Blood

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

When most people travel, the last place they want to end up is in the hospital. For me, that's always where I'm headed. About once a month, I volunteer as a courier for the National Marrow Donor Program, transporting life-saving bone marrow or stem cells to transplant patients around the world. It's a joy to help, but it can also be exhausting. (Consider how much faster you would run to make a connecting flight if you were carrying much-needed blood instead of souvenirs.) My fiancee once joked that I wasn't happy if I wasn't on a train or plane once a week.

No one likes to get stuck with a needle. But it's the only way doctors can get blood to test for diabetes, anemia and numerous other health problems. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing say there is a much less invasive and painless means of detecting illnesses in patients — spit. Like blood, spit contains proteins, hormones, enzymes and DNA that can be used to test for and combat disease. It is easy and inexpensive to collect and analyze, making it ideal for research.

THE RECURRENT blood shortages in the United States, including the one in January 1999, which create periodic medical crises when the nation's blood supply falls perilously short, is a problem with a simple solution. Don't throw away good blood!The blood banking industry influenced the FDA to stigmatize and promote discarding the greatest source of donated blood in this country, namely that of Americans with iron overload, or hemochromatosis. Blood industry leaders allege (with no confirming data)

Large doses of Vitamin C may moderately reduce blood pressure, Johns Hopkins researchers have found. But the scientists don't recommend people start taking large amounts of the vitamin. Researchers led by Dr. Edgar "Pete" R. Miller, an associate professor in the division of general interal medicine at Hopkins, reviewed and analyzed data from 29 previous  clinical trials and found that taking 500 milligrams of Vitamin C daily, or five times the recommended amount, could lower blood pressure by 3.84 millimeters.

Red Cross officials have sent out an urgent alert: Blood supplies for the region are dangerously low. For some types of blood the need is critical; as of last week, the Red Cross had less than one day's supply of O negative blood.This time of year, blood banks expect a drop in donations, as regular donors get busy with holiday activities or leave town on vacation. But the demand for blood doesn't take a season off. The situation is worse this year because the fall months were less busy than usual.

Red Cross officials assure the public that the blood supply is "safer than ever." But the changes the organization announced over the weekend suggest that the system is not yet safe enough. Blood transfusions have always carried some risk of infection, but before AIDS the risk was rarely life-threatening. Now, when blood contaminated with the virus can be a death sentence for a recipient, the resulting strain on the system of collecting, testing and distributing blood has been enormous.The Red Cross, which provides half the nation's blood supply, deserves great credit for taking steps to institute a new computerized system and other procedures to prevent the slip-ups that have recently drawn criticism from Congress.

Blood, blood, blood, blood.Probably not what you want to think about first thing in the morning. But a lot of people have no choice. They depend on someone else's blood to keep them alive.They're not the folks you might think."If you'd ask people where the blood supply is needed, they'd say car accidents and shootings," says Dr. Merlyn Sayers, chief executive of a Dallas blood center. "What does not capture headlines is that, on any one day, there might be 300 patients with malignancies who are needing transfusions."

Forty percent of Americans are eligible to donate blood, but only 5 percent do.The Evening Sun wants to know whether you donate blood, and if not, why not?To respond, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County). After you hear the greeting, you'll be asked to punch in a four-digit code on your Touch-Tone phone. The code is 4600. The results will be published tomorrow."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.

Howard County police have charged a man with holding up a pharmacist in Columbia with a syringe filled with blood that he claimed was tainted with the AIDS virus according to authorities. Police said the man got away with $27,000 worth of prescription drugs. The authorities said they confirmed the syringe contained blood and are testing it to determine if it indeed carried the virus. The suspect has been identified as Benjamin Frederick Blessing, 52, of the 5200 block of Golden Sky Court in Columbia.

Patients may be getting blood transfusion too often during surgery, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers. The study shows wide variation in the use of transfusions, and those who receive blood fare no better, and sometimes do worse. The problem may be that doctors don't have clear guidelines about when to use the expensive and scarce resource. “Over the past five years, studies have supported giving less blood than we used to, and our research shows that practitioners have not caught up,” said Dr. Steven M. Frank, leader of the study published in the journal Anesthesiology . “Blood conservation is one of the few areas in medicine where outcomes can be improved, risk reduced and costs saved all at the same time,” he said in a statement.

One day in June 2009, I was seeing patients at my neurology practice in Catonsville when I felt a sudden headache and noted my words seemed to be slurred. I called my wife, a speech-language pathologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and asked if she detected a change in my speech. She urged me to go to the hospital, which turned out to be a very good idea. I had suffered a brain hemorrhage and nearly died that day — on my 24th wedding anniversary. One of my secretaries drove me to the emergency room at St. Agnes Hospital, where I had been chief of neurology for about 10 years.

Where is the man who can stand erect amongst his kind, and boast that he has passed unscathed through the ordeal which has been prepared for our enterprising and commercial countrymen? Such men are few and far between; and could we scrutinize them in their privacy, how soon we should perceive the absurdity of the thought, that they have been unaffected by it. We should see them at one time elated with hope and confidence, and the blood coursing high and tumultuously along the channels of the system, under the natural influence of that state of the mind -- anon.

Large doses of Vitamin C may moderately reduce blood pressure, Johns Hopkins researchers have found. But the scientists don't recommend people start taking large amounts of the vitamin. Researchers led by Dr. Edgar "Pete" R. Miller, an associate professor in the division of general interal medicine at Hopkins, reviewed and analyzed data from 29 previous  clinical trials and found that taking 500 milligrams of Vitamin C daily, or five times the recommended amount, could lower blood pressure by 3.84 millimeters.

Sometimes men are the ones to take care of birth control through a surgical procedure. But when those men and their partners have a change of heart about children for any number of reasons, they seek to reverse their vasectomies. And that's usually possible, even long after the original procedure, says Dr. Brad Lerner, co-director of the Vasectomy Reversal Center of America a division of Chesapeake Urology. Lerner answers questions about getting and reversing a vasectomy. How common are vasectomies?

The aqueduct took a year to complete. From the cool mountains in the North it traveled 1,000 miles, transporting life-sustaining water to the sweltering South. Every 100 yards, gargoyle spouts permitted people to draw sustenance from this river of life. It was an engineering marvel.But all was not well. On the day of completion, no water ran in the aqueduct, and the people in the South were dismayed. Would relief never come?A courier arrived with grim news: War had broken out in the North.

Those who work in public safety consider themselves part of a brotherhood. But for the purposes of organ donation, a brother in blue may not be quite family enough, as Officer Gene Cassidy is finding out. Cassidy was shot in the head 27 years ago in West Baltimore, and though he survived, he contracted Hepatitis C during a blood transfusion and now has end-stage cirrhosis. Cassidy's deteriorating condition was profiled by "The Wire" creator David Simon in a March 11 article in The Baltimore Sun, with the call put out that someone could help by donating half of their liver.

Comic book fans rejoice! Sunday night's season finale of "The Walking Dead" on AMC was thrilling on its own, but those viewers who have read the source material - Robert Kirkman's comic book - might have needed an inhaler and an SPU (spare pair of underwear) to make it through this episode. There was a trifecta of revelations, and if you don't want them to be spoiled for you, close your eyes ... now! In order: Rick reveals Jenner's secret (we're all infected.