Medicine & Health

Organizers of a 20-year global effort to eliminate a parasitic infection that is a leading cause of disability have an early victory to savor: a five-year Egyptian elimination campaign has mostly succeeded, according to a new report in the March 25 issue of The Lancet. Infection with the parasites, threadlike filarial worms, can lead to the dramatic, disfiguring swelling known as elephantiasis.

Researchers attempting to reproduce a controversial 2003 mouse experiment suggestive of a cure for type 1 diabetes have found evidence that the experimental procedure does eliminate diabetic symptoms in a small fraction of the mice exposed to it. However, scientists from the School of Medicine found no signs that the procedure was working in the manner reported by the group of scientists at Harvard University who originated it.

Center for Advanced Medicine, home of Siteman Cancer CenterThe Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the School of Medicine has been accepted into The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an alliance of the world’s leading cancer centers. The designation will allow Siteman Cancer Center access to and the ability to further improve cancer care guidelines.

How unhealthy is fat?The consequences of a fatty diet may vary depending on whom you ask. A recent study concluded that reducing fat intake doesn’t necessarily reduce a woman’s risk for certain types of cancer, but WUSM lipid researcher Anne Goldberg contends that only a lengthier study could produce reliable results regarding fat’s effects on cancer risk.

PeipertJeffrey F. Peipert, M.D., has become vice chair of clinical research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the School of Medicine. The appointment was announced by George A. Macones, M.D., the Mitchell and Elaine Yanow Professor and head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Risks of MS drug found to be low (week of Mar. 1) • Plant sterols lower cholesterol (week of Mar. 8) • PET scans help test lung drugs (week of Mar. 15) • Arts as Healing program (week of Mar. 22) • Genetic basis of ADHD (week of Mar. 29)

Robert Cohen, Post-DispatchIbrahim Al Hoqail (right), dean of the medical college at King Fahad Medical City, asks a statistics question of instructor Stuart Boxerman.Sweeping changes in the Saudi health care system recently filled a WUSM classroom with a group of medical executives and physicians from King Fahad Medical City, a four-hospital complex based in Riyadh. As health care in Saudi Arabia moves toward privatization, many doctors and health care officials are finding themselves in new, unfamiliar roles. Some have turned to the WUSM health administration program to gain the skills they’ll need to manage their new environment.

Clinicians who care for patients infected with HIV are testing a new set of experimental treatments that may eliminate the hidden copies of the virus that previously have made a cure unattainable.

In this PET image, the arrow shows inflammation of the lungs.A noninvasive approach for assessing lung inflammation should accelerate efforts to develop drugs for inflammatory lung conditions like cystic fibrosis and pneumonia, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report. Researchers have used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to monitor artificially induced inflammation in the lungs of healthy volunteers. The new imaging process may help doctors monitor the conditions of patients with inflammatory lung diseases and should make it easier for investigators to test potential anti-inflammatory drugs.

Tiles painted by cancer patients and their familiesPatients undergoing treatment at the Siteman Cancer Center have a new option to pass the time. They can get creative and paint ceramic tiles for a display in the treatment area. Arts as Healing, a program facilitated by the School of Medicine’s Medical Photography, Illustration and Computer Graphics (MedPIC) department, is currently working on “Your Square Matters,” which allows patients and their families to paint a 4-inch square ceramic tile. Already, more than 400 tiles have been completed and are on display in Siteman’s infusion center.