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Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 30
JULY 29,1977
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Million Dollar Continuing Ed. Center Funded
Duke University has announced
that G.D. Searle & Co. has agreed to
give the medical center $1 million to
establish the Searle Center for
Continuing Education in the Health
Sciences.
The purpose of the center will be
to help physicians and other health
care professionals keep up with the
knowledge explosion in the health
care field.
"The center/' said the vice
president for health affairs. Dr.
William G. Anlyan, "not only will be
a local and regional resource, but also
will be available for national and
international meetings whenever
appropriate.”
Anlyan added that an
international conference on
neurobiology next year already is
booked for the Searle Center.
In Mudd Building
The center is being constructed in
Duke's new Seeley G. Mudd
Building which is a medical
communications center and library.
Most of the ground level of the
modernistic building will be
dedicated to the center. It will'
include a 250-seat lecture hall, a
projection room and closed-circuit
television capability.
Surrounding the lecture hall on
three sides will be as many as eight
conference and meeting rooms plus a
food service area. The lecture hall
and conference areas will be
separated from one another by
heavy-density, noise-repellent
partitions, all of which can be
removed to convert the entire area
into a dining facility to accommodate
as many as 400 persons.
The Searle Center will be adjacent
to a new medical center bookstore
which opened this week on the
ground level.
Changing Health Information
"In making this gift," Anlyan said,
"Searle recognizes the importance of
continuing education for all health
professionals in the context of this
constantly changing base of
information in the health sciences."
Anlyan said the Searle facility will
be open for use by the entire
university academic community and
will have future links with other
health-care institutions through
closed-circuit television.
"In due time," he said, "we will
have live networking capabilities
with other hospitals and health
education institutions as the price of
two-way audiovisual com
munications become more
cost-effective.
Lab Tests Help Pinpoint Risks
Of Rare Disease for Children
MOIHtK AND DAUCHTEK—^Scientists call her ■ Propithetus verreauxi coquereli”
and staff members of the university’s primate facility call her "Edith," but to little
Erme, born on Feb. 6, she's just plain Mom. David Anderson, associate director of the
facility, said the animals and others like them here "add a touch of uniqueness to the
Duke scientific community" because they can't be found anywhere else in the world
outside their native Madagascar. Edith and her relatives, who cooperate in long-term
genetic, behavioral, physiological and anatomical research, subsist on a diet of
mango leaves specially shipped to Duke from Florida every two weeks. Anderson
called the Propithecus "the most acrobatic of the lemurs" because it can leap 30 feet
when full grown. (Photo byjim Wallace)
By David Williamson
Every three or four years, when
influenza B epidemics hit the United
States, a relatively rare illness known
as Reye's syndrome singles out and
attacks certain children, usually
between the ages of four and 11.
Some of the children are fortunate
enough to recover completely, while
others die within three days or
survive with severe brain damage.
Although it seems to accompany
certain viral diseases, medical
Diet Clinic Seeks To Alter Patients' Lifestyles
By John Becton
An obviously overweight man
stepped inside "Gradeli's", in
Duke's Trent Drive Hall, and took a
few long, wistful breaths.
"I just want to smell it," he told the
deli staff, and then he left with a
sigh.
He was a new patient in Duke's
Dietary Rehabilitation Clinic (DRC).
While trips to the delicatessen and
certain other habits would be
altered, he certainly was not going to
starve, nor was eating going to
become dull.
That soon was apparent as he had
his first of many dinners in the DRC
cafeteria. That night it was roast beef
(5 oz.) two broccoli spears, a salad
(lettuce, cucumber and onion ring),
cottage cheese with a pineapple slice
and all the coffee or tea he wanted
(nor sugar or cream, of course).
Over the next four weeks he had
similar meals, designed to be
nourishing, appealing and practical
yet totalling only 700 calories a day.
He also would walk at least two
miles each day, attend lectures and
meet weekly with the physician,
clinical psychologist and dietitian.
In the process, he would lose
weight and leam how to control his
eating behavior.
The DRC, a component of
University Health Services in the
Department of Community and
Family Medicine, is a multi-aspect
and intensive approach to the
treatment of patients with obesity
and obesity-related problems.
Treatment Team
Dr. Sigrid Nelius, DRC program
director, emphasized that the
medical, behavioral and dietary
aspects of the program are ^ually
important and essential to each
patient's success.
"Our whole staff works as a
treatment team," Dr. Nelius said.
"Together we coordinate all aspects
of the program."
Dr. Albert Loro, DRC behavioral
program director, explained that this
is an appropriate approach to obesity
because "obesity is a multi-factored
problem that requires a coordinated
effort of professionals from several
fields. Our program utilizes behavior
modification, dietary management,
medical supervision and patient
education.
"Basically, we are trying to change
patients' lifestyles,", the medical
psychologist continued. "This major
change involves a move from a food
centered existence to a non-food
centered one. It appears that most of
(Continued on page 3)
scientists don't know what causes
Reye's syndrome, why it strikes
some children but not others, nor
what a possible cure could be.
They do know, however, that the
illness took the lives of at least four
North Carolina youngsters in the
first three months this year and more
than 100 others across the nation,
according to the Center for Disease
Control in Atlanta.
Predicting Risk
Dr. Charies R. Roe, an associate
professor of pediatrics here, and his
colleagues believe they can now
predict which children will recover
from the syndrome and which
children are the greatest risk of death
or nerve damage.
Their predictions are based on a
combination of laboratory tests of
enzyme activity in the blood.
I>r. Theodore Sunder, a pediatric
neurologist, treated all six children
admitted to Duke Hospital with the
illness this year. He said information
like that supplied by Roe's
laboratory is important b^ause it
can warn doctors which children are
likely to need the most rigorous
treatment by supplementing direct
observation.
Measuring Enzyme Leads
In explaiiung his laboratory work.
Roe said that when body orgaiis
have been injured by disease,
tissue-specific enzymes called
isoenzymes are released from the
affected organs into the blood.
When high levels of an enzyme
(Continued on page 4)