Word: laennec
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...hubbub began last week with an unusual announcement. According to Georgina Dufoix, France's Minister of Social Affairs, an important discovery had been made that offered "reasonable hope" in the treatment of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. At a jam-packed press conference later the same day, three scientists from Laennec Hospital in Paris reported that they had found a drug treatment that produced "a spectacular biological response" in AIDS patients. Such a response, said Dr. Philippe Even, who headed the team, "has never been observed before." The name of this magical potion was unexpectedly familiar: cyclosporine...
...Laennec group acknowledged that it would be premature to draw any firm conclusions about cyclosporine. But they argued that it was "ethically necessary" to share what could be an important finding. They reported that the drug had produced a dramatic rise in the number of T-4 cells--specialized white blood cells essential to the immune system--in both of the test patients. (An abnormally low level of these cells is a hallmark of AIDS.) One of the patients, a 38-year-old man described as having been "near death" before treatment, had a hundredfold increase...
...Laennec scientists speculated that cyclosporine produced this effect by depriving the AIDS virus of its favorite target, "activated" T-4 cells that are primed to defend the body. The virus reproduces inside these cells, destroying them in the process. Cyclosporine is known to prevent activation of T-4 cells, apparently making them less susceptible to the virus' assault. The T cells survive, and their number increases as the body continues to produce them...
Since the discovery of the stethoscope by Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec in 1816 (published 1819), physicians all over the world have been bothered by muscle sounds interfering with breath, heart, and other sounds that they wished to hear through the stethoscope...
Nine years ago, as a young businessman in Detroit, Henry Schuman opened a little bookshop with his collection of first editions. One day an elderly doctor wandered in, asked for a volume by Réné Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope (1819). Bookseller Schuman found the search for this book as exciting as "digging in the Klondike," turned up several unexpected medical treasures along the way. After this, he devoted himself to rare medical books...