“The headaches had been getting worse. One of his riding companions was Tom Zerfoss, the genial one man student health service at Vanderbilt. He took care of Warren and Cinina and other friends without charge. Tom's wife, Kate Savage Zerfoss, was an ophthalmologist in private practice with an office full of modern equipment. She examined Warren on Tuesday morning, February 6. Her diagnosis was: traumatic cataract. The history she took from the patient revealed more, about six years ago the vision had become too dim in the damaged left eye after constant swimming in the ocean. Dr Zerfoss advised the cataract should be immediately removed.rsquo; (Joseph Blotner. Robert Penn Warren: a biography. New York: Random House, 1997:136)

Infrequently, cases of ischaemic optic neuropathy are reported following cardiac surgery. A large study from the Mayo Clinic now documents that this complication is indeed quite infrequent: occurring in 17 of 27 951 patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass over an 18 year period. Moreover, the only independent risk factor that could be identified for the development of this rare complication of cardiopulmonary bypass was a low postoperative haemoglobin concentration or presence of diffuse atherosclerotic vascular disease. (Anesthesia and Analgesia 2001;93:1410–16OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science)

The cause of type 1 diabetes remains yet to be defined. Nevertheless, a new drug called Dia Pep 277, …