Your Health

GOOD NEWS

BETTER THAN A BIOPSY The FDA has approved a handheld imaging device that can help doctors decide whether to perform a biopsy when the results of a mammogram are ambiguous. The device, called T-Scan 2000, sends a tiny jolt of electricity to suspicious breast tissue; potentially malignant cells conduct electricity differently than normal cells do. T-Scan is not meant to replace a mammogram, but it may prevent some 200,000 unnecessary biopsies a year.

GOT MILK? Root-canal specialists say there's an easy way to help save a tooth that gets knocked out. Put it in a glass of milk. Milk keeps a tooth alive by nourishing cells on the root. You still need to rush to the dentist, though. Milk can preserve a tooth for only so long--about an hour.

BAD NEWS

PAIN-KILLER PROBLEM The superaspirin Celebrex, touted as a potent but easy-on-the-stomach pain-killer for arthritis, may be linked to 10 deaths and 11 cases of gastrointestinal hemorrhages, according to the Wall Street Journal. What's more, five of the deaths may have been due to gastrointestinal bleeding. Monsanto, the drug's manufacturer, says there's no proof that Celebrex actually caused any deaths. Plenty of folks use the drug: 2.5 million prescriptions have been written since it was introduced in January.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON Each year 250,000 adults succumb to sudden cardiac death. Now French researchers say the condition is probably hereditary. They followed 7,000 middle-aged men for 23 years and found that those with a parent who died of sudden cardiac arrest were nearly twice as likely to die of it--and at about the same age--as those whose parents died of other causes.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: FDA; American Association of Endodontists annual meeting. Bad News: Wall Street Journal (4/20/99), Circulation (4/20/99)