Jefferson Physician Teams Up with Sports Legend Tony Gwynn to Raise Awareness of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
(Published 6-30-05, Yahoo.com) Former San Diego Padres great Tony Gwynn and other professional baseball legends from coast
to coast are uniting to kick off DVT Blood Clots: Know the Stats, Know Your Risk-a national campaign to educate the public
about the signs, symptoms and risk factors for deep-vein thrombosis (DVT).
Gwynn suffered a blood clot in his calf before knee surgery a few years ago. "Tony is a perfect example of how early detection
can save a life," says Geno Merli, M.D., director of the Division of Internal Medicine, Vice Chairman of Clinical Affairs
at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "People need to recognize the symptoms of DVT
and speak to their healthcare professional to determine whether or not they're at risk. Many individuals who are otherwise
healthy or hospitalized for some other condition can develop DVT blood clots."
Department of Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine
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Amazing surgery at Jefferson re-attaches an accident victim's arm
(Published 6-29-05, CBS3) Thomas Jeferson University Hospital hand surgeon David Zelouf, M.D. discusses the life-saving surgery
her performed on 19 year-old Kupra Patel of Delaware to re-attach her right arm. Ms. Patel's lower right arm snapped off in
a car accident June 21, when a school bus cut in front of her car.
Department of Orthpaedic Surgery
Philadelphia Hand Center
Media Coverage:
CBS3
Surgeons Reattach Teen's Arm
(Published 6-29-05, WPVI-TV) Nineteen-year-old Krupa Patel says she can't help but cry when she thinks of the person who first
found her severed arm at the scene of a terrible car crash last week.
She was driving a car in Mill Creek, Delaware when a bus slammed into her. Her two young cousins wearing seat belts in the
back were fine. At first, Patel didn't even realize her right arm essentially from her elbow down had been cut off.
Patel was eventually rushed to Thomas Jeferson University Hospital. Hand Surgeon Dr. David Zelouf had to work fast to reconnect
Patel's arm. In these cases there's only a window of about 4-6 hours to restore blood flow to the limb. And Patel was already
losing too much blood.
Department of Orthpaedic Surgery
Philadelphia Hand Center
Media Coverage:
WPVI-TV
Arm reattached in 'rare' surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Time was running out for Krupa Patel, 19, injured in a violent car accident
(Published 06-26-05, The News Journal) Five hours after her lower arm snapped off in a car wreck on Limestone Road, Krupa
Patel was losing too much blood. Doctors were losing time.
When medics brought the 19-year-old Hockessin woman to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital on a gurney at 9:19 p.m. Tuesday,
she had already lost two-thirds of her blood.
Her right arm, severed just below the elbow, was wrapped in gauze and packed in ice. Only two hours remained before the loss
of blood could cause irreversible damage to the muscles.
Nearly six hours later, Dr. David Zelouf had shortened the bones of the amputated limb by an inch and then reattached the
arm in an operation he called "exceedingly rare."
During the operation, one team of doctors from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital stabilized Patel's other systems -- breathing,
heart function and nervous system.
Another team cleared out destroyed muscle and glass shards, then attached metal plates to the ends of the bones. Zelouf reconnected
the bones, locking them at the plates, and surgically reconnected arteries and tendons. Blood flowed through, moving from
elbow to fingertips.
And once again, the orthopedic surgeon was astounded by the human body.
"It was truly remarkable," Zelouf said. "When the blood flow is restored, it is amazing."
Zelouf spends much of his time reattaching fingers lost in industrial or home-improvement accidents.
"Middle-arm amputation is exceedingly rare, even at the center," he said. "We see one once a year and [sometimes] once every
other year."
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Philadelphia Hand Center, P.C.
Media Coverage:
The News Journal
GetwellNetwork Benefits Patients and Nurses
(Published 6-24-05, NurseZone.com) The GetWellNetwork offers hospital patients instant access to the Internet, on-demand movies,
educational materials and the ability to directly communicate with the entire hospital care team.
Joyce Stout, RN, BSN, a nurse manager at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the Rehabilitation Unit, finds her patients
primarily use the system to access the Internet, check email and occasionally for movies. The rehabilitation unit at Thomas
Jefferson received a grant from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation to install the system in a couple of private rooms
and in a common area.
"Giving them an opportunity to access the Internet for resources is wonderful," said Stout, who suggests various websites
offering education or psychosocial support to patients with spinal cord injuries. "To introduce opportunities with the computer
is great. It offers them a sense of hope about the quality of their life and the productivity of their life."
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Media Coverage:
NurseZone.com
Big News About Migraines, Botox
(Published 6-24-05, NBC 10) The American Headache Society is meeting in Philadelphia. So all the big experts are here and
all the big news is coming out of here. And with good reason. About 28 million Americans get migraine headaches, and one in
every five women. Now doctors say if you get throbbing headaches that keep you from moving, even if the pain is on both sides
of your head, that is almost certainly a migraine.
What's new about migraines? They're not caused by the blood vessels in your head.
"The headache itself is like inflammation of the lining of the brain. Migraine is like hives of the brain," says Steven Silberstein,
M.D. director of the Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Department of Neurology
Jefferson Headache Center
Media Coverage:
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New Treatment Destroys Tumors with Precision
(Published 6-22-05, NBC 10) Medical breakthroughs in technology are now allowing local doctors to destroy some brain tumors
with ultimate precision, including a woman whose brain tumor rested on her optic nerve.
This is the most precise radiation therapy. So exact, that it is zeroing in on Anne Gaul's brain tumor, even though that tumor
is up against her optic nerve and pushing on her brain.
"Without this technology, patients would go blind," said David Andrews, M.D., a neurosurgeon at Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital. "There was nothing to do. In fact ophthalmologists would simply watch them go blind."
But after removing some of Gaul's tumor in open surgery, doctors were able to make a three dimensional computer reconstruction
of the remainder of the tumor.
The latest software allows doctors to sculpt doses of radiation to target Anne's tumor, as tiny tungsten leaves move to direct
the radiation within one millimeter of accuracy.
Water Curran, M.D. and chairman of the department of radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, says this
can also work with tumors near the acoustic nerve and the spinal cord.
Department of Radiation Oncology
Department of Neurosurgery
Media Coverage:
NBC10.com
Watch Surgery Live On The Internet(Published 6-21-05, NBC 10) There are so many new, amazing medical technologies out there, saving people's lives. And now
you can be a part of it all. You can now sit down at your computer and watch doctors perform surgery live. It is as simple
as a point and a click.
On Wednesday, June 22 at 4:30 p.m. you can watch doctors live at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. They will be performing
a minimally invasive treatment for varicose veins.
Department of Surgery
Division of Vascular Surgery
Media Coverage:
NBC 10
A Sharper Focus(Published 6-20-05, Philadelphia Inquirer) Precision is everything when it comes to shooting radiation into your skull, so
Marvin Kohn submitted unquestioningly as radiation therapists fitted a webbed plastic mask over his face.
It pinned him so tightly to a treatment couch within a sleek linear accelerator that his head couldn't move more than a millimeter
and a half. Then the therapists at Jefferson Hospital for Neurosciences used lime-green lasers that crisscrossed his forehead
to align his body for treatment.
A "benign" tumor had been growing slowly around Kohn's optic nerve for years. He now had only peripheral vision in his right
eye. Unchecked, the tumor could blind both eyes.
Until recently, Kohn would have had few options. Any surgical or radiation treatment would have carried a bigger risk of destroying
what little vision remained in his right eye. But precise machines like this one and a technique pioneered at Jefferson now
make it possible to zap the tumor with large amounts of radiation while sparing crucial nerves and tissue nearby.
Department of Neurosurgery
Department of Ophthalmology
Department of Radiation Oncology
Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Inquirer
Runaway Infections
(Published 6-17-05, WPVI-TV) Jefferson Infectious Disease specialist, Roger Pomerantz, M.D., talks to channel 6 Action News
about MRSA, which becomes what looks like a simple infection often from a small cut or bruise. "We have all been very surprised
at how quickly this (infection) has reached near epidemic proportions through the country and the community," he says. "MRSA
causes nasty skin infections that in rare cases can be fatal."
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Media Coverage:
WPVI-TV
Schiavo autopsy: There was no hope(Published 6-16-05, Philadelphia Inquirer) What caused Teri Schiavo's brain damage remains a mystery, but Florida medical
authorities, who released the results of her brain autopsy yesterday, said the injury was "massive" and "irreversible," and
left her blind.
Brain experts, including two at Thomas Jefferson University, who read the autopsy praised its thoroughness and agreed that
it showed extensive damage from which there was no hope of recovery.
"This is horrendous, horrific and irreversible," said David Brock, M.D., neurologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
In addition to the blindness, the autopsy showed that Schiavo's hippocampus, the seat of memory in the brain, was profoundly
damaged, said Lawrence Kenyon, M.D., Ph.D., a neuropathologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. "If you have damage
to your hippocampus, you cannot remember anything, so there is no way for you to learn or improve at all," he said.
Department of Neurology
Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Inquirer
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Can Philly Cure Cancer?(Published 6-15-05, Philadelphia Daily News) When Dr. Ronald E. Myers, a prominent cancer researcher at Thomas Jefferson University,
recruited a leading scientist last year from Beth Israel Hospital in New York, Philadelphia gained a brilliant new mind.
Dr. Kathryn M. Kash is known for cutting-edge work in a heart-wrenching field: the stress that weighs on otherwise-healthy
women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.
Dr. Kash brought an entire convention to her new home. Two hundred international cancer researchers met in Philadelphia for
two days last week to discuss the role of genes in hereditary cancer - and the psychological impact it has on patients.
It was the first time that the prestigious meeting was held in the United States. "Good things happen when you can invest
in good people," said Dr. Myers.
High-end cancer research has quietly become one of Philadelphia's most important and lucrative industries, attracting top
doctors and scientists to the region and pouring hundreds of millions of research dollars into the economy yearly.
It is also putting Philly in the forefront of the search for cures. Thus far, the major cancer centers in Philadelphia have
recruited far more leading researchers than they've lost.
The Philadelphia based Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups is responsible for enrolling about 50 percent of all patients
in clinical trials in the United States and Canada. It includes nine groups, four of which are in Philadelphia, that administer
clinical trials.
The Philadelphia based groups employ hundreds of clerical workers, Internet-technology professionals and patient-advocacy
specialists in offices here. The groups periodically bring in investigators from all over the country for meetings.
The majority of breakthroughs in new therapies are done within these groups, said Walter J. Curran Jr., M.D., chairman of
the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson and chair of one of the groups. And since Philly's the headquarters, cancer patients
here have a good chance of getting into a study.
CancerCARE at Jefferson Hospital
Department of Radiation Oncology
Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Daily News
Laborist Movement Poised to Take Off(Published 6-15-05, Ob.Gyn. News) "Ten hospital systems in the United States have started or are about to start using laborists,
physicians whose sole focus is managing the patient in labor," said Louis Weinstein, M.D., chairman of the Department of Obstetrics
and Gynecology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, in a report at the annual meeting of the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
"Using laborists makes sense," Dr. Weinstein said. Laborists are expected to improve patient care and ease burnout among obstetricians.
"The laborist profession offers obstetricians predictable and limited work hours, while offering private obstetricians and
gynecologists less disruption to their office and operating room schedules. It also offers women in labor the benefit of prompt,
continuous and efficient care."
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Media Coverage:
Ob.Gyn. News
Not guilty! But has he really won?
(Published 6-14-05, Philadelphia Inquirer) Troy Thompson, M.D., professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical
College of Thomas Jefferson University, commenting on Michael Jackson's acquittal on lewd conduct charges suggested that Jackson
will probably increase his activities with charities and public activities with kids; "sort of trying to demonstrate that
the jury was correct - this proves that I just love kids and want to help kids and want to have poor kids and kids with no
opportunities over to Neverland Ranch.
"I think the charities and so on will provide whatever degree of cover for whatever other interests he might have in the kids.
I think they'll open the gates (at Neverland) and he'll have 200 kids in and security will shuttle them all out at dark.
Dr. Thompson cautioned that he had not evaluated Michael Jackson, so "I can't really speak specifically, but he sounds very
childlike. "He sounds like psychologically he functions at about the age of the boys he likes to have come over and spend
the night."
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Inquirer
Encouraging Phase II Results for Galida for Diabetes Type 2 Patients(Published 6-13-05, Forbes) New Phase II data were presented for GALIDA (tesaglitazar) at the 65th annual American Diabetes
Association Scientific Sessions. The Glucose and Lipid Assessment in Diabetes (GLAD) study indicates it is well tolerated
and improves glucose control and lipid abnormalities in patients with type 2 diabetes.
GLAD was a 12-week, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II dose-ranging study in 500 patients with type 2 diabetes.
The primary study objective was to observe the effect of GALIDA on fasting plasma glucose, across a series of dose ranges
from 0.1 mg. to 3.0 mg., compared to placebo. Based on the result, the 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg doses of GALIDA were taken forward
in the phase III development.
"The past focus in type 2 diabetes management has been glucose; however, there is an increasing need for a single agent that
can target both glucose and dyslipidemia associated with type 2 diabetes," said lead investigator Barry J. Goldstein, M.D.,
Ph.D, director of the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
"The GLAD study provides new insights on treating both glucose and lipid abnormalities in type 2 diabetes, and potentially,
its underlying metabolic defects."
Department of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases
Media Coverage:
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Medical News Today
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Stem cell debate rages on(Published 6-13-05, American Medical News) Researchers who have been able to work with embryonic stem cells feel frustrated
with the prohibitions on federal funds.
"The loss of a cell line, which happens frequently with these particular tissues, can result in months of lost lab time,"
said Lorraine Iacovitti, Ph.D., associate director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital in Philadelphia.
"It's a myth that stem cell lines live forever," Dr. Iacovitti said. "The NIH-approved stem cell lines are expensive, they
are hard to work with and they are getting old."
Dr. Iacovitti's lab has four federal grants, which she uses to work with the government-approved embryonic stem cells as well
as adult stem cells.
Dr. Iacovitti also conducts research on newer embryonic stem cell lines, for which she has funding from the Pennsylvania government
and private foundations.
"It becomes a game of putting together pieces of money from different foundations and state sources," said Dr. Iacovitti.
"But that funding is a fraction of what is available from the federal government," said Dr. Iacovitti.
Although her lab continues to study adult stem cells, Dr. Iacovitti's embryonic stem cells continue to prove more adaptable
and long-lived than stem cells derived from other sources.
Farber Institute for Neurosciences
Science goes beyond surgery to fight cancer head-on(Published 6-13-05, USA Today) Doctors have developed a number of new procedures to help patients who are unable to endure
major surgery. Some procedures freeze tumors, while others heat them up or allow doctors to combine radiation and surgery.
In early-stage lung cancer, the best way to cure patients is to remove the entire affected lobe or section of the lung. Many
lung cancer patients, however, are too elderly or sick to make it through major surgery, and they might have trouble breathing
if they lost such a large part of their lung.
In the past, doctors removed only part of the affected lobe. Although that surgery is easier on patients, it might miss some
cancer cells.
A new way to reduce the risk of recurrence combines a smaller surgery with a type of radiation called brachytherapy. Doctors
stitch radioactive pellets, which are contained in a mesh, around the tumor site. The radiation helps to kill any malignant
cells that remain after surgery.
Walter Curran, chairman of radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, says the technique
is promising. But he also notes that surgeons and radiation oncologists have to work together very closely during the procedure.
Relatively few hospitals have teams who work together this well, he says.
Department of Radiation Oncology
CancerCare at Jefferson Hospital
Media Coverage:
USA Today
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Plant Vaccine Targets SARS(Published 6-13-05, HealthDay.com) Tomato and tobacco plants can be engineered to make a vaccine against the virus that causes
SARS, a new study says.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was first reported in Asia in February 2003. The illness spread to more than two
dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia before the global outbreak was contained. That first outbreak
increased demand for a vaccine that is economical and easily administered.
"I thought there was a need to prepare quickly a vaccine that is inexpensive and safe," said lead researcher Hilary Koprowski,
M.D., director of the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories and the Center for Neurovirology at Thomas Jefferson University.
The report appears in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Developing vaccines in plants has been shown to be safe, and is potentially inexpensive. "Plants have an advantage over all
other methods of vaccine production because of the fact that the production is much safer and is much less expensive, and
is much easier to administer because it is orally administered," Dr. Koprowski said.
To test whether a successful SARS vaccine could be produced by plants, Dr. Koprowski's team engineered tomato and low-nicotine
tobacco plants to produce a fragment of the SARS-CoV protein. Several of the engineered plants successfully expressed high
levels of the protein, which could be increased through selective plant breeding, Dr. Koprowski noted.
To see if the vaccine could be effective, the researchers fed mice tomatoes with the protein. The mice developed SARS virus
antibodies.
Growing plants that produce vaccines is the wave of the future. "Making products in plants is cheap, easy to distribute, easy
to administer," Dr. Koprowski said. "Therefore, the future is with plants."
Media Coverage:
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Reuters Health.com
The Atlanta Journal Constitution.com
Cancer vaccines in final test phase(Published 6-12-05, Philadelphia Inquirer) More than a dozen cancer vaccines are now in the final phase of human testing,
the last step before Food and Drug Administration approval is sought for marketing.-Unlike conventional disease-preventing
vaccines, the new ones are designed to work after cancer develops by provoking a heightened immune response.
"Five years ago, it seemed to be possible to use generic vaccines, but many of those immune responses had no effect on the
patient's outcome," said David Berd, M.D., an oncologist at Thomas Jefferson University and medical chief of Avax Technologies
Inc., which is developing M-Vax, a melanoma vaccine tailor-made from the patient's cells. "It underscored the idea that tumor
antigens for one patient are not exactly the same for another," said Dr. Berd.
A number of strategies have worked to get the body to go after its own renegade cells.
The M-Vax melanoma vaccine, a 17-year development odyssey for Berd, is based on yet another strategy that also seems promising
for ovarian and lung cancers. M-Vax combines the patient's tumor cells with a "hapten," a molecule that acts like an antigen
when coupled with a carrier.
The vaccine is injected along with a skin-prick test that serves as an indicator of success; if itchy, sore bumps rise at
the site, the patient is mounting an immune response.
"Scientists and regulators always raise that issue: If you get too much response, theoretically you could get an autoimmune
response," said Dr. Berd. "We have to monitor for it. But in our patients, we've never seen it."
One of those patients, Bruce Godfriaux, 62, of Mertztown, Berks County, opted to be a guinea pig for M-Vax after having surgeries
to remove a melanoma and diseased lymph nodes.-Without the vaccine, he had about a one in three chance of surviving five years.
An 18-month course of interferon might have slightly improved those odds, but the drug has toxic, flu-like side effects.
Now, seven years later, Godfriaux is fine - apparently cured. "Dr. Berd and his vaccine are phenomenal," said the retired
zoologist.
Godfriaux's dramatic case notwithstanding, only about half of patients in M-Vax trials have responded, Dr. Berd said. Their
five-year survival has been 45 percent, compared with 25 percent for those who only had surgery.
Division of Medical Oncology
CancerCare at Jefferson Hospital
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How to stay safe in the heat
(Published 6-8-05, CBS3) Emergency Medicine Physician Alan Forstater, M.D., of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, discusses
ways of protecting oneself from the oppresive hot weather. He says people need to slow down as their bodies "have not had
a chance to acclimatize to the change in weather."
Media Coverage:
CBS3
Matters of degree
(Published 6-7-05, Philadelphia Inquirer) Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona will become a doctor again. He'll get an honorary
degree today from Jefferson Medical College, as will Christine K. Cassel, president of the American Board of Internal Medicine,
and LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., a surgical oncologist. Among Jeff's 228 new docs is Chris O'Brien, who was climbing Mount Everest
on May 1 with his brother, Mike, who died in the attempt. The brothers were raising money for the Hereditary Disease Foundation.
Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Inquirer
Bipolar illness not just for adults
As diagnosis for children grows, study looks at how to help.
(Published 6-1-05, Philadelphia Inquirer) Before his fifth birthday, Jeri Turrin's happy, playful son turned frustrated, disruptive
- full of mad energy. He'd race from one end of the house to the other, jumping off the banister because he thought he could
fly. His mother feared his horrible rages. "He would punch me so hard I would throw up," the Columbus, N.J., woman said.
A doctor thought that Bradley had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but the Ritalin he prescribed made the boy hallucinate.
At 6, Bradley drew his own gravestone and wrote, "I want to die."
Jeri Turrin learned that her son had a mental illness doctors once thought kids couldn't have: bipolar disorder.
Now almost 13 and bigger than his mother, Bradley is participating in an unusual study of adolescents at Thomas Jefferson
University financed by $770,000 in state tobacco settlement money. Researchers are measuring the impact of medicine - people
with bipolar disorder typically take mood stabilizers such as lithium or divalproex - and intensive education sessions that
teach patients and their parents about the disease and how to cope with it. Studies elsewhere in the country are looking at
genetics, brain structure and other treatments for children.
About 1 percent of adults have bipolar disorder. Up to 20 percent of them say they had symptoms before age 10, said Gail Edelsohn,
Jefferson's director of child and adolescent psychiatry.
Thirty years ago, medical students were taught that bipolar disorder started in midlife, said Edelsohn, who heads the Jefferson
study.
Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Inquirer
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