Page 8-Saturday, December 6, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Camera offers look into
potential heart attacks
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By GREG DAVIS
One out of every two deaths in the
U.S. results from some form of car-
diovascular disease. But a doctor at
University Hospital hopes to decrease
the rate by using a new diagnostic
technique and a computerized camera
that can take motion pictures of the
heart.
With the nuclear isotope gamma
camera, which is similar to conven-
tional X-ray machines, doctors are bet-
ter able to identify those who are more
likely to have heart attacks.
"THIS TYPE of equipment is not
new," said James Thrall, associate
professor of internal medicine and
radiology at University Hospital. "The
unique thing we have done i's to
establish a diagnostic unit right in the
middle of the intensive care units,"
thereby ensuring that those who need
the device most can get it.
The test is conducted by injecting a
radioactive tracer, or dye, into the
patient's arm, which travels to the
heart and is absorbed. The camera is
placed above the patient, where it
records the tracer's activity.
An unhealthy heart will show
shadows or black spots where the blood
is not being absorbed because of
blockage or scar tissue.
THE ALTERNATIVE to the gamma
camera is the more complicated and
expensive examination by cardiac
catheterization. During that process a
catheter containing dye is inserted
through an artery into the heart during
a minor operation. Like the gamma
camera test, the dye shows up on the X-
ray.
While a cardiac catheterization costs
from $2,500 to $3,000 and involves
hospitilization, the gamma camera test
costs about $300 and can be done on an
outpatient basis. Thrall said that if the
results of the gamma camera test are
positive, the catheretization test is of-
ten done also, but that "most people
don't turn out to have the disease."
Thrall said the device is most
beneficial to middle-aged people who
are overweight, have high blood
pressure, a family history of heart at-
tacks, or, who want to start an exercise
program after a period of inactivity.
THRALL SAID researchers believe a
number of factors can contribute to
heart attacks, such as coronary artery
disease, a family history of heart at-
tacks, and eating habits.
While he stressed that doctors do not
know exactly why some families have a
higher incidence of heart trouble than
others, he said the reason is partly
because members of a certain family
will grow up with similar dietary
habits.
He noted that there is not a cure for
heart disease. "Everything we do sim-
ply retards the disease," he said, "but
if we can (diagnose middle-aged)
people with problems, it is conceivable
that it can have an impact of adding 30
years" to their lives:
Thrall said the use of radioactive
tracers to detect heart attacks was
pioneered at the University in 1962.
"This was an incredible feat con-
sidering the studies were not
recognized clinically as important until
15 years later," he said.
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n
Daily Photo by MAUREEN O'MALLEY
DR. MYRWOOD BESOZZI, a research fellow in nuclear cardiology at
University Hospital plays 'patient' under a heart camera unit that is newly-
installed in an intensive care unit. The camera plays a vital role in
diagnosing heart attacks as well as potential heart disease.
AP Photo
Cage for the Hulk?
Actually, workmen are standing in front of a modern steeple to be placed on the new St. Clement of Rome Catholic
Church in Metairie, La. A speaker system, lights, and a 37-foot cross will be added to the structure when it is in
place.
--
It's
SfIILCf'TZ
at
1140 South University
668-8411
LIBERAL-CONSERVA TIVE BA TTLE EXPECTED:
Senate to vote on civil
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate
last night broke a five-day impasse and
agreed to a showdown next Tuesday on
a bill to enforce a 1968 civilrights law
that bans discrimination in housing.
Liberals said that if they win the
showdown they believe they have a
commitment from Senate Democratic
Leader Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) to
keep the Senate in session for as long as
it takes to pass the bill, which sponsors
call the most important civil rights
legislation in a decade.
The agreement, which senators
Carter likely to win
anti-busing fight
TONIGHT A Musical Classic Returns to Ann Arbor:
Soph Show 25th Anniversary Presents
HELLO, -DOLLY'
Dec. 4, 5, 6 at8 pm
in the
LYDIA MENDELSSOHN THEATRE
Tickets $48 $4.50 at Michigan Union
or at the door. 763-1107
William Shakespeare's
ROMEO
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislative
leaders said yesterday that President
Carter has the votes to win his last ex-
pected battle with Congress - a
showdown over his promised veto of a
government spending bill containing an
anti-busing rider.
A House vote on overriding the veto
was delayed until at least Tuesday after
Speaker Thomas O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass.)
and Assistant Senate Democratic
Leader Alan Cranston (D-Cal.), both
said they believed Carter would be
upheld.
O'Neill told the House efforts were
under way to work out a compromise as
part of a stopgap spending resolution.
In the Senate, a key opponent and a
principal backer of the measure said
they were uncertain whether a com-
promise could be reached.
THE ANTI-BUSING amendment
whichECarter opposes is attached to a
$1.9 billion appropriations bill for the
Justice, State, and Commerce depar-
tments and other federal agencies. A
stopgap spending resolution approved
by the House and pending in the Senate
would continue financing those agen-
cies at current levels until a new ap-
propriations bill is enacted.
Senate Republican Leader Howard
Baker (R-Tenn.) said Congress
probably would adopt the stopgap
resolution to defer the busing issue until
next year. But the resolution includes
the same ban on busing contained in the
appropriations bill Carter intends to
veto.
Carter said he also would veto the
resolution if it contained the busing
ban, even if a veto threatened to disrupt
government operations.
CARTER HAD been expected to veto
the appropriations bill yesterday, but
the White House announced in midaf-
ternoon that the action would be
delayed.
White House officials did not
elaborate, but Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-
Conn.). a key opponent of the anti-,
busing amendment, said he understood
the administration favored dropping
the busing language from the
resolution.
This would provide funds for the
departments without placing any
restriction on busing.
Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), an
opponent of busing, said he understood
negotiations were under way, but ad-
ded, "I don't know if you could satisfy
both sides."
stressed was procedural and did not en-
sure final passage of the measure,
came after liberals and conservatives
failed to negotiate a compromise bill
that could swiftly pass the Senate.
AFTER A filibuster that kept the
Senate tied up all week, senators
agreed to put the "fair housing" bill
aside temporarily to permit action on
other matters that must be voted on
before the lame-duck Congress can
adjourn for the year.
Opponents of the measure had
initially vowed to try to kill the bill
when it appeared that no compromise
could be reached. Under Senate rules,
they appeared to hold the upper hand..
But sources who asked not to be
named said Byrd threatened to keep the
Senate in session all night and all day
today in an attempt to wear down the
opposition, and the agreement came a
few hours later.
Under the Senate's complicated
rules, supporters will need to prevail on
two parliamentary motions Tuesday to
keep alive the bill.
On" one of them, they will need to
muster 60 votes.
"WE HAD THEM the other day," said
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)
referring to a 62-32 vote on Thursday to
choke off one filibuster.
If supporters of the bill lose either
vote, Byrd said, "the leadership takes
the bill down" and it will die.
But even if they prevail, another
Report sa
adult dea,
WASHINGTON (AP) - Death rates
for American young adults and
adolescents are worse today than 20
years ago, and mixing alcohol and
drugs with driving is to blame for much
of that toll, Surgeon General Julius
Richmond reported yesterday.
Richmond released a 463-page volume
'ights
potential roadblock exists in the form of
more than 200 time-consuming amen-
dments that conservatives have pen-
ding.
The agreement raised hopes that
Congress could wind up its session next
week, later than originally planned but
still earlier than the Christmas week
adjournment date some senators.
suggested after the dispute arose over
the housing bill.
CONGRESSIONAL leaders had in-
tended to adjourn for the year yester-
day, but Congress can legally stay in
session until Jan. 3.
"Negotiations on a compromise
measure have broken down," said
Kennedy, the chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee and the floor
manager of the bill, which is designed
to enforce' a landmark 1968 law
outlawing discrimination in housing.
An aide to Kennedy said conser-
vatives were demanding concessions in
the bill that "rolls back the law 15
years."
CIVIL RIGHTS groups long have
demanded a law providing for enfor-
cement of the 1968 act. Supporters hail
the enforcement measure as the civil
rights bill of the decade. But Senate op-
ponents say the bill offered by Kennedy
and others goes too far and takes away
the rights of landlords and others ac-
cused of discrimination.
Sources said there were two prin-
cipal issues in the private talks.
ys young
ths rising
drug abuse" are the major health
problems among the nation's 40 million
adolescents and young adults. His
agency recently issued a report that set
a goal of reducing deaths among the
young by 20 percent by 1990.
To do that, he said, "We must identify
better ways of bringing violence under
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