Research Digest

Healing Heart

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Synthetic Treatment Derived from Blood Shows Promise

U of L researchers will study a synthetic blood product that may allow emergency physicians to speed treatment of patients who have suffered severe blood loss. The product, Diasprin Cross-Linked Hemoglobin (DCLHb), is prepared from chemically modified human red blood cells. It is sterilized and pasteurized, and can be frozen for up to one year. Most importantly, DCLHb can be used on anyone, and does not require a match with the patient's own blood type. "Diasprin holds great promise for our patients with severe traumatic injury," said Mary Nan Mallory, principal investigator for the Kentucky study, who also is a physician in U of Us emergency medicine department. Even after surviving severe blood loss, Mallory explained, a patient still risks death in the first month due to the initial damage to internal organs and tissues. "We want to find out through this study," she added, "if the use of DCLHb can decrease the number of deaths that occur in that 28-day window." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized U of L to study the product in its trauma center during a two-year trial. Study criteria dictate that only the most seriously injured patients, those with severe shock and bleeding, are eligible for enrollment. These patients are at the greatest risk of death.

Scholar Develops Grief Predictor for Miscarriage Cases

Miscarriages happen more often than most people believe. Statistics say that 15 percent to 20 percent of all known pregnancies end in miscarriage. The rate is probably higher because sometimes women who don't know they are pregnant will pass off heavy bleeding as a strong period when, in fact, they have miscarried. Marianne Hutti, nursing professor and coordinator of U of Us nurse practitioner women's health program, has compiled 10 years of data on pregnancy loss. In her obstetrical practice, she found a need for medical providers to understand how to approach women who have experienced pregnancy loss. Her research explores factors that influence the intensity of grieving 'in order to help health care providers better identify men and women who need follow-up after such a loss.

Says Hutti, "Understanding a client's intensity of grieving will not speed up the mental healing process but it will help care providers to give better care to grieving families." Her article, "Predicting Women's Responses to Pregnancy Loss" won an outstanding research award last summer at the national meeting of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Roberto Bolli, $292,463, National Institutes of Health, "Role of Oxygen Radicals in Postischemic Oysfunction."

Anna Huang, $91,000, SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, "A DoubleBlind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Safety of SmithKline Beecham Biologicals' Herpes Simplex Candidate Vaccine with MPL in HSV Seropositive of Seronegative Subjects without Genital Herpes Disease."

Y James Kang, $106,253, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, "The Role of Catalase in Protection Against Copper Deficiency-induced Heart Damage in Transgenic Mice."

Richard Wittebort, $174,206, National Institutes of Health, "Structural Studies of Coll-en Fibrils hv NMR "