Pulmonary Research Funded

              6-B Wed., Jan. 13, 1982 SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER The Times'
Pulmonary
research
funded
By SALLY REESE
Times Medical Writer
An Albert Hyman grant of $10,000
has been awarded to Dr. Gary T.
Kinasewitz of LSU Medical Center by
the American Heart Association of Lou-isiana
for research on early develop-mental
phases of pulmonary hyper-tension.
Kinasewitz is an assistant professor
of medicine in the pulmonary disease
section at LSUMC. His project is en-titled
"Pulmonary Vascular Responses
in Granulomatous Vasculitis."
He seeks to determine if abnormal.
pulmonary vascular responses ob-served
in a canine model, which mimic
those observed in people with lung dis-ease,
represent abnormal vasomotor
medical
beat
reactivity or are simply a man-ifestation
of an obliterated vascular
bed.A
demonstration that abnormalities
of vasomotor tone contribute to the
genesis of pulumonary hypertension
could alter the prevalent view that little
can be done for the patient with this
problem, says the investigator. It could
open up new areas of potential thera-peutic
manipulation.
"It is conceivable that by blocking
these abnormal responses the
p r o g r e s s i v e impairment of
cardiopulmonary function observed in
patients with lung disease may be ar-rested
or reversed," he says.
Kinasewitz came to the LSUMC
faulty in 1980 from the University of
Pennyslvania School of Medicine, Phil-adelphia,
where he was an assistant
professor of medicine in the
cardiovascular-pulmonary disease sec-tion.
Born in New York City, he re-ceived
his medical degree from Wayne
State University.
Retiree
Sharon Cooksey retired Dec. 31 after
30 years with the Caddo-Shreveport
Health Unit. She had been clerical su-pervisor
and administrative assistant
since 1978. Roma Caldwell, nursing
supervisor, said Mrs. Cooksey joined the
health unit as a stenographer after
previously being with the state depart-ment
of veterans affairs and the state
health referral program.
Honor society
Twenty students of LSU School of
Medicine in Shreveport have been
named members of Alpha Omega
Alpha, national honor society in medi-cine.
Students, selected on the basis of
academic performance, are usually in
the top 16 percent of their class.
Selected from the class of 1982 were
Michael Alexander, Darrell S. Barnett,
Eric S. Bennos, Melanie C. Firmin,
James L. Gates, Harrell A. Grand,
Elaine R. High, H. Kennon Hughens,
Arlene G. Kirschner, Cynthia C.
Morgan, Thomas S. Roberts, Christa P
Rodriguez, J. King White and R. Mark '
Williams. ^
Selected from the class of 1983 were
Michael F. Doucet, Thomas G. Ledbet-ter
and Laura F. Sherrod. >«
Disabilities council
The quarterly Developmental Dis*
abilities Council meeting will be held**.
Jan. 20 at the Hilton Hotel in Baton
Rouge. It will begin at 10 a.m. and on its
agenda will be "National Year for Dis-abled
Persons — 1982" and grants for
developmental disability programs.
The council's meetings are open to the
public.