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October 22, 2002
NASA
enlists UMC for research
Circulatory study could benefit more than just astronauts
By James V. Walker
jvwalker@clarionledger.com
The return to Earth's gravity leaves about a fourth of astronauts mostly women so weak they can't stand,
while others have little trouble adjusting.
NASA wants to know why, and they've enlisted the help of University of Mississippi Medical Center re-searchers
and a high-powered computer simulation to solve the puzzle.
"Astronauts are very healthy, vigorously trained individuals," said Richard Summers, the UMC physician
leading the project. "If space flight is ever going to be a popular thing, these problems have to be overcome."
Beyond that, said Summers, who is an associate professor of emergency medicine, studying the circulatory
systems of returning astronauts could offer clues to more terrestrial problems.
For instance, data on how the body's fluids respond to low gravity could provide new insight on hypertension,
which the American Heart Association estimates affects a quarter of U.S. adults.
"On Earth, it's sometimes difficult to understand some of these medical problems," Summers said. "This
could lead to more innovative ideas to treat our patients."
So far, Summers has been to three shuttle landings, running tests on astronauts minutes after they
land. Most recently, he took blood samples and measurements from the team that returned from the International Space Station
last week.
The computer program that receives the data is the product of 30 years of work by UMC researchers and
is widely regarded as the most advanced model of the human circulatory system ever developed.
Researchers and their space agency employers hope the model eventually will be able to use individual
health data to predict who will have problems adjusting to weightlessness and how best to treat them.
They are already learning, for instance, about how specific differences in the body structure of men
and women affect their response to low gravity.
When astronauts leave Earth's gravity, the body's fluids shift to adjust to new conditions. Space intolerance,
or "orthostasis," is caused by the sudden shift back when the shuttle enters gravity.
Its symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, dehydration, even fainting not good for a shuttle pilot trying
to land, Summers said.
The longer astronauts are gone, the more difficult the transition. That makes the prospect of a six-month
stint on the space station or a trip to Mars that could take over a year a daunting one.
"It's actually a very complicated problem," said Tom Coleman, UMC professor emeritus of physiology
and biophysics. "To cope with the complexity, we've turned to a mathematical model."
The model, which Coleman helped develop, is pretty complex in its own right. With more than 3,000 variables,
the program can predict how factors such as heart muscle strength and blood pressure interact.
As more astronauts are studied, the model will be continuously updated based on the findings, he said.
"The problem is there's not very many astronauts," Coleman said. "They're all young and seemingly healthy,
but there is still tremendous variation in their responses. We want to finally figure out what's behind it."
The cutting-edge computer model developed at UMC has drawn attention from as far away as Koln, Germany.
Rupert Gerzer, director of Germany's Institute of Aerospace Medicine, was in Jackson on Monday to see
the research.
Gerzer, who has studied the effects of space travel on astronauts from the European Space Agency, said
UMC's model provides more accurate results than any other he's worked with.
"Apparently, our knowledge from Earth doesn't tell us how we should treat our astronauts," he said.
"Through this research, we could also find out new things about physiology, about how the human body works."
The German doctor said he was also intrigued by the concept of using a computer simulation to tailor
cures to individuals instead of treating everyone the same.
"Everybody is different, and everybody reacts differently," Gerzer said. "This program helps us start
a new kind of medicine that looks first at the individual."
Cardiac Nuclear Imaging System Saves Time, Muscle
 Since February, some cardiology patients at UMC have had life-threatening heart conditions
identified, thanks to the rapid diagnosis afforded by a new cardiac nuclear imaging system.
Housed in the UMC Pavilion,
the machine produces high-definition, three-dimensional, virtual real-time images of the heart that cardiologists can manipulate
on a computer screen to view the organ from every conceivable angle.
Most critical, according to Dr. Gustavo Camarano,
associate professor of medicine and director of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology working group for Mississippi,
the nuclear scan traces blood flow through the heart.
The heart is the only organ that moves constantly, Camarano
said, and so it is difficult to provide images that show movement. At the same time the heart contracts and relaxes, it also
rotates.
This machine gives cardiologists excellent anatomic definition of all the cardiac structures. It shows the
distribution of myocardial blood flow from the top of the heart to its base, which is important in the diagnosis of coronary
artery disease and the evaluation of patients after they have had heart attacks, cardiac surgery or angioplasty.
Ultimately,
the machine allows cardiologists to understand the severity of a patients disease and determine appropriate treatment also
known as risk stratification. The status of patients with potentially risky conditions such as diabetes or high cholesterol
scheduled for noncardiac surgeries also can be assessed before being placed under the stress of surgery.
Since becoming
operational last February, the pavilion machine has scanned an average of five patients a day, said Peggy Manning, coordinator
of outreach and development for the Department of Medicine.
We can scan anywhere from 12-to-16 patients a day, Manning
said. Patients are treated much faster in the outpatient facility. It has become a must-have for cardiology services.
The
noninvasive imaging system is manufactured by Siemens of Germany, as is the Medical Centers Sonata MRI, used to diagnose and
treat patients with neurovascular diseases. The pavilion machine is used exclusively for cardiology services, however.
After
periods of cardiovascular stress and rest, patients lie on a bed with their arms resting above their heads as two detectors
rotate 90 degrees around them covering 180 degrees during the procedure that takes only 45 minutes to an hour. At no time
is a patients head covered, so claustrophobia is never an issue.
Once a scan is completed, cardiologists analyze each
study three separate times using the latest software from Emory University, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University
of Michigan, to reach a diagnosis. Reports can be e-mailed to referring physicians mere hours after the scan.
If the
findings reveal something that could be dangerous for the patient to leave the outpatient facility, I can inform his or her
physician before the patient leaves, Camarano said.
The machine also relieves much of the pressure emergency room
physicians may experience when caring for patients complaining of chest pain. Electrocardiograms (EKGs) and blood studies
are usually able to exclude a diagnosis of heart attack as the cause of such pain, but the tests may not identify patients
with coronary artery disease who are at risk of a heart attack in the coming weeks or months. In such cases, a convenient
outpatient nuclear scan can help patients receive appropriate treatment.
According to Dr. Thomas N. Skelton, director
of cardiology, convenience is one of the major benefits of the nuclear scan.
Our biggest need was to have cardiac
nuclear imaging in our outpatient center, so patients wouldnt have to check into the hospital in order to have the scans done,
Skelton said. Thats what really drove this project home.
Although the pavilion presents a more suitable environment
for patients parking is much more convenient than at the hospital and outpatients are used to visiting suites in the facility
Camarano said cutting the time from diagnosis to treatment of heart disease is the machines most important function.
About
half a million people in America die each year due to heart disease, Camarano said. Theres nothing you can do about genetics,
but if you can get a preemptive, early diagnosis and if you change your habits you can make a positive impact on your cardiovascular
health.
Precaution is the key. If you have chest pain, go to the emergency room; dont wait. If youre having a heart
attack, remember: time is muscle.
Bruce Coleman (7/29/02)
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NASA and UMC Link Up to Japan - and Mars?
 Surgery guided by a UMC physician on patients in Japan may lead to such medical procedures
in space, thanks to a joint project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and UMC.
In the project,
NASA provides telecommunications and medical imaging linkups between UMC and two hospitals in Japan. At UMC, interventional
radiologist Dr. Patrick Sewell directs the physicians in Japan to perform image-guided interventional surgeries. All converse
through teleconferencing and, simultaneously, see real-time MRI scans of each patient to guide the minimally invasive surgical
procedures. Sewell also may transmit instructional illustrations during surgery.
About 60 interventional surgeries
will be performed through 2002 for the project, "Sensing Tomorrow: Imaging the Universe." All procedures are led by Sewell,
chief of UMC's Division of Interventional Oncology in the Department of Radiology. Procedures to be performed include two
world's-first surgeries developed by Sewell I-MRI renal cryosurgery (to destroy kidney cancer) and I-MRI fibroid cryosurgery
(to destroy uterine fibroid tumors). Tumors are treated with a cryo (freezing) probe inserted into a small incision in the
patient, with MRI images guiding the probe during the process.
As the remote imaging system is refined, it may one
day allow on-board astronaut/physicians to perform a variety of surgeries on long-term space missions such as trips to Mars
as directed from Earth by a surgical specialist in the applicable field.
William W. Parsons, Jr., NASA director of
center operations and support, was instrumental in developing the NASA/UMC project.
"This remote imaging project helps
NASA learn more about these techniques and the real benefits of using such techniques, possibly from Earth to a space station
or even when we decide to go to a distant planet," said Parsons, who was in Jackson for the project's official launch March
5. "One area NASA has been working to improve is our ability to perform telemedicine. There are many areas in which NASA human
space flight and UMC can collaborate to improve the ability of humans to live and work in space."
Interventional surgeries
could be ideally suited to treat astronauts who need emergency care during long-range missions. Such minimally invasive procedures
allow for quick patient recovery because they cause much less trauma to the body than conventional surgeries. After Sewell's
procedures, patients usually stay in the hospital overnight for observation. Incisions typically are closed with a Band-Aid
or single suture.
NASA linked with UMC for this project because the Medical Center has become a world pioneer in such
interventional radiological procedures, pointed out Dr. David Dzielak, UMC associate vice chancellor for research.
"We're
excited about this project because of its tremendous potential, here as well as in space," Dzielak said. "We are beginning
to test concepts and technologies that, perhaps, will lay the groundwork for trans-global medicine as well as telemedicine
in deep space."
Physicians from the two Japanese hospitals originally asked Sewell to lead Japan's clinical trials
of his new procedures. Travel and time constraints, as well as consultation with NASA, which has remote imaging as one of
its Earth-based missions, led to this project.
The physicians who perform the interventional surgeries, as directed
by Sewell, are Dr. Tadashi Shimizu of Hokkaido University Hospital in Sapporo and Dr. Jyunta Harada of Jikei University Hospital
in Kashiwa. The surgeries, of course, are performed at one hospital at a time, with Sapporo involved in the March 5 launch.
The transmissions are fiber optic and run over transoceanic cables at the speed of light. Such "terrestrial" transmission
is faster than satellite transmission, which has a half-second delay, a NASA technician explained.
Leslie R. Myers
(3/11/02) |
UMC Firsts Lead Way for Pioneering Role in 21st Century
Medical firsts in the 20th century indicate that UMC will play a significant national, and even international,
role in the new century.
"From performing the first heart and lung transplants in the 1960s to pioneering interventional
surgeries in the 1990s, UMC's faculty and staff have contributed enormously to the advancement of medicine," said Dr. Wallace
Conerly, vice chancellor for health affairs.
"The medical advances made in the last century, at this medical center
and around the globe, have been monumental," he added. "We look forward to another century of health care achievements and
challenges."
Some of the 20th century achievements of UMC's faculty and staff include:
Home of The Textbook of Medical Physiology by Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, the world's best-selling physiology textbook
of all time, 1957 to present.
World's first lung transplant into a human, 1963.
World's first heart transplant into a human, 1964.
Hypertension scientists are first to identify differences in blood pressure among racial groups, 1960s.
World leader in computer simulation of body function, 1960s to present.
Home of world's most comprehensive computer model of the cardiovascular system, 1960s to present.
Recipient of one of the longest-running National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants in U.S. history (to the
Department of Physiology to study cardiovascular dynamics and their control), 1968 to present.
Physiologists are the first to demonstrate that kidneys control blood pressure, 1970s.
UMC biomaterials scientists, with Mississippi State University scientists, are first to develop osteoporosis
in an animal (a sheep), thus creating a model to study artificial joints for osteoporosis patients, 1996.
Microbiologists use pond-raised catfish to develop the first non-cancer immortal (self-dividing) cell line,
1997.
Dental researcher discovers breast cancer markers in saliva, 1997.
First to study the effects of exposure to malathion, a pesticide used illegally as an insecticide, 1997.
One of the first three original test sites for GE's interventional MRI in the United States, 1997.
NIH names UMC, with Tougaloo College and Jackson State University, site of the Jackson Heart Study, the world's
largest study of heart disease risk factors in African-Americans ever undertaken, 1997 to present.
UMC's Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children is the first children's hospital in the United States to provide
all patients with an Internet-accessible computer in their hospital rooms, 1998.
NASA designates UMC as the official medical imaging center in its plan to bring the technology of space to
health care on earth, 1998.
United States' first use of an MRI-guided cryo (freezing) probe to kill cancerous tumors, 1998.
World's first interventional MRI renal cryosurgeries performed to destroy kidney cancer, 1999.
Neuroanatomist discovers the brain cells of suicide victims differ from the brain cells of those who died
from other causes, 1999.
World's first interventional CAT scan surgery using radiofrequency (hot) probe to destroy non-primary lung
cancer, 1999.
First application of power Doppler ultrasound to identify sickle cell children at risk for stroke, 1999.
World's first interventional CAT scan surgery using radiofrequency (hot) probe to destroy primary lung cancer,
1999-2000 by UMC physicians in China.
-Leslie R. Myers (2/7/00)
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MISSISSIPPI STILL BURNING - Paul Harvey (commentary transcript]
Mississippi is still burning. Times have changed,
but the incendiaries won't quit. Mississippi, statistically, could shame most of our states with its minimal per-capita crime,
its cultural maturity and its distinguished alumni.
But Mississippi has enough residual gentility of the Old South not to rub our noses in our own comparative inadequacy.
The pack-media could not wait to remake the movie MISSISSIPPI BURNING into a TV version called MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI. Thus
yet another generation of Americans is being indoctrinated with indelible snapshots which are half a century out of date.
The very idea
that anybody from New York, D. C., Chicago or L.A. could launch stones from those shabby glass houses toward
anybody else is patently absurd.
Lilliputians have a psychological need to make everybody else appear small and Mississippi, too nice to fight back, is
such an easy target. The International Ballet Competition regularly rotates among four citadels where there is a sufficiency
of sophisticated art appreciation: Varna, Bulgaris-Helsinki, Finland - Moscow, USSR and Jackson, Mississippi.
Only Mississippi has a satellite art program in which the state Museum of Art sends exhibits around the state for the enjoyment
of smaller communities. No state can point to a richer per capita contribution to arts and letters. William Faulkner, Richard
Wright, Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Willie Morris, Margaret Walker Alexander, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Harris
(Silence of the Lambs) and John Grisham are Mississippians. As are Leontyne Price, Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, B.B.
King, Jimmy Rogers, Oprah Winfrey and Jimmy Buffett.
Scenery? The Natchez Trace is the second most traveled parkway in our nation. With magnolia and dogwood, stately pines
and moss-draped oaks, Mississippi is in bloom all year 'round.
And the state stays busy-manufacturing more upholstered furniture than any state...testing space shuttle engines for NASA...building
rocket motors. Much of our nation's most monumental medical progress has roots in Mississippi. The first heart transplant
in 1964. The first lung transplant in 1963. The most widely used medical textbook in the world, The Textbook of Medical Physiology,
reprinted in ten languages, was authored by Dr. Arthur Guyton of the
University of Mississippi. The Case Method of
practicing law, the basis of the United States legal system, was developed at the University of Mississippi. Nationally, educators
are chewing their fingernails up past the second knuckle anxious about the disgraceful rate of dropouts and illiterate graduates...
In Mississippi, the state government and two philanthropic organizations have teamed up to put a computer-based literacy program
in every elementary school in the state.
Maybe Mississippi is right to downplay it's opportunities, advantages and refinement. The ill-mannered rest of us, converging,
would surely mess it up.
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