Recent discoveries concerning the cause of heart attacks have developed new hope for the prevention of heart disease, the chief medical examiner for the state of Maryland said here Tuesday.
Dr. Russell S. Fisher, 36, of Baltimore, is in New Orleans to confer with Dr. Nicholas Chetta, Orleans parish coroner, Dr, Stanley Durlacher, pathologist for the coroner's office and a former deputy medical examiner of the Louisiana State , university medical school.
It was believed for many years that blood clots caused heart attacks followed by sudden death,1 Dr, Fisher explained.
Primary Cause Revealed
But research by the coroner's office here, his office in Maryland and the LSU medical school has "revealed that a process of hemorrhages of blood vessels has been the primary cause of heart attacks," Dr. Fisher said.
To know the cause "gives us hope of prevention," he said.
The problem of sudden death due to heart trouble has been one of the most important in the medical field, he said. Particularly perplexing is the question of why young people die suddenly of heart disease, he said.
Dr. Fisher conferred Tuesday with Dr. Chetta and Dr. Durlacher about their joint heart re-
search and on deaths due to alcoholism.
Findings to Be Presented
Their findings on heart disease will be presented by Dr. Fisher to the American Association for the Study of Arteriosclerosis in Chicago Nov. 2.
Dr. Fisher, who figured in a recent spectacular murder investigation in Maryland said New Orleans is one of the leading cities in the development of better legal-medical facilities for crime detection,
His medical examination lead to an investigation last fall into the death of Mrs. Dorothy May Grammer whose 36-year-old husband was subsequently convicted of an "almost perfect murder.*\ It was at first believed that she had died from injuries received in an automobile accident but nil examination revealed she has first been killed, placed in the automobile and the car hurtled over a precipice.
PHOTO CAPTION READS: DR. RUSSELL S. FISHER (right), chief medical examiner for the state of Maryland, looks on Tuesday as Dr. Nicholas Chetta, Orleans parish coroner, demonstrates a camera designed to photograph microscopic slides.
