Evening star., 1948-11-24
Stars, Men and Atoms
Noticeable Slowing Down
In Medical Science Seen
Brightest Laboratory Prospects Fail
in Fight Against Blood Pressure
By Thomas r. Henry

By Thomas r. Henry
During the past two decades medical science
has made some Of its greatest advances.
But just now there Is a noticeable slowing
down, and this was a notable feature of this
years sessions OF the American Medical As.
ISOLATION, devoted to considering the leading
causes of death in the United States.
The doctors have seen, one after another,
some of the brightest prospects coming from
scientific laboratories fail.
Chief Killer in Country.
Such has been the case with the chief killer
in this country-high blood pressure, with its
fatal terminations in heart failure, kidney
failure and brain hemorfhage 1t is essentially
q disease Of middle life, usually starting with
the smaller blood vessels which contract. This
requires more work of the heart to push
blood through them, thus tending to weaken
that organ. The higher pressure is most
frequently manifested by breaking one of the
exceptionally thin walled vessels of the brain.
Nobody knows the cause or what to do about
IT., Dr. George E. Wakelin, professor of physi-
ology at the University of Illinois, told the
physicians. One lead after another has failed
to hold UP.
The sanest view at present, Dr. Wakelin said
is that this essential hypertension"-the name
given all cases of high blood pressure the cause
OF which is not known-is group of diseases
due to wide variety Of causes and the best
hope Is laboriously to isolate these maladies,
one after another. Already half dozen have
been taken out of the general category as
causes, although not mechanisms, have been
established. These, however, account for only
q small part of the whole
Victims, he said, are most likely to be stocky,
ipdi1 r,I,,
to have personalities which vary from states of
aggression to passiveness. 1t has been widely
proclaimed that there is a psychic factor in.
volved Actually, DR.. Wakelin said, pressure
can be reduced in some persons by putting them
under general anesthetic, thus presumably
blocking of most impulses from the higher
centers of the brain.
New Drug Being Tried.
Temporary improvement is brought about,
still in few cases, by use Of new drug,
tetraethyl ammonium, which blocks the SYM
pathetic nervous system. This is the basis, he
explained, for the radical operation known as
sympathectomy, in which this part Of the
nervous system, controlling many of the body's
unconscious activities, is cut loose from its
blood vessel connections. This appears to do
some good in about 20 per cent of cases. For
others it proves of no value. The best conclu-
sion, he indicated, is that one of the complex
of apprehension diseases may be due to SYM
pathetic disorder
One OF the most popular recent theories has
been that apprehension was due to the over.
secretion Of blood pressure increasing sub
stance from the kidneys. The condition has
been produced experimentally In dogs by block
ing of the kidneys.
Still there is no evidence that the same holds
true for man. The condition can be produced
In rats by injection Of one of the hormones
secreted by the pituitary gland buried in the
brain. The thesis has been advanced that there
may be some as yet unknown hormone respon-
sible for apprehension in man. Blood pressure
also can be raised by injection Of one Of the
hormones Of the adrenal glands from which
adrenalin also is secreted.
But even If any of these causes could be
established, he said, they would apply only to a
limited number of cases and the general picture.
50 far as death rate is concerned, is getting
worse than ever.