Word: raynaud
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...long century since Raynaud's disease was described by the French physician for whom it is named, the medical profession has learned little about either its cause or any possible cure. Its symptoms remain naggingly familiar. The victim is usually a ma ture woman, who first notices the trou ble in her 20s. The slightest chill can slow her peripheral circulation until her hands, feet, the tip of her nose and the edges of her ears turn blue and ache excruciatingly from oxygen shortage...
Right Track. To Britain's Surgeon Dennis Walder, the basic mistake in research on Raynaud's disease has been its concentration on the blood vessels involved instead of the blood itself. And when a study of 22 patients at Newcastle-upon-Tyne showed that in 21 cases their blood was thicker than that of healthy subjects, Walder felt sure he was on the right track. But he needed to know just what was causing the blood to change-and merely measuring its viscosity was no easy task...
Clotting Factor. To explain the higher blood viscosity of Raynaud's victims, the Walder group now indicts an excess of fibrinogen, one of the several substances involved in the blood-clotting mechanism, and a major factor in blood sludging. On this theory, the surgeons are treating 40 patients with intravenous drips of blood thinners ("plasma expanders") and anti-clotting drugs. The researchers claim no dramatic effects, but report cautiously that these treatments have improved the patients' peripheral circulation, "at least temporarily." In the more serious cases, they say, the treatments "were of considerable value...
...Raynaud's victim who has long given up hope of getting any substantial relief, even those modest claims amount to hopeful talk...
They should have known better. Most people who play Russian roulette have better luck than Koufax. In 1962 he was laid up with a circulatory ailment called Raynaud's Phenomenon. It might have affected any of ten fingers, but it settled in the left index finger, the one that controls the curve. So much for that season. Sandy won 25 games in 1963, figured to do even better last year, when he picked up his 19th in August. If only he hadn't jammed his left elbow sliding into base...