Mass Cardiograms

Through the city room of the Abilene (Texas) Reporter News last week marched a strange procession. In the lead was Dr. William Bluford Adamson, wearing brown alligator cowboy boots and carrying a case not much bigger than a portable typewriter. He was followed by his wife, two medical technicians and two nurses. In the newspaper's morgue, Cardiologist Adamson opened his box and unveiled an electrocardiograph.

Printer-Foreman Bill Meroney was part of a second procession: Reporter News workers having their hearts checked. Mrs. Adamson made sure that Meroney's questionnaire was completed ("Has anybody in your family ever had heart disease? Have you ever had rheumatic fever or scarlet fever?") After a blood-pressure reading, a nurse taped electrodes to Meroney's wrists and Dr. Adamson taped another pair to his ankles. Then the doctor switched on the ECG machine and got a reading of the electrical impulses generated with Meroney's heartbeats. He appeared to have a sound heart, but of the first 70 employees tested, eight had dubious ECG readings or other indications of possible trouble.

In time, the county heart association hopes to check on the heartbeat of all of Taylor County (pop. 80,000). There is a long waiting list for Dr. Adamson's services, and this week he will carry his machine into the public schools. The aim: to make mass heart checkups as commonplace in U.S. cities as TB screening.

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