Award of 13 senior research grants totaling $56,000 for studies in the field of heart and blood vessel diseases was announced Saturday by the Louisiana Heart Association. Dr. Harold P. Chastant of Lafayette , heart association president, said these grants "will help support a wide range of research dealing with heart surgery, high blood pressure, DR. HOLMES , shock, chronic problems of blood supply, chemical basis of blood vessel changes, and improvement of diagnostic instruments." The $56,000 is part of a total af $139,000 which has been alocated for research and training by the association, Dr. Chastant said. Forty-seven per cent of the LHA's 1961-62 budget will go to the research field, -Other portions have been allocated for professional and public education, and community services, he said.ABLE GROUP
"This year's research grants, made possible by Heard Fund Campaign contributions and by bequests and memorial gifts, have been awarded to a very able group of research scient-
ists," he said. "Their work in Louisiana institutions is adding to- the accumulated data which makes the fight against heart disease ever more effective: "Today, improved means for
preventing heart disease, due
partly to our better knowledge of
the role of obesity and certain
lats in the diet, is offering real
hope that the present drastic rates of death and disability can be lowered in the general population,
"Along with this are advances in other fields which make sur-
vival and relatively normal life possible in many heart cases which once would have been considered hopeless. These advances are improved heart surgery, increasingly successful means foa? cleaning out narrow-
ed arteries or replacing sections with artificial blood vessels, use of anti-clotting drugs to prevent recurrence of heart attacks, drug therapy for high blood pressure, and new emergency measures for resuscitating victims of heart arrest.
"Surgeons eventually will probably be able to repair the highly important coronary art-3ry of the heart. Experimental vork in this field is promising.
"The improved technique in making miniature electronic devices has now made .possible mechanical repair jobs which would have seemed in the realm of fantasy not many years ago. The electrical pacemaker implanted in the body is being used successfully to time hearts which have lost their own electrical impulses controlling the heart beat. Mechanical valves
of various types, ball valves, plastics, transplants made of other tissue, are being tested experimentally. In the remote, future, replacement of badly damaged hearts by small mechanical pumps will , probably be possible. This has already been done experimentally. Research and experiment are the foundation blocks on which all of this progress is being established."
Recipients of senior research grants, and their projects, are the following:
Dr. Richard L. Fowler, LSU,
$1526, for further studies to de-jvelop a catheter needle to take biopsy samples inside the living heart.
Dr. Paul M. Hyde, LSU, $9716 for studies of the mechanism by which methyl androstenediol (MAD) produces high blood pressure.
Dr. Gerald S. Berenson and Dr. Arthur F. Fishkin, LSU, $7950, cardiovascular disease associated with disturbance of connective tissue matabolism.
Dr. Edward S. Hyman, Touro Infirmary, $2226 for study of
change of metabolism.
Dr. Albert L. Hyman, Tulane, $3604 for rapid estimation of blood flow by use of a platinum electrode to detect hydrogen as a tracer.
Dr. Charles W. Pearce, Tu-lance, $2936, laboratory study of partial right ventricular bypass as a basis for surgery for a congenital heart defect.
Dr. Gabriel L. Plaa, Tulane, $2067 for study of blood characteristics of liver and possible irole in treatment of congestive heart failure and shock.
Dr. Mohammad Atik, LSU,
$6349, study of blood suppli and cooling in kidney functions.
Dr. Homer D. Kirgis and D*\ Edward McC. Peebles, TulaneJ $5424, study of measures for prevention of severe strokes and for improving blood flow to damaged area where strokes have occurred.
Dr. John L. Ochsner and Dr. William C. Holmes, Tulane $2862, study of reduced blood flow to lungs in the presence of elevated pulmonary blood pressure. Dr. Joseph F. Dingman, Tulane,!
$4240, study of oxytocin in reducing blood pressure.
Dr. Kene J. Bienvenu Jr Northwestern State college, Natchitoches, $2500, study of the role of a blood fraction in providing certain immunities.
Dr. Charles M. Baugh, Tulane, received renewal of a 500 Libby Research fellowship for the study of B vitamin folic acid. A grant of $4780 under the Rowell A. Billups Memorial Research award to Dr. Donald F. M. Bunce of Tulane was announced earlier.
