Orthosis seminar features scoliosis experts
3
Participants from as far away as Hawaii
are expected for an advanced seminar in
"Spinal Orthosis," which is being
conducted today and tomorrow by the
Americart Academy of Orthotists and
Prosthetists (AAOP) in conjunction with
Duke's Department of Prosthetics and
Orthotics.
The program, which is being held at the
Holiday Inn West, began at 8:30 this
morning with words of welcome given by
Dr. J. Leonard Goldner, professor and
head of the Division of Orthopaedic
Surgery, and by Siegfried W. Paul, CPO,
president of AAOP.
Bert R. Titus, CPO, associate professor
and director of prosthetics and orthotics,
outlined the objectives of the continuing
education symposium.
"Speakers will be presenting the latest
developments in the treatment and care
of patients with spinal fractures and
curvature of the spine," Titus said earlier
this week.
"Some of the largest scoliosis clinics in
the southeast will be represented," he
said.
Others from Duke serving on the
program are Dr. Frank H. Bassett,
professor of orthopaedics; Dr. Donald S.
Bright, assistant professor of
orthopaedics; Dr. Frank W. Clippinger,
professor of orthopaedics; Dr. Wesley A.
Cook, Jr., associate professor of
neurosurgery; Dr. Ralph W. Coonrad,
associate clinical professor of
orthopaedics; Patricia Friderichs, nurse
clinician; William E. Harris, orthotist;
Morrene L. Kallihan, nurse clinician; and
Percy H. Ray, Orthotist.
Visiting faculty members for the symposium
include Clarence A. Borrows, C.O., Charlotte;
Dr. Lawrence W. Brown, Shriner Crippled
Children's Hospital, Greenville, S.C.; Carlton
Fillauer, CPO, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Karl
Fillauer, CPO, Knoxville, Tenn.; W. Dewey
Friddle, CPO, Shriner Crippled Children's
Hospital, Greenville, S.C.; John Glancy,
orthotic service director, Indiana University
Hospital, Indianapolis; Dr. Charles F. Heinig,
Charlotte; Dr. Frank E. Pollock, Bowman Gray
School of Medicine, Winston-Salem; and Dr.
Sidney Wallace, chairman of orthopedic
surgery, University of Tennessee.
Microwaves aid X-rays in eradicating tumors
(Continued from page 1)
Duke radiotherapists gave the woman a
doss less than half as large as usual.
"We apphed microwaves afterward and
the tumor dried up and fell off," Noell
said.
her palm that has not been known to
respond to radiotherapy," Noell said. "It
has spread to the tissue near the elbow."
The treatment recommended first was
amputation of the affected arm and
shoulder. The girl refused.
"This opens up the treatment of tumors that ordinarily respond poorly
to radiation. It also could help patients whose cancer goes away but then
returns."
Using the two treatments together is "like adding one and one and
getting three."
The woman's cancer had spread
throughout her body and she couldn't be
saved, despite the successful treatment of
her chest tumor.
Arm saved
Team members feel more optimistic
about a 14-year-old girl who got the
combined treatment.
"She had a type of recurrent tumor on
Dr. Sanford Lacks of Brookhaven
National Laboratory, who has identified
two novel restriction endonucleases in
pneumococcus, will discuss this discovery
Tuesday.
The seminar, sponsored by the
University Program in Genetics, will be in
Room 147, Nanaline H. Duke Buililing, at
12:30 p.m.
The two enzymes, Dpnl and DpnII,
which are found in different strains,
recognize a common tetranucleotide
sequence in DNA.
They are distinguished by the fact that
£>pnl only cleayes DNA in which this
"When we used radiotherapy followed
by microwaves, the tumors disappeared,"
Noell said. "After seven months, she still
looks good."
Transmit long distance calls
Joines said microwaves come between
radio waves and infrared rays in the
electromagnetic spectrum. They are the
waves beamed out by radar antennas, and
sequence is methylated, while DpnII only
cleaves unmethylated DNA.
Dpnl is the first example of an
endonuclease specific for methylated
DNA.
Seaber receives
Members of the-American Association
of Certified Orthoptists have conferred
their organization's highest honor on an
eye specialist from Duke and elected her
to lead their group next year.
Judy H. Seaber, assistant clinical
also are used to transmit long-distance
telephone calls.
When aimed at a solid body,
microwaves cause heat. Luckily, cancer
cells in a microwave beam get hotter than
normal cells in the beam, boosting the
effect of X-ray therapy, Joines said.
X-ray therapy injures cancer cells in
part by breaking their twisting strands of
DNA, the body's master blueprint. The
broken pieces will try to rejoin. But heat
may stop them from coming together
again, killing the cell, the researchers said.
Vulnerability to heat
What's more, cancer cells seem to be
most vulnerable to heat at the very point
in their life cycle when they're most
resistant to radiation. So cells that
survive the X-rays might then fall prey to
the heat, the Duke scientists said.
In the Duke treatments, microwaves
were beamed from a rectangular antenna
held against the skin. Radiotherapists
used one of two antennas — one made
from military surplus, the other made by
the Burdick Corporation of Milton, Wis.
professor of ophthalmology, received the
Lancaster Award for Outstanding
Orthoptics at the association's annual
meeting in Dallas.
She will serve as president-elect of the
500-membcr society for the next 12
Professional news
Dr. Galen W. Quinn, professor of
orthodontics, attended the 22nd biennial
meeting of the Edward H. Angle Society of
Orthodontists in Osage Beach, Mo., Oct. 9-14.
He led a discussion on "Airway Interference
and its Effect upon the Growth and
Development of the Face, Jaws and Dentition,"
Quinn taught a seminar on this topic earlier
in the fall at the American Orthodontic
Society's Third j^nual Meeting in Dallas.
ii.>! t .'I £,
yi: ri ■' ■ '
LuSan Hill, research associate in pathology,
is the current president of the Durham
Business and Professional Women's Club. She
appeared recently on the Peggy Mann Show on
WTVD (channel 11), in observance of National
Business Women's Week.
months-and -then assume the presidency
at the annual meeting in October, 1978.
Orthoptics is the evaluation and non-
surgical treatment of individuals with
strabismus, a condition in which defective
eye muscle action causes the eyes to be
misalligned. Crossed eyes are an example
of strabismus.
Seaber, who joined the Department of
Ophthalmology 10 years ago, has written,
17 papers on her specialty and
contributed to two textbooks. She has
served as editor of the American
Orthoptic Journal for the past five years
and a member of the group's governing
council for the past three.
A graduate of Emory University,
Seaber is also an accomplished
equestrienne who was selected to
participate in the Southern -Regional
Olympic Trials in Alabama last summer.
BICP class on tour
A class from Western Harnett High
School, LiUington, is touring the medical
center today. It is the third of four classes
participating in the Biomedical
Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project to
be our guests this fall.
HONORED AND ELECT
ED — Judy Seaber, as
sistant clinical profes
sor of ophthalmology,
checks six-year-old
Jennifer Mowry for am
blyopia or "lazy eye."
In October, Seaber re
ceived the American
Association of Certi
fied Orthoptists' high
est honor and was voted
president-elect of the
SOO-member profes
sional organization.
(Photo by Ned Hinshaw)
Brookhaven researcher to speak
highest honor of eye association