January 29, 2001

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Ohio State's news, experts and events give you more on the news

News

Bedside heart exam tested at Ohio State Heart Institute—A researcher at The Ohio State University's Heart & Lung Research Institute is leading an effort to determine if an advanced testing procedure used to diagnose abnormalities in the heart can be accurate when administered at the patient's bedside. The test, myocardial contrast perfusion echocardiography, uses an extremely small bubble, called a microbubble, intravenously administered into the patient's bloodstream. The microbubbles are "tracked" by ultrasound as they flow through the heart. Harmless to the patient, the non invasive imaging technique may have a higher degree of accuracy in detecting heart problems than other tests. Dr. Samer J. Khouri, a cardiology fellow at Ohio State, says the test can take less than 30 minutes and save the patient an admission to the hospital for a battery of tests to rule out — or confirm — a heart attack. Annually, about 4 million people go to hospital emergency rooms with chest pain. About half are diagnosed with a non heart-related problem after testing. Contact: David Crawford, Medical Center Communications, (614) 293-3737.

Experts

Women soldiers would rather tough it out – As more women become part of the U.S. military, a new study finds that many are unwilling to seek treatment for common women’s infections when they are deployed to a field duty station or are stationed on multi-week ship duty. Ohio State University Nursing Professor Nancy Ryan-Wenger surveyed military women — enlisted and officers — on their perspectives of military health care services and health experiences at their home bases and when deployed to other parts of the world. Nearly half said they were uncomfortable going on sick call for symptoms of common women’s infections during deployment. Ryan-Wenger says the women are uneasy reporting symptoms of genitourinary infections, which include those of the vagina and urinary tract. She is working to develop a self-treatment kit for the soldiers so they don’t have to go on sick call to be treated. Contact: Nancy Ryan-Wenger, (614) 292-4078.
Events

Jazz Musicians perform in cross-cultural concert—Feb. 7 Internationally renowned jazz musicians Jon Jang and David Murray will perform in an 8 p.m. concert on Wednesday (2/7) at Mershon Auditorium. Jang, a Chinese American pianist, and Murray, an African American saxophonist, bring diverse backgrounds to a collaboration that extends the cultural boundaries of this distinctively American musical form. The concert, which is free and open to all, will showcase music that expands the cross-cultural reach seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact: Steven Yao, assistant professor of English and event organizer, (614) 292-6065.
Centers for Disease Control director offers view of public health—Feb. 9.
Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will present "Public Health Challenges in the 21st Century" at 12:30 p.m. in 518A James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, 300 W. 10th Avenue. His presentation is part of the HOPES Seminar Speaker Series. The Center for HOPES is Ohio State's multidisciplinary center for the study, awareness and promotion of health policy. Contact: Claudia Uribe, Center for HOPES, (614) 688-3724.

Reading Recovery Conference features Jonathan Kozol — Feb. 10-13. Some 5,000 reading teachers will be on hand as Jonathan Kozol opens the National Reading Recovery/Descubriendo la Lectura Conference at 10:30 a.m. Saturday (2/10) at the Columbus Convention Center. Kozol, an educator, social activist and author, will present "Ordinary Resurrections: Teachers, Tests and Tribulations in the Urban Schools" to kick off the three-day conference. Pioneered at The Ohio State University, Reading Recovery is an intensive educational intervention to help first-graders who are having extreme difficulty learning to read and write. A specially trained Reading Recovery teacher tutors individual students for 30 minutes each school day for 12-20 weeks. Although the program targets the lowest-performing children, 82 percent of students who complete their full series of lessons can read and write with the average performance range of their class. In its 16 years in the U.S., Reading Recovery has helped more than 700,000 first-graders and trained thousands of teachers. Contact: Kelly DeVito, Reading Recovery Council of North America, (614) 247-6666.

Rah! Rah! Cheerleaders compete! – Feb. 11. Pompoms, dances and acrobatic routines will be the rule as cheerleading squads from across the Midwest compete for top honors at the 11th Annual Competition on Sunday (2/11) at St. John Arena. Presented by The Ohio State University cheerleaders and The Ohio State University Cheerleader Alumni Society, the competition is for varsity high school squads, junior varsity high school squads, ninth-grade squads, seventh, seventh/eighth, eighth grade squads and All Star squads. Contact: Judy Bunting, OSU Cheerleading Coach, (614) 688-3038.

Ohio State engineering alum recognized as great inventor — Melvin De Groote, a 1915 Ohio State chemical engineering alumnus who held 925 patents, recently received national recognition as one of America’s greatest inventors. The Dec. 4, 2000, Time magazine listed De Groote as being second only to Thomas Edison in the number of patents issued to him. Most of DeGroote’s inventions concerned chemical demulsification and dehydration processes used in crude oil production, according to the March 1963 Ohio State University Monthly. Chemical demulsifiers recover oil from millions of barrels of crude petroleum daily throughout the world. De Groote, who died in February 1963 at age 67, also earned a professional degree in chemical engineering in 1942 and an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1955, both from Ohio State. Contact: Dana Stone, Engineering, (614) 292-4064.

The person listed as Contact will have the best information about the story. Call on our media relations staff for help with any Ohio State story – Elizabeth Conlisk, (614) 292-3040; Amy Murray, (614) 292-8385; Lesley Deaderick, (614) 292-0569; Melinda Sadar, (614) 292-8298; and Shannon Wingard, (614) 247-6821.
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