Gangrene Hope

In severe cases of gangrene resulting from frostbite, there is only one proven remedy: amputation. But the Army last week announced a less drastic remedy that looks promising. Its name: heparin, a well-known anti-blood-clotting substance. Heparin apparently stops gangrene by helping circulation in frozen limbs.

Drs. Kurt Lange and David Weiner of the New York Medical College got the idea while studying blood circulation by means of fluorescein, a tracer dye which, injected into the blood, flows freely with it and glows yellow-green under long-wave ultraviolet light. When they froze rabbit tissues (and later that of human volunteers) they found that after a time the whole frozen area glowed brightly, indicating blood concentration.

With the assistance of Major Nathan B. Friedman, an Army doctor, they proved that the blood capillaries in frozen areas open their pores and pour plasma profusely into the surrounding tissues. The red blood cells, left behind, stick together to form clots and block circulation.

Lange and Weiner thereupon tried heparin injections, found that if given soon enough (within 48 hours after exposure) no gangrene developed. Now they are testing heparin against trench foot, which seems to have about the same effect on red blood cells as frostbite.

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