Compound Prescription

From hundreds of papers, panels and exhibits, the 14,000 A.M.A. members in Chicago last week learned that:

P: A revolutionary electron gun, developed by the University of Chicago's Dr. Robert J. Moon, is being perfected for X-raying hard-to-get-at organs such as the stomach and lower intestines. Using a pinpoint X-ray beam and a scanning system, it throws a brilliant, enlarged image on a TV screen, subjects both patient and radiologist to much smaller and safer doses of X rays than older methods.

P: Thanks to a fermentation process in which mold-microbes (captured on a windowsill in Kalamazoo) perform a dozen complicated chemical processes, the Upjohn Co. has boosted production of cortisone and cut its price by 20%. Neck & neck in the same race, Schering Corp. can now get enough cortisone to treat a patient for three weeks from the bile of only two cattle (it used to take 400).

P: Hydrocortisone (Compound F) is more potent than cortisone (Compound E) in treating some eye diseases, said four Philadelphia researchers; it has proved "dramatic" in checking cases of vernal conjunctivitis ("spring catarrh").

P: Babies who appear lifeless at birth because their mothers have been heavily dosed with morphine and sister drugs during labor may now be saved by another related drug (n-allyl-normorphine). Philadelphia's Dr. James E. Eckenhoff explained that despite the close chemical kinship, it is an antagonist to morphine and a quick antidote for it.

P: A "spreading agent" called hyaluronidase, extracted from the testicles of bulls, does a lot to prevent the formation or reformation of kidney stones, reported a group of researchers for Wyeth Inc.

P: If a heart patient has a bottleneck in the mitral valve, it can be opened with a tiny knife on the end of the surgeon's finger. But this daring operation will do little good if the valve to the aorta (main artery) is also narrowed, and there has been no way to repair this second defect. Dr. Charles P. Bailey of Philadelphia, who developed the first operation, now has another for opening the aortic valve: he pushes piano wire into the valve through the heart, and uses it as a guide for a spreader which opens the valve.

Between technical topics, A.M.A. also:

P: Installed Heart Specialist Louis H. Bauer of Hempstead. N.Y. as president for the next twelve months, and chose Surgeon Edward J. McCormick of Toledo as president-elect to take office next June.

P: Hung its Distinguished Service Medal on Boston's Dr. Paul Dudley White, 66. long connected with Massachusetts General Hospital, for many years of accomplishment in teaching, research and treatment of heart disease.

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