Sound Medicine -- June 15, 2002

Barbara Lewis and Dr. Mike Koch talk to experts about:

New treatments for prostate cancer

Medical complications, with author/surgeon Atul Gawande

West Nile virus

New treatments for prostate cancer

Prostate cancer ranks just behind lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths in men.

Sound Medicine co-host Dr. Mike Koch provides background on the disease, including current treatments and their side effects. Then Dr. Koch discusses two clinical trials he's conducting using a new procedure called highly focused ultrasound, or HIFU. HIFU uses high-intensity sound waves to destroy the cancerous prostate. The studies are still defining the side effects of HIFU and determining if it's as good as current treatments.

Urologist Dr. Mike Koch is the principal investigator of the HIFU trials. He's chair of the Department of Urology at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Resources

Would you like more information on the HIFU device? Go to the Focus Surgery, Inc. Web site to read about it and its diverse medical applications.

Interview with author Dr. Atul Gawande

"Medicine's ground state is uncertainty," writes Dr. Atul Gawande, a Boston-based surgeon. Gawande's thought-provoking essays appear in The New Yorker magazine, and his collection of essays, Complications, a Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, is a best seller.

Dr. Gawande talks with us about the waning practice of autopsy. Also, Dr. Gawande and Dr. Koch talk about the uncertainties of practicing medicine, and specific ways physicians must continue to learn, even from mistakes that greatly affect patients.

Resources

Read an excerpt of Dr. Gawande's book at the Henry Holt and Company Web site.

"Complications" by Atul Gawande is published by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company press.

West Nile virus

Due to the large amount of rain in Indiana this year, we're expecting a bumper crop of mosquitoes. We talk with Mike Sinsko, senior medical entomologist for the Indiana State Department of Health, about the health danger mosquitos bring, including the West Nile encephalitis virus. One harbinger of the virus is dead birds. Infected crows, blue jays, and other birds were found last summer in Indiana, killed by West Nile encephalitis.

Currently there's no evidence as yet of WNV in our state, but Sinsko predicts it will hit Indiana just as it already has in neighboring states. He discusses types of mosquito-borne encephalitis, treatment of the disease, and the people and animals primarily at risk. Sinsko tells how to prevent mosquitoes and reveals that people with ornamental ponds can request mosquito-eating fish from the Marion County Health Department.

Resources

For information on obtaining "mosquito-eating fish" for an ornamental pond, contact the Marion County Health Department: (317) 359-9723.

The Centers for Disease Control's Web site offers advice on preventing mosquito bites as well as other information about mosquito-borne diseases.

Upcoming program:
We talk with a podiatrist about fashion victims. Learn about shoe styles that ruin women's feet and how to repair damage already done.

Email or call and give us your questions.
tel: (317) 274-IU4U
email: soundmed@iu.edu

Read our Privacy Policy

Until what age should kids have some sort of special arrangement for riding safely in cars?

A. Until they're 4.
B. Until they're 6.
C. Until they're 12.

What's the answer?

Bad things can happen when teenagers have sex -- from disease to pregnancy to other physical and emotional difficulties. Recently, researchers at the IU School of Medicine studied a factor that can predict which teens are more likely to have sex at a young age. The same factor makes it more likely that boys will have sex earlier than girls.

• Use a rear-facing child seat for children from birth to at least 20 pounds and one year of age.
• Use a forward-facing child seat for children until about 40 pounds and four years of age.
• Use a belt-positioning booster seat from about 40 pounds until the child can sit with his back straight against the vehicle seat back, with knees bent over the vehicle's seat edge without slouching, approximately 4' 9".
• Use a lap and shoulder belt for children who have outgrown a booster seat and who can sit with their back straight against the vehicle seat back, with knees bent over the vehicle's seat edge without slouching, and with their feet on the floor -- kids over approximately 4' 9" tall and weighing 80 pounds.

Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration