Fulminantmyocarditis (FM) is a form of acute myocarditis characterized by severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction requiring inotropes and/or mechanical circulatory support. A single-center study found that a patient with FM had better outcomes than those with acute nonfulminant myocarditis (NFM) presenting with left ventricular systolic dysfunction, but otherwise hemodynamically stable. This was recently challenged, so disagreement still exists.
Objectives
This study sought to provide additional evidence on the outcome of FM and to ascertain whether patient stratification based on the main histologic subtypes can provide additional prognostic information.
Methods
A total of 220 patients (median age 42 years, 46.3% female) with histologically proven acute myocarditis (onset of symptoms <30 days) all presenting with left ventricular systolic dysfunction were included in a retrospective, international registry comprising 16 tertiary hospitals in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The main endpoint was the occurrence of cardiac death or heart transplantation within 60 days from admission and at long-term follow-up.
Results
Patients with FM (n = 165) had significantly higher rates of cardiac death and heart transplantation compared with those with NFM (n = 55), both at 60 days (28.0% vs. 1.8%, p = 0.0001) and at 7-year follow-up (47.7% vs. 10.4%, p < 0.0001). Using Cox multivariate analysis, the histologic subtype emerged as a further variable affecting the outcome in FM patients, with giant cell myocarditis having a significantly worse prognosis compared with eosinophilic and lymphocytic myocarditis. In a subanalysis including only adults with lymphocytic myocarditis, the main endpoints occurred more frequently in FM compared with in NFM both at 60 days (19.5% vs. 0%, p = 0.005) and at 7-year follow up (41.4% vs. 3.1%, p = 0.0004).
Conclusions
This international registry confirms that patients with FM have higher rates of cardiac death and heart transplantation both in the short- and long-term compared with patients with NFM. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the histologic subtype of FM carries independent prognostic value, highlighting the need for timely endomyocardial biopsy in this condition.
HOW THE HEALTH OF HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS WAS SERIOUSLY DAMAGED AFTER ANTHRAX INOCULATION
November 26, 2002 The Times 2 – features (PAGE 1)
Ronda Wilson was once fit and healthy. Now her body has been ravaged by the effects of the anthrax jab
(PAGES 4-6)
THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE
HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS HAVE SUFFERED SERIOUS ILLNESS AFTER BEING COMPULSORY INJECTED WITH A CONTROVERSIAL ANTHRAX VACCINE, A BATCH OF WHICH HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE CONTAMINATED. TIM REID INVESTIGATES
Hundreds of American soldiers have suffered serious illness after being compulsorily injected with a controversial Anthrax vaccine, a batch of which has been found to be contaminated
ON THE MORNING of December 17, 1998, Ronda Wilson, a supremely fit, strikingly beautiful American helicopter gunship pilot, was heading for military stardom. Just 21 and the only woman in her squadron, she had recently defeated her 63 male fellow pilots to earn the coveted Top Gun award in her first gunnery flight test. She was without peer in her cavalry unit, so skilled at handling the OH-58 Delta Warrior, armed with Hellfire missiles and .50-calibre machine guns, that she was described by her commanding officer as “one of the most outstanding pilots of her generation”.
On that morning, at Fort Stewart, Georgia, she received a routine order that was ultimately to destroy her faith in the military family and American government which she loved beyond question, and which she says “I was willing to die for”. She was told to “go get your jabs”.
She was never told what the injection was for, and felt no need to ask. It was, she later discovered, the first in a six-dose course of anthrax vaccination. It was the moment she became part of the US government’s compulsory, highly ambitious anthrax vaccination programme for all 2.4 million of its military personnel; the project was authorised by President Clinton himself, it had begun eight months before, and it was halted 18 months later amid damning congressional verdicts, lawsuits and accusations of a top-level cover-up.
There were many things Wilson was not told about the 0.5ml phial of milky liquid that was being injected into her arm. It was manufactured by a company that today, after a new lease of life for the vaccination programme, has begun to distribute millions of doses to immunise “high-risk” US troops heading to the Persian Gulf for an attack on Iraq. (British soldiers will not be immunised with this vaccine, but with a home-grown version, produced at Porton Down).
Direct Order: Soldiers Ordered to Take Anthrax Vax That Caused Brain Damage
“DIRECT ORDER” An Award-Winning Documentary Tells the Story of Members of the Military who were Ordered Against their Will to Take the Controversial Anthrax Vaccine.
Federal regulators approved a plan by biotechnology company, VaxGen to test its experimental anthrax vaccine on about 100 people.
The human volunteers were injected with the experimental vaccine to see if it’s safe and produces the desired immune response.
VaxGen was awarded a $13.6 million federal contract to begin work on the anthrax vaccine. The company is applied for two more anthrax vaccine contracts. The contracts were awarded for advanced testing and manufacturing of 25 million doses.
Russell Blaylock M.D
“Direct Order” Documentary (Full) – Soldiers Ordered To Take Anthrax Vaccine & Got Brain Damaged
“Direct Order”: An Award-Winning Documentary Tells the Story of Members of the Military who were Ordered Against their Will to Take the Controversial Anthrax Vaccine.
“I’d rather have caught a bullet from an AK 47 than gotten injected with this stuff. At least I would have known what my fate would have been.”
Federal regulators approved a plan by biotechnology company, VaxGen to test its experimental anthrax vaccine on about 100 people.
The human volunteers were injected with the experimental vaccine to see if it’s safe and produces the desired immune response.
VaxGen was awarded a $13.6 million federal contract to begin work on the anthrax vaccine. The company is applied for two more anthrax vaccine contracts. The contracts were awarded for advanced testing and manufacturing of 25 million doses.
In the last few years, a number of published studies have linked anthrax vaccination to the development of Gulf War Syndrome, among them a study in the British medical journal the Lancet. Hundreds of soldiers have refused the shots after evidence emerged that the vaccinations are connected to a variety of illnesses.
But then the Bush administration went on the offensive. The Pentagon funded an Institute of Medicine study which concluded in March 2002 the anthrax vaccine is safe and effective against all anthrax strains and routes of infection. Its conclusions were based on unpublished research–also funded by the Pentagon.
The story doesn’t stop there. Bioport, the nation’s sole, licensed anthrax vaccine lab has repeatedly failed FDA inspections which found among other things, contamination.
The FDA cleared BioPort’s manufacturing plant to begin producing the vaccine again in January 2002–months after the letters containing anthrax were sent to Congress and news organizations. Bioport was also allowed to distribute the 500,000 doses of the vaccine already in stock. The vaccine was offered to some postal workers and others who were exposed. But most refused to take it.
The anthrax vaccine is mandatory for all military service members assigned to “high-risk” areas. At least part of the six-shot series, which takes a year and a half to administer, has been given to about 700,000 service members. It will be eventually administered to all 2.5 million service members.
Since 1998, when the vaccinations began, nearly 500 active-duty service-members have refused the vaccine, and more than 100 have been court-martialed. According to government figures, approximately 500 to 1,000 pilots and flight crew members have quit, resigned or transferred from the Air National Guard or reserves rather than take the vaccine.
Award-winning documentary “Direct Order” tells the story of members of the military who were ordered against their will to receive the controversial anthrax vaccine. “Direct Order”–award-winning documentary directed by Scott Miller and narrated by Michael Douglas. Courtesy of Scott Miller and democracynow.org 2003.
As terrorists from the “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) were guiding the cannon to fire artillery shells on a Syrian Army location, that terrorist unit got a direct hit that destroyed the artillery and whoever was on it. The field leader of that brigade was also injured as a result of the strike.
Warning: Not for Shock, Graphic, 18+, For Documentation Purposes Only
the news network 