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Accomplishments of Foundation Researchers
Direct Current Defibrillator: Introduced the use of direct
current electrical shock for normalizing the deranged rhythm of a dying heart.
This technique is now employed wherever cardiac resuscitation is practiced.
Lown Cardioverter: Discovered cardioversion, a method for delivering a
synchronized, direct-current electrical pulse through the closed chest wall to
restore a normal beat in a heart with a rapid and irregular action.
Potassium: Demonstrated that the loss of potassium caused by
diuretics convert digitalis, an otherwise valuable drug, into a dangerous
toxin. Potassium supplements are now routine for patients requiring diuretics.
Lidocaine: Introduced the drug Lidocaine to protect the heart
attack victim from fatal cardiac electrical failure. Use of this drug has
reduced mortality among heart attack victims by 40%.
Coronary Care Unit: Defined the basic principles for treating patients with
heart attacks in coronary care units, and developed the medical equipment for
constant monitoring of patients in the unit.
Sudden Death: Formulated the hypothesis that certain types of
seemingly innocuous extra heartbeats (extrasystoles) identify patients with
heart disease who are at risk of sudden death.
-Discovered that digitalis drugs
can suppress certain life-threatening extrasystoles.
-Showed that the heart can be
protected against potentially lethal derangements in rhythm by inducing
specific alterations in the brain's neurochemistry through changes in the diet.
-Discovered
that the provocation of distinctive electrical echoes from heart muscle can identify patients at
risk for sudden death.
Medical Management of Coronary Artery Disease: Established that most stable
patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease can be treated effectively
by medical means without the need for bypass surgery or angioplasty.
Stress and Heart Disease: Established that certain nerve signals
originating in the brain can disorganize the heartbeat.
-Demonstrated in animal
experiments that aversive psychological conditions lowered the threshold for
fatal heart rhythm derangements. Identified the parts of the nervous system
that carry noxious signals from the brain to the heart, and the means for
diminishing such nerve traffic.
-Demonstrated that sudden death
can be triggered by intense psycho-physiologic factors even in the absence of
significant heart disease.
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