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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1996)
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MOREAU (PG-13) 1:00 3:15 6:30 9:00 c r NO PASSES OR SUPERSAVER ACCEPTED http://www.ipt.com James N Childs, M.D. ‘79 and Maria V Childs, M.D. Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery Board Certified / Clinical Faculty TAMU College of Medicine COMPREHENSIVE SKIN CARE FOR ALL AGES Acne & Complexion Problems • Sun Damage Skin Cancer • Moles & Warts Chemical Peels • Rashes & Infections • Melanoma Diagnosis & Treatment 1605 Rock Prairie Rd., Suite 312 College Station 696-4444 Accepting Appointments Take an additional 10% OFF Cvat-V 817 Texas Ave. College Station, Tx on ‘96 GT Bicycles Expires 10-11-96 SAVE ON U-LOCKS * HELMETS* MORE OPEN 9:30 AM -6:30 PM M-SAT 12-5 SUN. Wfe accept competitors coupons com ms BLUE DROPS OF RAIN" "P- SO HE COREY STEVENS LIVE W CURB MARIE @ THE DIXIE THEATRE THIS THURt OCT. 10TH AT DM. ADVANCE Tit AVIAIAUI« NAMONEI. AFTER THE SHOW. PICK UP COREY'S DISCOVERY ALBUM "BUIE DROPS OF RA1IT ON SALE AT MAROONED. 1HE ALBUM SHOWCASES HIS MASTERFUL BUIES 6UHIR AHP EVOCATIVE VOCALS. m 2.95 CD SALE PRICE GOOD THRU 10/23 ■ marooned CD’s -7 TAPES LP’s 110 college main 846-0017 S The Battalion CIENCE Wednesday • October9, Smoking may cause blindnes CHICAGO (AP) — New re search gives smokers one more reason to quit: Pack-a-day-or- more puffers double their likeli hood of developing the most common cause of blindness among the elderly. Age-related macular degenera tion, a usually untreatable afflic tion, impairs the vision of an esti mated 1.7 million Americans and causes more new cases of blind ness than any other ailment among people age 65 or older, ac cording to the government. Smoking already is blamed for promoting cataracts, another ma jor cause of vision loss. Cataracts threaten the vision of far more people than macular degenera tion but cause much less blind ness because most cataract suf ferers keep their sight with treatment. The more people smoke and the longer they smoke, the higher their risk of developing macular degeneration, according to two new studies in Wednesday’s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. “It is another reason to either not smoke, quit smoking or re duce your amount of smoking,” said Dr. Johanna M. Seddon of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School. Years after quitting, former smokers still faced up to double the risk of getting the condition, the new research found. “Since the risks decrease very slowly — if at all — over time, it’s even perhaps of greater impor tance not to start in the first place,” said Dr. William G. Christen of Har vard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In advanced macular degenera tion, which affects “It is another reason to either not smoke, quit smoking or reduce your amount of smoking/’ Dr. Johanna M. Seddon Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary one of every 14 people age 75 or older, the center of the visual field deteriorates, causing a roughly circular area of blind ness that grows larger gradually. The deterioration is caused by damage to the macula, the center of the retina, a light-sensitive membrane on the inside back of the eyeball. The damage occurs when an insulating layer between the retina and blood vessels that nourish it breaks down, resulting in fluid leaks and scarring. Smoking may speed the process by increasing the number of damaging chemical com pounds or reduc ing the number of protective nutri ents delivered by the bloodstream to the eye, re searchers specu late. Another theo ry is that smoking reduces blood and oxygen to the eye. Seddon led re searchers who looked for macular degeneration 1 among 31,843 ini tially healthy women during a 12-year period begin ning in 1980 in the ongoing Nurs es’ Health Study. In 215 cases that developed, the disease caused vision loss; al most one-third of those cases were attributable to smoking, re searchers said. Smokers of a pack of ciga rettes or more a day were 2.4 lar degeneration as had never smoked. Risk® culated after controllingfoi ferences in other traitstli!| be important, suchasagt and estrogen use. Christen led a team looked for macular degents among 21,157 initiallyim! men during an average 11- period beginning in ongoing Physicians’ Among the men, i generation develo cases causing vision ten’s team didn’t calculaiel The Texas AN N mien’s Basketba [icially kick off many cases were attributal ison Monday wit smoking, but he said it® be comparable to thepto|) Hie White Co list non among women. Pack-or-more-a-daysi! irtatmidnight or were 2.5 times as likely tow ailment as those wheat n„and admissioi smoked, researchers; also controlled for differeats mg with the Agg times as likely to develop macu- other traits that affect risk. Dr. Ronald Klein of thellai sity of Wisconsin MedicalSd at Madison said the new back up previous work o: smaller groups of subjects have suggested a linkbettt The event is sp smoking and macular dtp &T and AT&T Win tion. Klein was not involved new studies. B lidnight icks off n (ball Midnight sketball practic Doors will op Both teams will iders, Reveille mpetition and mes and prizes ebooks for the s and the free use one or pager for ack surge) Yellow fever rises in Africa, South Americi" Spurs ' ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Yellow fever is making an alarm ing comeback in sub-Saharan Africa, prompting medical offi cials to appeal for $190 million to control the disease that causes high fevers, vomiting and death. A study in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association found 18,735 yellow fever cases worldwide — including 4,522 deaths — from 1987 to 1991. It said this was the highest incidence of the disease since 1948. The study was conducted by Dr. Susan E. Robertson and col leagues from the World Health Organization in Geneva. While reported cases of the virus dropped in 1992 and 1993, they have shot up again in West Africa, most notably Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Yellow fever has not been re ported in North America since 1905, when an outbreak in Louisiana killed some 1,000 peo ple, according to the report. But the yellow fever mosquito has re cently made its way to the south eastern United States. Yellow fever, which is spread by mosquitoes, is one of the most difficult viruses to diagnose and therefore goes underreported. WHO estimates there are 200,000 yellow fever cases each year, with nearly all in sub-Saharan Africa. “Many are in major urban areas in Africa and that’s the real danger, that’s where you have explosive po tential for epidemics which could really be devastating,” said Michael Luhan, a WHO spokesman. There is no cure or specific treatment for yellow fever. Doc tors can only relieve dehydration and other effects of the disease. The U.N. health agency has launched an appeal for $190 mil lion for yellow fever vaccines that would be incorporated into rou tine inoculation programs. “It’s a very deadly disease and that’s precisely why WHO is so concerned about it,” Luhan said. “Even though the numbers right now are not as dramatic as oth ers, the potential for morbidity is far greater.” In South America, Peru had the largest yellow fever outbreak in the region since 1950, with 440 cases and 167 deaths last year, ac cording to the study. It blames the increase on the “Aedes aegypti” mosquito, which has made its way to cities. Yellow fever causes high fever, severe vomiting and dehydration Yellow fever on the rise Y ellow fever is a viral disease occurring in many countries in Africa and South America. The current worldwide total of 18,735yeta fever cases and 4,522 deaths reported from 1987 to 1991 represents the greatest yellow fever activity since 1948. Symptoms ► The symptoms of the first stage of the disease appear 3 - 6 days after exposure, and include: ► The disease is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. fever nausea vomiting flushed face constipation stomach discomfort headache muscle pains (especially In the neck, back and legs) restlessness irritability ► A remission period Iotas a later stage may produce jaundice (yellowed skin anil eyes) and dark vomit. Where it occurs ANTONIO urs are facing t playing withe luck Person for ason and perhap Person, 32, a 6 ltd, may have su etthe problems miated disc in h “There is a big lii will have to unde ison’s agent, Heri loted as saying i nAntonio Express ‘But we want I igery would mear aying basketball at life is cone w,we’ve had nut rformed and we’r ittesults,” he said. . V* /boys’ pi because in the early stages. If the virus reaches the toxic phase, at least half of the victims fail into a coma and die within two weeks. The yellow fever vaccine offers a 95 percent protection rate. But in the poorest corners ofAfii So just becaus where civil war, blazingM' ins favorite ta high humidity combinewitkI ^for Sunday s sanitary conditions, villages moved from national inoci programs become viralincuW 5 y> n g like defen wl champions. ‘Visible Human’ allows surgeons to practice operate WASHINGTON (AP) — The night before a complex operation, a surgeon sits at a com puter and “practices” the surgery time after time using high-fidelity pictures of the*pa- tient’s actual diseased organ. At a medical school, a student studies de tailed images of muscles, bones and tissue in a computer-driven simulation of a real cadaver. The student can dissect the body dozens of times and never leave a mark on the specimen. Patients being screened for colon cancer are put through a CT scan instead of undergoing an uncomfortable invasive procedure. Images from the scan are processed through a comput er, giving the doctor an inch-by-inch view of the colon without ever touching the patient. All of these are examples of how medical science is now using the “computerized ca davers” created by the National Library of Medicine from the bodies of an executed murderer from Texas and of a Maryland woman who died of a heart attack. The program, called the “Visible Human” project, enables medical workers sitting at or dinary computer screens to pull up detailed, high resolution images of any part of the hu man body. Using computer simulation, doc tors and students can strip away the skin and electronically look at any body part. The images can be turned, giving a 3D-like appearance. Cavities, such as the stomach, the colon or even the heart, can be taken apart, layer by layer, examined in precise de tail and turned at any angle. For students, it is a way to learn basic anatomy. For surgeons, it is a way to practice difficult operations before they take up the scalpel and do it for real. Dr. Steven Phillips, a heart surgeon at the University of Iowa, said the computerized ca davers are “an exciting new medical tool that is limited only by human imagination in how it will be used.” Phillips said he is using the system to de velop new surgical procedures that once he could perfect only through experiments with animals. Now, he said, the experiments are being performed bloodlessly. “It will become like a flight simulator for surgery,” he said. “It will eliminate many sur gical room mistakes and complications.” At the Mayo Clinic, doctors have adapted the “Visible Human” data to X-ray and CT scan data from actual patients. Images from the patients are incorporated into the basic data base so that the appearance of the indi vidual’s diseased organ is reproduced on the computer screen. “They are learning the surgical landscape before they even perform the surgery,” said the clinic’s Richard A. Robb. He said the experimental technique has been used successftilly on 12 patients undergo ing prostate cancer surgery, a procedure that is difficult and fraught with risks because of po tential damage to nerves and blood vessels. By studying computer-enhancedsd Robb said, the surgeons could learneti u“B U tif we CO nl where the cancer was in the prostate and' best to approach it surgically. "It helps because the surgeons arecoi of the anatomy they will encounter in siiijl]p us Y he said. In other words: No surprises. IRVING, Texas (. (to popular be {in's absence is: jason the Dalla itestumbled this think we all Y i that Michael wendous lift t mally and tal Barry Switze way we’ve beei iking dumb mist chad’s presen The data of the "Visible Human” pnf now available for computer download researchers and other licensees. Dr. Micfe Ackerman of the NML said more than^ censes have been issued in 26 countries The NML, which is part of the Nation stitutes of Health, issued a contract in 1- the University of Colorado to develof computerized cadavers. It took Colorado researchers two find the ideal adult male cadaver and longer to find the ideal female. The male, it turned out, was a 39f ; Texas killer who was executed by lethal* tion in August 1993 after instructing tW body was to be donated to medical stf 1 The female was a 59-year-old Mai)l woman who also gave her body to sclent 1 First the bodies were X-rayed andii with magnetic resonance equipment they were frozen hard and carved into sands of thin slices. All of the images were then stored in a 11 puter and a special program put them# to form high fidelity pictures of the bodp of its parts. EXPERIENCE JAPAN! Spend a year in Japan as a participant in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program! This government-sponsored program, open to all majors, promotes international exchange and English-language education throughout Japan. Senior and graduate students can speak to a representative on: Thursday, October 10, 1996 in the MSC at Texas A&M University from 10:00a.m. to 3:00p.m. For more information, contact the Consulate General of J apan at 652-2977. LEARN TO FLY NOWat united FLIGHT SYSTtt‘ We’re now located at College Station Easterwood Aif^ Learn to fly the Cessna Pilot Center Exclusive lntegfi : Flight Training System at United Flight Systems, the experienced flight school. Ti: Cessna Private thru advanced training Aircraft rental, Pilot Shop F.A.A. approved 141 school VA Eligible Benefits United Flight Systems,^ Easterwood Airp» [l College Station, 409 260-632: The 0RA( Experien Compreh Workboc Interacth Certifica