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Show Little things making big news in medicine as in other fields This ts one of a series ol health columns alxmt youi heart, prepared by the Utah Heart Association and published pub-lished by this newspaper as a public service. ' Little things are making big news in medicine as in othei i fields. Advances in miniaturi- zation have enabled Americans to put a man into space anc bring him back. They have hung satellites in the heavens to bounce television sights and sounds to both sides of the Atlantic. At-lantic. Perhaps even closer to an earthling's heart, they have given medical men new tools for the fight against disease. It has also proved many tiny new instruments useful and, in some instances, cure, of diseases of the heart and blood vessels, according to the Utah Heart Association. Equipment used in rockets has, of necessity, to be compact, com-pact, pared down to minimum size and weight, yet powerful and precise. While space scientists scien-tists were adapting miniature mechanisms to the requirements require-ments of orbital flight, medical medi-cal researchers were applying the new ideas to the human body. New instruments developed to record pulse, blood pressure, respirations . and temperatures in astronauts are now finding wider use in hospitals. For example, ex-ample, one new apparatus permits per-mits a nurse to monitor six patients simultaneously by scanning the face of a display dis-play console that looks like a radio receiver. Each patient wears a tiny, wireless unit that continuously broadcasts his pulse rate and electrocardiogram electrocard-iogram to the receiver. If, say, a patient's pulse rate goes down or his electrocardiogram shows a significant change, the nurse can summon help immediately. Another type of telemetering telemeter-ing (measuring from afar) device de-vice already enables doctors at certain medical centers to listen lis-ten to and evaluate electrocardiograms electro-cardiograms sent from thousands thous-ands of miles away. The sounds made by blood rushing through the heart's valves can give doctors important im-portant clues to the type and severity of some forms of heart diseases. Now a tiny instrument in-strument can be inserted into the heart through a fine tube, maneuvered through a vein in the arm, so that valve sounds can be heard from their source. Blood vessels can be explored ex-plored internally,, repaired, replaced re-placed and studied in individuals individ-uals more directly and thoroughly thor-oughly than ever before. Sur geons can operate with precision pre-cision in an area smaller than a dime. Experimental work is going forward on the use of tiny wire staples to join the cut ends of blood vessels not much thicker than a hair. Pea-sized power plants are extending life for patients with excessively slow or intermittently in-termittently irregular heart rhythms. A device called a cardiac pacemaker is about the size of a match book. It can be planted under the skin and wired into the heart muscle mus-cle to deliver a steady stimulus stimu-lus that keeps the heart beating beat-ing at a constant rate, banishing ban-ishing the threat of fainting spells and possible fatal seizures seiz-ures in patients with these .conditions. These and many similar achievements have resulted from years of research, much of it aided by the Heart Association. As-sociation. The Utah Heart Association As-sociation emphasizes that continuing con-tinuing research will lead to more life-saving advances both big and little to reduce re-duce the threat of heart and blood vessel diseases that now take nearly a million American lives annually. A farm is a hunk of land on which, if you get up early enough mornings and work late enough nights, you'll make a fortune if you strike oil. The Intermountain Farmers Association has just been named exclusive distributor for the TJ. S. Steel irrigation headgates which were designed de-signed by the Utah State University Un-iversity under a research and development grant by USS, according to C. K. Ferre, general gen-eral manager of I. F. A. |