Capsules

P: Paralytic polio can be readily confirmed and even the puzzling cases of nonparalytic polio can be diagnosed with a high degree of accuracy by new tissue-culture techniques, the A.M.A. Journal reported. Dr. Mary Godenne and John T. Riordan worked out the method at Yale University. It can be adopted by any big hospital laboratory with facilities for handling viruses, should go a long way to remove uncertainties in diagnosing, reporting and treating polio.

P: Poliomyelitis viruses for vaccine production can be grown in human afterbirth, which may replace monkey kidneys as the basis of production-line tissue cultures, suggested three University of California researchers. Cells from the inner layer (amnion) of the placenta grow at about the same rate as monkey kidney cells and in the same chemical food baths, reported Elsa M. Zitcer and colleagues. Advantages: less danger of sensitization, and freer supply of placentas, since India is sensitive about continued export of the revered monkeys.

P: Aspirin is a severe stomach irritant in some patients, especially those who already have ulcers of the stomach or duodenum, two researchers in Scotland reported in the British Medical Journal. Ulcers or no, aspirin was found partly responsible for a high proportion of cases of vomiting blood.

P: Psychiatrists have already noted that chlorpromazine and reserpine, widely used separately for mental illnesses (TIME, March 7), are more potent when taken together than when used alone. Now Dr. Harold B. Eiber of New York Medical College has combined them for treatment of high blood pressure, reports that his patients have obtained substantial relief in 60% to 85% of cases, depending on severity.

P: A surprisingly high proportion of women can blame infertility on a simple cause, said Milwaukee's Dr. John Dale Owen: they suffer from malnutrition--not eating the right foods, even if they eat enough. A balanced diet including vitamins, minerals and protein eventually helps many women to conceive, presumably by restoring the body's hormone balance so that the master pituitary gland will send the needed stimulus to the reproductive system.

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