The group gave 10 hospitalized patients SQ14225, now known as captopril, to treat their hypertension.  The first oral ACE inhibitor lowered the blood pressure with minimal side-effects.

The authors had developed a fiberoptic colonoscope.  The previous year they tested it in many patients with visual success.  Here they added a snare-cautery device to remove polyps that the sigmoidoscopes had been unable to reach.  It had not yet been proven that removing polyps prevented colon cancer.

Drs. Swan, Ganz and colleagues described a new device for measuring pressures in the right side of the heart and pulmonary capillary wedge. Until then, rigid catheters were used but required fluoroscopic guidance and technical skill.  They tested this prototype catheter in 100 seriously ill patients.

These authors demonstrated the utility of glycosylated hemoglobin A1c concentration as a monitor of the degree of serum glucose control in patients with diabetes. Their results showed that the concentration of hemoglobin A1c in the blood “accurately reflects the carbohydrate status of the patient over the preceding weeks to months and in effect gives a value that integrates the blood sugar concentration over many weeks.”

This article describes the discovery of eight young women with vaginal adenocarcinoma, with an apparent association of this rare malignancy with maternal use of diethylstilbestrol (DES). At the time, DES, a synthetic nonsteroidal estrogen, was being used to help prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with previous miscarriages.