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Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 39
OCTOBER 1,1976
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Annual Meeting
Includes Tour of
Mudd Facilities
The medical center library and its
staff are playing an integral part in
the upcoming regional meeting of
the Medical Library Association
(MLA).
The annual meeting of the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Group
(MARG) of the MLA will be held
Oct. 6-9 at the library and the
downtown Ramada Inn.
Knowing that the library would be
in its new home in the Seeley G.
Mudd Building was part of the
reason medical librarians from Duke
and throughout North Carolina
volunteered to host this year's
meeting, according to Mary Ann
Brown, chief of readers services.
200 Medical Librarians
Ms. Brown is in charge of
preparations for the meeting which
is expected to draw at least 200
medical librarians from North
Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia,
Maryland and the District of
Columbia.
Dr. William G. Anlyan, vice
president for health affairs, will
welcome them to the first MARG
meeting which has been held here.
The medical librarians will be a
diversified group, Ms. Brown said.
“We use the term 'medical' in a wide
sense. We will have people here from
hospitals, drug libraries, and
government agencies, as well as
medical centers."
International Organization
The MLA is an international
organization with most of its
membership in the United States
and Canada. There are annual MLA
(Continued on page 2)
m
1
"WILL IT HURT MUCH?"—A three-year-old girl with a heart
problem nervously awaits catheterization in the new Pediatric
Cardiology Catheterization Laboratory while patient care
technician Lucy Bullock, partially hidden by an X-ray camera,
gently strokes her head. At right. Dr. Brenda Armstrong, a
fellow in pediatric cardiology, prepares the catheter she will
use to determine the pumping capacity of the little girl's heart
and to take tiny samples of cardiac blood to measure its oxygen
content. The new lab is one of the most sophisticated
diagnostic centers of its kind in the United States, according to
its director. Dr. D. Woodrow Benson. (Photo byjim Wallace)
Pediatrics Opens New Catheterization Lab
By David Williamson
The Department of Pediatrics has
opened a new clinical laboratory to
help physicians diagnose and correct
congenital heart defects in children.
Carter Ob-Cyn Society Meets
Here for Silver Anniversary
About 80 physicians from across
the. nation with special ties to Duke
are gathering here this weekend to
review scientific advances in
obstetrics and gynecology and to
exchange ideas on the practice of
their specialty.
The physicians, who are coming
from as far away as California, will
attend the silver anniversary
meeting of the Bayard Carter Society
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
to be held in the Markee Lecture Hall
(M224, green zone) on the second
floor of the Davison Building.
According to Dr. Arthur C.
Christakos, professor of obstetrics
and gynecology who is secretary for
the organization, the society was
formed in 1951 in honor of Dr.
Bayard Carter.
Carter founded the Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1931
and served as its chairman until 1964
and professor until his retirement in
1969. He is now in private practice in
Durham.
Members of the society include
physicians and scientists who
completed residences or fellowships
in obstetrics and gynecology at Duke
or who have reached the rank of
assistant professor in the
department. Carter and Dr. James T.
Cleland, James B. Duke Professor
Emeritus of Preaching and former
dean of Duke Chapel, are the only
honorary members.
Christakos said the scientific
program today and Saturday would
include 10 papers on various aspects
of obstetrics and gynecology to be
given by Duke faculty members and
a panel discussion of a high-risk
obstetrical patient.
The Carter Society holds its annual
meeting in Durham every third year,
he said.
The facility, the Pediatric
Cardiology Catheterization
Laboratory, is one of the most
sophisticated diagnostic centers of
its kind in the United States,
according to Dr. D. Woodrow
Benson, assistant professor of
pediatrics and laboratory director.
Most Helpful Tools
Benson said he believes the lab
brings together for the first time in a
hospital setting the most helpful
electronic tools that heart specialists
and biomedical engineers have yet
devised to measure heart structure
and function in children.
Benson said equipment in the
laboratory enables him and his
colleagues. Dr. Sam Edwards and Dr.
Gerald Serwer, to conduct such
procedures as cardiac cathe
terizations, two-dimensional
echocardiogram measurements and
recently developed electro-
physiological studies.
It also enables them to view and
record their findings on an advanced
video system for "instant replays" or
long-term medical record keeping.
Tube into Heart
Cardiac catherization, Benson
explained, is a sterile technique in
which physicians insert a
plastic-coated flexible tube into an
artery or a vein in a patient's groin
and then direct it upward with the
help of X-rays into one or more of the
heart's four pumping chambers.
The physicians can then inject an-
opaque liquid through the tube into
the heart and measure its How with
X-rays to determine the heart's
pumping capacity.
The catheter also can be used to
test for anatomical abnormalities and
to take small blood samples to
measure oxygen levels in the
chambers, he explained.
Benson said the two-dimensional
echocardiogram, under the direction
of Dr. Serwer, usually precedes
catheterization and works on the
.same principle as sonar and radar.
High-Frequency Sound
High-frequency sound waves
passed through the heart cause
certain small crystals in the device to
vibrate and change shape. As the
crystals change their structure, they
emit an electrical current which
physicians can record on paper and
interpret in terms of heart function
and anatomy.
"We use the echocardiogram first
because cardiac catheterizations are
like minor operations, and they have
some risk to them," the pediatric
cardiologist said. "We feel that
anything we can learn about the
heart before the catheterizations, the
better off the patients are.
(Continued on pa^e 3)