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Fnmilv Wc-rUy. 0-(trr 27. 1957
This is catheterization, new aid in study
ing congenital heart disease. Tube is passed
through child's veins from arm to heart.
by Howard Earle
" Harold just had a heart attack! The doctor thought
we should let you know, just in case." My
sister's voice trembled over the phone as she
told me about our brother's attack.
Thousands of Americans receive similar jolting
messages every day, tor heart disease is the nation's
No. 1 killer. It kills more than 800,000 Americans
each year. A recent survey showed that 15 out of
every 1,000 persons suffer heart disease annually.
Yet there is a bright side to this otherwise gloomy
picture. Some heart attacks are mild and the heart
can repair itself. And now even serious cases can hope
for a return to normal life, thanks to the remarkable
advances made in recent years.
Take my brother Harold's case. My first concern
was what caused the attack and how much damage
was done to the heart. Recent diagnostic innovations
made possible quick recognition of coronary throm
bosis blood clotting and clogging an artery supply
ing the heart muscle.
The electrocardiograph remains valuable in deter
mining whether a heart attack has occurred. But new
techniques, combined with the electrocardiograph,
have considerably improved diagnosis of attacks.
Medical researchers at Duke University, Sloane
Kettering Institute, and other medical centers have
developed a method which often detects the presence
and severity of diseases in the heart and liver by
measuring the enzyme levels in the blood serum.
Theoretically, every organ in the human body has
special enzymes, and if cells in an organ die due to
disease, enzymes are released into the blood stream.
By following these enzyme levels, the type of disease
and its severity often are determined.
another advance the phonocardiograph is used
'" to make a record of the heart's sounds on
photographic films. In some instances, the
phonocardiograph eliminates elaborate tests formerly
used to diagnose diseased heart valves. Working with
the electrocardiograph, an instrument that records the
heart's electrical impulses, the phonocardiograph is
of particular value in detecting types of heart disease
curable by surgery.
"The outlook for correcting coronary defects by
surgery is brighter than ever before," says Dr. Michael
E. DeBakey, professor of surgery at Baylor Univer
sity. "Within the next five or ten years, we shall be
able to attack successfully conditions for which we
have no satisfactory solution today."
Successful heart operations in the experimental
field are substantiating Dr. DeBakey 's optimism.
In Montreal, for example, a housewife walked into
a doctor's office with severe chest cramps caused by
angina pectoris, a painful and often fatal coronary
artery disease. Dr. Arthur Vineburg gave the woman
sedatives to quiet her and later, in a bold operation,
transplanted a chest artery into the diseased heart
muscle. The Canadian woman since has returned to
her housework and children.
New techniques also permit surgeons to drain the
heart and pump blood through artificial channels into
a heart-lung machine. The blood picks up oxygen
before passing to body tissues, the machine doing the
work of the heart and lungs.
With the machine, surgeons can open the heart to
see any damage; before, they felt for clots and holes
with their fingers. With either natural grafts or plastic
tubes, they even cut and replace damaged sections of
the main artery where it arches from the heart.
(Continued)