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August 1997
Volume 61 |
Number 8
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FAER REPORT
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| Glaxo Wellcome
to Sponsor Resident Scholars Program |
For the seventh consecutive year, Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. will continue
the invaluable tradition of hosting the Resident Scholars Program
at the ASA Annual Meeting this October in San Diego, California.
Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. sponsors 35 residents from accredited anesthesiology
programs across the country. The sponsorship facilitates their
attendance at the ASA Annual Meeting where they learn about the
educational, scientific and political activities affecting the
specialty. Nearly all the accredited anesthesiology residency
programs have been provided the opportunity to nominate their
outstanding residents to participate in this program. The resident
leaders are chosen by the chairs of their departments, and grants
are made to the departments to defray the cost of attendance.
FAER Board member Shirley A. Graves, M.D., with help from her
colleagues Carl C. Hug, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., and Orin F. Guidry,
M.D., will continue to coordinate the activities for the program
for her third year. A Saturday orientation session beginning at
7 a.m. on October 18 will be conducted for the residents. Speakers
at this session will be Phillip O. Bridenbaugh, M.D., ASA President;
Francis M. James III, M.D., President of FAER; Ann C. Still, M.D.,
Chair-Elect, ASA Resident Component Governing Council; Robert
K. Stoelting, M.D., ASA Vice-President for Scientific Affairs;
Orin F. Guidry, M.D., ASA Assistant Treasurer; and Alan D. Sessler,
M.D., Executive Director of FAER. These speakers will inform the
residents about the various and wide-reaching activities of ASA.
Residents also will attend the ASA House of Delegates meetings
and have access to panel discussions, clinical forums and the
scientific and technical exhibits. Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. will host
a reception and dinner, which gives the residents the opportunity
to meet and talk with ASA officers, FAER Board members, leaders
in anesthesiology and residents from other training programs.
In the past, evaluation forms completed by residents have confirmed
their appreciation for this opportunity and their enthusiasm for
the specialty. FAER thanks Glaxo Wellcome, Inc., Dr. Graves and
the many others who make this excellent program possible.
FAER Panel to Discuss Academic Medicine
The Foundation looks forward to conducting a panel session at
the ASA Annual Meeting titled "Getting Ahead in Academic
Medicine 1997." The 1997 panel will be held from 2 to 5 p.m.
Monday, October 20. The moderator will be Carl C. Hug, Jr., M.D.,
Ph.D. The panel members and subjects are as follows:
- James F. Arens, M.D., University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital,
"Anesthesiology Versus Other Disciplines: They Don't Know
What We Do!";
- Roger A. Johns, M.D., University of Virginia, "Laboratory
Science in Anesthesiology: Where to Go and How to Get There";
- Sean K. Kennedy, M.D., University of Pennsylvania Medical
Center, "What Are the 'Trade-offs' of Becoming an Administrator?";
- Frank L. Murphy, Jr., M.D., University of Pennsylvania Medical
Center, "Getting Promoted for Excellence in Teaching";
- Michael F. Roizen, M.D., University of Chicago, "The
Promotion Package -- The Chair Needs Your Input";
- Roger L. Royster, M.D., Bowman Gray School of Medicine, "Combining
Clinical Investigation With Patient Care";
Dr. Hug has done an excellent job organizing the FAER panel for
the past several years. FAER thanks Dr. Hug for his work and thanks
the many speakers throughout the years who have shared their ideas,
experience and knowledge with all interested anesthesiologists,
particularly residents, fellows, faculty applicants and their
mentors.
FAER Announces 1997 New Investigator Award Recipients
The Board of Directors of the Foundation
for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) is pleased to announce
the recipients of the 1997 New Investigator Awards. The ASA Committee
on Research reviewed 28 applications and identified many projects
worthy of funding. FAER was able to fund eight of these projects,
thanks to the generous contributions of FAER's corporate and society
sponsors. Due to space restrictions, five of the eight projects
were listed in the July NEWSLETTER. The descriptions of
the remaining three projects are outlined below:
Paul F. Lennon, M.D., FAER/Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists
Young Investigator, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston,
Massachusetts: "Mechanisms of Vascular Injury Following Complement
Activation"
The complement system, a humoral component of the immune
system, is activated during many types of surgical procedures.
Activation of the complement system is accompanied by a loss
of endothelium-dependent relaxation (EDR) in blood vessels.
This vascular dysfunction results in decreased blood flow and
may contribute to organ injury. The objectives of this project
are to characterize the role of complement system activation
in the pathogenesis of this vascular dysfunction. Specific aims
of this project are to test the following hypotheses: 1) complement
activation results in serum concentration-dependent loss of
receptor-dependent and -independent EDR, and 2) complement-induced
loss of EDR requires the formation of the complement membrane
attack complex but not endothelial cell lysis. Both vascular
and microvascular tissue will be studied. In summary, this project
will delineate mechanisms via which complement activation results
in vascular dysfunction and may identify potential therapeutic
approaches to prevent this dysfunction.
Steffen E. Meiler, M.D., FAER/Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists
Young Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston,
Massachusetts: "The pickwick Locus in Zebrafish: A
Proposed Model of Cardiac Cell Differentiation by Inductive Interaction"
Our laboratory has taken a genetic approach to study the
molecular mechanisms of cardiac cell differentiation. By chemical
mutagenesis, similar to the classical screens in drosophila,
we induced embryonic lethal, recessive mutations in zebrafish
to reveal the genetic program of heart formation in the vertebrate.
One of these mutations, called pickwick, shows differentiation
defects in the myocardium and endocardium, suggesting that normal
heart development depends on the exchange of developmental signals
between these tissues. To test this hypothesis we will generate
chimeric animals (by blastomere transplants) to analyze the
effect of wildtype myocardial and endocardial cells on the immediate
mutant heart environment. Eventually, we will identify the pickwick
locus by standard techniques of gene mapping and positional
cloning. The human cardiomyopathies, inherited and acquired,
are a frequent encounter for the practicing anesthesiologist
and critical care specialist. We postulate that discovery of
the genetic decisions of normal heart development will be essential
to expand and give order to current insights into the cardiomyopathy
syndromes.
Gilbert Y. Wong, M.D., FAER/Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. Young
Investigator, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota:
"The Effect of Neurolytic Celiac Plexus Block on Pain Relief,
Quality of Life, and Survival in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer"
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related
death in the United States. Pain is the most common and debilitating
symptom, which is present in 80-85 percent of patients with
advanced disease. Despite current therapies, the median survival
is six months from the time of diagnosis. Interestingly, pain
and stress have been previously shown to inhibit immune function
and enhance tumor growth and metastases in animals. Therefore,
effective analgesia and stress control may improve survival
of cancer patients. The majority of pancreatic cancer pain is
transmitted by the celiac plexus, which can be blocked with
a neurolytic injection. This randomized controlled trial will
compare neurolytic celiac plexus block (NCPB) versus usual analgesic
therapy with opioids (according to WHO analgesic guidelines)
in the pain management of pancreatic cancer patients. We hypothesize
that patients with NCPB will have improved pain relief and quality
of life, with prolonged survival time.
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