Cold trial seeks
sneezers
Feel a sneeze coming on?
The Clinical Trial Center is conducting a study of Pleconaril, an antiviral drug that might shorten the duration of annoying symptoms.
The center is one of 100 centers nationwide participating in the placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Locally, the center needs to recruit 100 people who are within the first 24 hours of symptoms. Enrollment in the study entails four clinic visits and includes a reimbursement of $90.
For more information, call 343-8010.
Partain named
JMRI editor
Dr. Leon Partain, Pendergrass chair in radiology, professor and director of the center of imaging research in the department of radiology and radiological sciences at VUMC, has been named editor-in-chief of JMRI, the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The three-year term officially begins Jan. 1, 2001.
Ronald F. Price, professor of radiology and radiological sciences at VUMC, will join Partain as senior associated editor of the journal.
The journal is the official publication of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. It is the third peer-reviewed journal to currently have as editor a faculty in the VUMC Department of Radiology and Radiological sciences.
Seasonal study targets ragweed sufferers
Ah, fall’s in the air. The changing leaves, the crisp air, football … the ragweed.
A study underway at Asthma, Sinus, and Allergy Program (ASAP) is looking for people who suffer ragweed allergies, the most common reason for sneezin’ in the fall.
Thirty-two people are needed for the study. Participants will receive a skin allergy test to confirm their sensitivity to ragweed and will be randomized into one of four arms of the study and will receive either doses of the drug desloratadine, pseudoephedrine or one of two combinations of the two drugs that have different time-release formulations.
Enrollment in the study entails four clinical visits. For more information, call 936-5764.
VUMC’s Riley honored by Oklahoma chair
The Harris D. Riley Jr. Pediatric Society, based at the University of Oklahoma and named after the Vanderbilt Medical School graduate and current Professor of Pediatrics who was chair of Pediatrics at Oklahoma, has announced plans for an endowed chair.
The holder of the Harris D. Riley Jr. Endowed Chair in Pediatric Graduate Medical Education will serve as the director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Oklahoma, and will also, among other duties, oversee the annual lectureship named in Riley’s honor.
Riley graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School in 1948 and served most of his career at Oklahoma before returning to VUMC in 1991.