyperbaric chamber used in treating patients with a variety of diseases. Battalion photo by Pat O'Malley Fife’s team has been testing an oxygen-hydrogen breathing mixture that may enable divers to work at depths of 1000 feet and more. Cur rently, working divers are limited to a depth of about 600 feet. Called “hydrox” for short, the newly-developed mixture pre viously had not been used by divers because it is a potentially explosive compound, Fife said. However, re searchers recently discovered that the mixture remains stable when the oxygen content is held at a 2 percent level. “By keeping the oxygen at 2 per cent we have been able to use the mixture for 6000 hours of testing without a single accident,” Fife said. The hydrox mixture has several advantages over conventional diving mixtures, Fife said. Breathing mixtures containing ni trogen act as a narcotic at depths of 200 hundred feet or more and mix tures of helium affect the central nervous system at depths below 1000 feet. Hydrogen gas, on the other hand, is lighter and less dense than either nitrogen or helium. Not only can di vers go deeper, they also can surface and decompress in less time than is now required to avoid getting the “bends” from nitrogen bubbles forming in the blood. In other research, Fife’s students are exploring the effects of scuba di ving on pregnant women. Taking pregnant sheep on simu lated 100-foot dives inside a hyper baric chamber, researchers monitored the blood flow through an umbilical artery. Tests showed that massive bubbles appeared in the fetal circulation as a result of the dive. Untreated, these bubbles would have resulted in death for the fetus by what divers commonly call the “bends.” The observations suggest that pregnant women who scuba dive deeper than 60 feet run a risk of harming their unborn child. “What some people would con sider a safe, no-decompression sports dive could kill the infant,” Fife said. “An unborn infant could get the bends and die without the mother ever feeling any symptoms.” This unusual door leads to one of Texas A&M University’s seven hyperbaric pressure chambers. This particular chamber is used to treat patients with bone diseases, failing skin grafts and gangrene. While in the chamber patients are put under pressure equal to that of being 45 feet underwater. Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley Enrollment figures indicate less space, more women By MARK WILLIS Battalion Staff Enrollment will increase at Texas A&M University again this fall. The Planning and Institutional Analysis Department of the school projects that 29,928 students will have enrolled by the end of the reg istration period, Don Wood, admin istrative planning analyst, said. This projection reflects an increase of 3.8 percent or 1,095 students over last fall’s enrollment. However, the increase is consid erably less than in the past few years, during which the school’s population doubled. The slow-down is due to efforts by the school to slow and control growth. The Texas A&M board of regents has been working on a five-year plan for the controlled growth of the school. The projected effects of this plan on enrollment shows a gradual slowing of population growth, as shown below: STUDENTS PERCENT ENROLLED INCREASE 1979 30,678 2.51 1980 31,552 2.85 1981 32.079 1.67 1982 32,430 1.09 1983 32,911. . . .’ 1.01 This slow-down in growth does not indicate a lack of potential- student interest in the University; the number of applicants for admis sion is increasing at a far greater rate than enrollment. The school officials believe the University can only serve a limited number of students and still maintain desired academic standards. Last fall the University employed 1,702 faculty members or one teacher for every 17.5 students. The number of faculty members for the fall term has not been set as of this writing, but the ratio will be near the same, school officials have said. Campus housing has created the most problems related to increasing enrollment for the University. This fall there are 5,880 bed spaces on campus for men and 2,354 for wo men. These have all been reserved and by early July there were 1,133 men and 1,210 women on lists wait ing for someone to cancel a room reservation. The regents have approved funds for a feasibility study on a planned 500-bed dormitory and are consider ing plans for a 120-bed women’s ath letic dormitory. Off-campus housing has caught up with demand over the past couple of years, but many students would still prefer the cheaper and centrally-located dormitory hous ing. New students, as has been the pattern in recent years, will include a greater number of women than men, although that difference is ex pected to be small. li EMDREYS JEWELRY HAS JUST CHANGED ITS NAME. EMDREYS JEWELRY IS NOW-, COWARTS JEWELRY Cowart's is now the new name for Embrey's Jewelry at 415 Uni versity Drive. Cowart's will con tinue in the tradition of Embrey's by offering a fine line of quality jewelry and watches along with an expert in-store watch and jewelry repair service. I'm Alan R. Cowart; I have been associated with Embrey's for the past two years and have now ac quired full ownership of the store. I will give you, as I have in past three years and have now acquired full ownership of the store. I will give you, as I have in Please come by and meet me and my well trained staff. We are anxious to serve you and will truly appreciate your pa tronage. We want to make Cowart's your jewelry store. 415 University Drive 846-5816 YOURje^ELPY STORE !