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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2002)
Sci Tech THE BATTALION 9A Thursday, April 18, 2002 \ngioplasty more available Saving lives without cardiac surgery unit iCommunity hospitals without on- jsite cardiac units can save more |iv6s with angioplasty, not drug Itreatment, a new study of 451 iheart attack victims shows. Clot-breaking drug Angioplasty ! Number of patients with the Hollowing outcome, six weeks I after treatment: r° r 6 I 12 8 4 Death Heart attack Stroke Number of patients with the following outcome, six months after treatment: 1 25 20 15 10 5 Death Heart attack Stroke NOTE: The study was conducted at 11 community hospitals without onsite cardiac surgery units. I SOURCE: Journal of the American [ Medical Association CHICAGO (AP) —A study suggests that angioplasties can be safely done at hospitals regardless of whether they have cardiac surgery depart ments, a finding that could extend the lifesaving procedure to thousands of U.S. heart attack patients. The study, which appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, challenges the conventional notion that angioplasties should only be performed at hospitals with a special cardiac unit. The study involved giving three months of angioplasty training to staffers at l l of such hospitals. Angioplasty, in which a tiny balloon is used to open a clogged artery, is considered the best treatment for heart attacks. Following the training, researchers found that angio plasty patients fared about as well in regular hospitals as those who undergo the proce dure at surgery-ready hospitals. About two-thirds of U.S. heart attack patients each year do not get angioplasties because they are taken to hospitals with out cardiac surgery units. In fact, most U.S. hospitals do not have such units. The study offers hope to heart attack victims without access to such special departments. “It should not be a matter of chance or geography that deter mines what kind of care a heart attack patient receives,” said Dr. Thomas Aversano, a Johns Hopkins Hospital cardiologist who led the study. It should not he a matter of chance or geography that determines what kind of care a heart attack 99 patient receives. — Dr. Thomas Aversance Johns Hopkins Hospital Angioplasty is not consid ered surgery. It typically involves threading a thin tube, or catheter, tipped with a deflat ed balloon into an artery, where the balloon is inflated to clear a blockage. Small tubes called stents often are installed during the procedure to keep the artery propped open; 70 percent of angioplasty patients studied received them. At six weeks and six months after their heart attacks, patients treated with angioplasty had 40 percent lower rates of death, strokes and recurrent heart attacks than those given the clot-dis solving medication Activase. They also had shorter hospital stays, and none had complica tions requiring surgery. About 1.1 million Americans each year have heart attacks, and more than 40 percent die. Letting hospitals without cardiac surgery units perform angioplasties could more than double the number of heart attack patients who receive the procedure, potentially saving many more lives, Aversano said. The benefits far outweigh the small risk of complications requiring surgery, he said. American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines created in 1993 recommended against doing angioplasties at hospitals without cardiac surgery units. They were revised last year to say angioplasty for heart attacks is acceptable, with a number of caveats. Hospitals should have rapid access to a surgical facility, they should perform at least 36 angioplas ties a year, and doctors who perform the procedure should do at least 75 a year, the guide lines say. Interim Housing (Housing between the spring and summer semesters) If you are living on campus for the spring semester and the first summer session you are eligible to live or store your belongings in Interim Housing, which will be in Davis-Gary Hall. Applications for Interim Housing will be available May 2-3 in the Housing Assignments Office or you may apply on-line at http://reslife.tamu.edu Please come by the Housing Assignments Office for more information!! Department of Residence Life Housing Assignments Office YMCA Building Room 101 845-4744 The week of April 21 - April 25 Ethanol used as alternative fuel URBANA. Ill. (AP) — Mixing the corn in his fields with the diesel powering his tractors has worked so far for farmer Paul Keiser. Now experts are trying to prove it can work for others, too. University of Illinois researchers are studying an experimental fuel that com bines ethanol — produced from corn — with diesel. They hope testing of the so- called E diesel at two Illinois farms and in the lab will show the blend is durable, cost- effective and better for the environment than normal diesel. Reiser, who farms corn and soybeans near Bloomington, noticed little difference I between the ethanol blend and normal ■* * » * » diesel fuel used in most farm equipment. “We’ve liked the results and we espe cially like the fact that it is a renewable resource that we can get right out of our own fields,” he said. “I’m growing what I’m using. I don’t know any farmer that wouldn’t be excited about that.” The long-term goal is to get the product on the market and expand demand for corn- based ethanol, in turn creating more income for farmers. Illinois is the nation’s largest ethanol producer. About 280 million bushels of corn are processed each year at ethanol plants owned by Archer Daniels Midland in Decatur and Midwest Grain Producers and Williams Bio-Energy, both in Pekin. “Farmers will tell you it can’t come soon enough,” university researcher Alan Hansen said. “But to be realistic there are some years to go.” Blending crops with diesel fuel isn’t a new idea — soybeans are already used as an additive to make biodiesel and ethanol has been mixed with gasoline for years.- However, blending ethanol with diesel has been problematic. Ethanol reduces the lubrication of diesel, making it harder on engines, so other additives are needed to counter that effect. Acer 209 Acct 210 Acct 229 Acct 229 Cassidy Chem 101 Econ 202 Allen Econ 203 Edwardson Math 151 Math 152 Math 251 Mgmt 211 Swim Part 1 of 2 Sun Apr 21 6pm-10pm Part 1 of 3 Mon Apr 22 5pn»-7pm Part 1 of 2 Tue Apr 23 10pm-lam Test Review Sun Apr 21 3pm-6pm Part t of 3 Sun April 6prn~8pni Part 1 of 4 Sun Apr 21 10pnt-12ant Part 1 of 2 Wed Apr 24 10ptn~lam lest Review Mon Apr 22 6pm-9pm Test Review Mon Apr 22 9pm-12ain Part 1 of 2 Mon Apr 22 7 pm-10pm “Part 1 of 2 Mon Apr 22 8pm-11 pm Part 2 of 2 Mon Apr 22 7prn-l 1 pm Part 2 of 3 Tue Apr 23 5pm-8pm Part 2 of 2 Thu Apr 25 8pm~llpin Part 2 of 3 Mon Apr 22 6pin-8pm Part 2 of4 Mon Apr 22 i i pm-1 am "Part 2 of 2 Thu Apr 25 5pm-8pm Part 3 of 3 Wed Apr 24 5pm-7pm The Finals Schedule will be posted soon. 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