Word: rogosin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...levels. Even many laboratories have been unable to give consistently accurate counts of HDL. Yet that figure may be the most vital statistic of all in evaluating cardiovascular health in otherwise moderate- or low-risk individuals. Says Dr. Bruce Gordon, associate professor of medicine at Manhattan's Rogosin Institute: "There are a sizable number of people who would be inappropriately treated unless their HDL levels were taken into account...
...hopeful development is that scientists have learned how to derive synthetic HDL particles from natural HDL made in the body. At the Rogosin Institute, researchers are injecting this compound into rabbits to see if raising HDL protects them against atherosclerosis. Should such experiments succeed, it is conceivable that synthetic HDL could one day become an effective treatment for heart patients. Rogosin's Gordon notes, however, that this research "is still years away from clinical application...
...children with a rare and extreme version of FH. Yuko, 11, of Osaka, Japan, has been treated for nine years by Dr. Akira Yamamoto of the National Cardiovascular Center, earlier with a crude version of cholesterol filtering and more recently with a process similar to that used at Rogosin. Racked by angina at age two, she can now climb a flight of stairs without stopping. What is even more impressive to scientists is that X-ray studies show that her disease has actually regressed. "Atherosclerosis of her renal artery has completely disappeared," exults Yamamoto, and blockage around the aortic valve...
...melt away. Only in the past few years have doctors had the tools to achieve such reductions. LDL-pheresis is one example, while new experimental drugs like Mevinolin, particularly when combined with existing drugs, also hold great promise. "What's exciting now," observes Biochemist Thomas Parker, director of the Rogosin lipid laboratory, "is that for the first time researchers all over the world can begin to study the possibility of reversing atherosclerosis...
Many questions about the new procedure remain. Is one weekly session better than two? How long should patients be treated? The severest genetic cases, like Yuko's, would probably require lifelong treatment, says Rogosin's Dr. Bruce Gordon, but with most patients "the goal is to give a course of therapy from six months to two years, produce a beneficial effect and then hopefully keep the patient stable with diet and drugs...