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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1999)
Italion N ATION Page 9 « Thursday, September 30, 1999 %eart doctors question -pain treatment u the end vn there - >s of whai ese pyrote; s Hitchir, rshal in^ d. others wft; : of a cove "ies that: nks that: building: rgasknoe. idians reh ff electric;: devices. oited theh ael McNtii: heory.ck: md neari: ernmentc he tanks'e ed the d«: 'e reinforce desofhav: special id:: of once in I hands h ■)STON (AP) — Newly approved laser drills ap- ear 10 relieve heart patients’ chest pain, but a med al-journal critique questions whether the benefits are n illusion. Tine technique, called transmyocardial laser revas- iari/.ition, became available in large medical cen- trslarlier this year as the latest approach to treating Bidating chest pain caused by bad hearts. The Food and Drug Administration approved heart lers developed by PLC Medical Systems of Franklin, lass., and Eclipse Surgical Technologies of Sunny- ale, Calif. The approval was based on data from two large udios being published in today’s issue of the New ngl.md Journal of Medicine. The journal carries an nulually negative editorial about the studies and the H technology. Hne technique uses a laser to drill 10 to 50 holes itlle heart. The two studies, using the competing iser instruments, both found that three-quarters of everely impaired patients improve significantly af- .r the laser-drill treatment. However, the editorial, written by two cardiologists om the University of Texas Southwestern Medical enter in Dallas, raises the possibility benefits were naeinary, or a placebo effect as doctors call it. “These apparently impressive results must be iewed with caution,” Drs. Richard A. Lange, South- such tari/estern’s director of cardiac catheterization, and L. gloves ig faVid Hillis, vice chair of medicine, wrote. In the studies, half the patients got laser treatment, 1IB? the rest received standard medicines. Among J ae Texas doctors’ concerns: ■ 1 P at ' ents knew they had gotten the laser, so their I fr/Hctations of benefit may have made them believe uieir chest pain had eased. ■ Doctors who performed the study assessed the tatients’ conditions. These “presumably enthusiastic” Soothing an aching heart Transmyocardial laser revascularization is used to treat patients suffering from the severe chest pains that come along with heart disease. The approach yields positive results, but critics suggest that the benefits may be imaginary. Here’s a look at how TLR works. □ The laser's handpiece is inserted through an incision in the chest. The procedure is performed on the beating heart. □ The laser is synchronized with the hearbeat to automatically fire when the ventricle fills with blood. Blood is forced into the channels and delivered to oxygen-deprived areas, reducing pain. The outer surface of the channels heal over. Source: PLC Medical Systems, Inc. AP/ J. Axamethy 1 sing the a:fl e plane’s if iations Corf d the Lortl physicians may have been more likely to see benefit in those getting the laser. • Patients in the group getting medicine alone were allowed to receive the laser if they failed to improve. This arrangement “implies a bias on the part of the in vestigators” that the laser treatment was better. • No one can convincingly explain why the treat ment works. One theory — that it creates new blood channels — has been discredited. Another is that it destroys nerves in the heart, so patients feel less pain. Lange said he thought the lasers should be used only in studies, not routinely on heart patients. Dr. Keith B. Allen of St. Vincent Hospital in Indi anapolis, who directed one of the studies, said, “I’ve heard it all before. All you have to do is interview pa tient after patient who had this procedure and see the effect and realize there is more than a placebo effect.” ■-ewdingF- wing of die I Ul)of them* 1 would rept ore looks to change campaign > T^tO P| .Jptew-i «^5//INGTON (AP) — Vice tPres/dent A1 Gore, shaken by :ix bf thtwe unexpected strength of Bill addition Iradley’s challenge for the De year. Hcratic presidential nomina- providetpi, abruptly uprooted his st siimifside-the-Beltway campaign ■terday for a move to Ten- in July, Wssee and “an opportunity for |y tested fansformation.” iseprcgra*“This is a hard, tough fight,” ■re said, challenging Bradley to ,i series of issue debates. ■By relocating his headquar- /y | Ills from Washington’s K 4^ HSleet, the former Tennessee O ilia tor who grew up in Wash- ' recogn ilgton said he hoped to “get /olvingi closer to the American people, such fa [closer to the grassroots and f/ebshot out of the Beltway and into iy cot® the heartland.” intent for® After months of acting out said. Tk[the presumption that his only ■mpetitor was Republican front-runner George W. Bush, Gore said yesterday he was ea ger to debate Bradley as a way to “make of this campaign a chance for our country to rekin dle the spirit of democracy.” thalweg tions. gh to also cant ; sell foh er make! Is for $9^ ? Presidff Clinton OKs pay raise for future presidents CLINTON WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Clinton signed legislation yes terday that will double future pres idents’ annual salaries to $400,000 and let members of Congress col lect their second pay increase in two years. Congressional salaries will climb by $4,600 to $141,300 a year beginning in Jan uary. Members of Congress last got a pay increase in January 1998 and before that in 1993. The increase to $400,000 will be the first presidential pay raise since 1969, but it will not take effect un til Clinton leaves office Jan. 20, 2001. The Constitution forbids any change in a president’s salary while he is in office. The measure also gives raises to Vice President A1 Gore, Cabinet secretaries and about 1,300 other top-level branch officials in Janu ary. By law, they are entitled to the same 3.4 percent increase received by members of Congress. Gore will earn $181,400. Cabinet secretaries will make $157,000. Under congressional pay scales, leaders earn more than rank and file members, topped by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who will make $181,400 in January. Federal civil servants’ salaries will rise by 4.8 percent a year, their highest annual increase since 1981. The increases were part of a $28 billion measure financing the Trea sury Department and some small er agencies for the fiscal year be ginning Friday. Clinton signed the bill in an Oval Office ceremony at tended by several members of Con gress and news photographers. In a statement, Clinton did not mention the pay increases. Instead, he called attention to a new re quirement that health plans for federal employees must offer pre scription contraceptive coverage, with an exception for plans that object to such coverage on reli gious grounds. By law, members of Congress re ceive an annual salary increase un less they vote to block it, and the Treasury bill is the traditional vehi cle for doing that. The measure con tained no language preventing the congressional pay increase, nor was it mentioned during brief debate. While congressional pay in creases often have triggered heat ed debates, there was no serious challenge to the latest increase. Elect vrar Leaders VOTE IZI 2003 Freshmen Elections Wednesday, Sept. 29; Thursday Sept. 30 ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ V«te at the fallawlng convenient locations: MSC, Evans Library, Blocker, Sbisa, Commons, Duncan, and Zachary 2 did not licit anf 2Ct. Bntltt inces in'» iot was SOUL-WORKS '/’i.i'.x cx.si .S'o.. JF*C> 7 ' 77C/<- V' /VS? 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Or you could attend the Co-op Career Fair Oct. 4-5 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Zachry Lobby All majors invited! Monday, Oct. 4 Ingersoll-Rand ABB Vetco Gray Hewlett-Packard Alcatel USA Raytheon Texas Instruments Advanced Micro Devices Freese & Nichols Deltal Airlines Nortel Networks Cirrus Logic Dow Chemical Intervoice Brite Trane Company HEB Grocery Company Celanese Vetrotex America Tivoli Systems LinCom Corporation BICCGeneral FMC SMI-Texas Parker Hannifen UFE, Inc. Kimberly-Clark Hovensa, L.L.C. Tuesday, Oct, 5 Granite Construction Traulsen & Company Pratt & Whitney Flow Products, Inc. Ericsson Brasfieid & Gorrie, LLC Alcoa Fujikura Union Pacific Railroad National Instruments Elk Corporation Eastman Chemical United States Gypsum 3M Corporation Union Carbide Bayer Corporation Lyondell-Citgo Mobil Corporation IBM Sperry Sun Drilling DuPont American Airlines Lockheed Martin Nokia Mobile Phones Heat Transfer Research Central Intelligence Agency Entergy Corporation Flowtronex International NASA-JSC