Washington, D.C.

Gulf War vets plagued by Lou Gehrig’s disease

Two new studies show an unusual number of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War developed Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal neurological disorder.

One study published in today’s issue of the journal Neurology showed that Gulf War veterans younger than 45 were three times more likely to contract amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, than nonveteran peers.

“This disease occurred in a very abnormal age group, in people in their 20s and 30s instead of 60s and 70s,” said Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and author of the study.

Haley identified 17 Gulf War veterans younger than 45 who were given diagnoses of the ailment between 1991 and 1998. He said more soldiers were likely to contract ALS as they aged.

A second study conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs reached similar conclusions about a higher-than-expected incidence of ALS among soldiers.

Houston

Ailing South Pole worker arrives for treatment in U.S.

An ailing American research worker who was evacuated from the South Pole in a daring weekend rescue will need surgery to treat his potentially life-threatening condition, co-workers said Monday.

The man, whose name and condition have been withheld at his request, arrived Monday in Houston on a private jet.

He was rescued from the South Pole Sunday by a Canadian turboprop plane.

The medical director of Raytheon Polar Services, the Centennial, Colo.-based company that manages the U.S. base at the Pole, said the illness might have been life-threatening if left untreated. News reports that the man has a bladder problem were incorrect, Dr. Ron Shemenski said.

The rescue flight had been delayed for days because of wind and snow during the Southern Hemisphere’s spring season. It was the third such rescue in four years, and occurred in darkness. The sun doesn’t come up at the South Pole until Tuesday.

“We had a break in the weather. It was only minus 70 degrees when the plane landed at the South Pole,” said B.K. Grant, Raytheon’s South Pole area director.

Washington, D.C.

Test in mice pinpoints Alzheimer’s plaques

A new test that can detect the presence of plaques in the brain, evidence of Alzheimer’s disease, could offer the hope of early diagnosis and perhaps better treatment if it works as well in people as in animals.

A chemical called PIB was able to cross the blood-brain barrier and bind to the amyloid plaques in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s, which allowed researchers to diagnose the disease by detecting the chemical.

The chemical quickly cleared out of the brains of mice without the disease, according to a team of researchers led by Dr. Brian J. Bacskai at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The next step, already under way in Pittsburgh and in Uppsala, Sweden, is to test the chemical in people.

The ability to diagnose the disease in its early stages would be important, because it would allow any new therapy to be started before much damage had been done, said Dr. William E. Klunk, a member of Bacskai’s group, who is leading the human study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Their findings are being published in this week’s online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.