Inflammation

Lamar Johnson, the Woodbury High basketball player who died last month, had a chronic inflammation of the heart muscle, the acting Gloucester County medical examiner said yesterday. Johnson, an 18-year-old senior, collapsed while playing a pickup game of basketball at the Woodbury YMCA on Oct. 27. Later that night, he was pronounced dead at Underwood Hospital in Woodbury. Walter Hofman, the acting medical examiner, said the toxicology report he received yesterday showed no alcohol or drugs in Johnson's system.

WITH AN 8 1/2-game lead over the Braves in the NL East and a 13 1/2-game lead over the next-closest wild-card team, the Phillies entered last night with plenty of reason to err on the side of caution in their handling of their two biggest injury concerns. But both Ruben Amaro Jr. and Charlie Manuel emphasized that with 6 weeks of baseball left and a schedule laden with games against fellow contenders, they were not in a position to make postseason health a priority. The chief concern is Cole Hamels, who had a precautionary MRI on his throwing shoulder on Monday after a start against the Nationals in which his velocity was down 3-to-5 mph from its usual range.

Brace yourself. That's one of the things Dr. Ray Moyer told the 76ers' Charles Barkley yesterday before clearing him to play in tonight's game against the Boston Celtics. That was after Moyer, the Sixers' orthopedic specialist, examined a fresh set of X-rays and prescribed medication, a stretching program and exercises to help strengthen Barkley's painful lower back. He has been fitted with a supportive brace to wear off the court. Moyer indicated that Barkley, who missed the third quarter of Monday's 127-122 overtime loss to Charlotte, was experiencing a flare-up of vertabrae inflammation he first experienced during his career at Auburn (1981-82 to '83-84)

If you're worried about the recent study linking aspirin use to an age-related disease that leads to blindness , specialists at Wills Eye Institute have some reassuring advice. The Australian study, published last week in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that taking aspirin at least once a week more than doubled the chance of macular degeneration, including the more damaging "wet" type, among 2,389 adults followed for 15 years. But the 15-year incidence was still relatively small - about 5.8 percent of regular aspirin users compared with 2.2 percent of nonusers.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania report that they have discovered how skin inflammation occurs at the molecular level, a finding that could lead to new drugs for the 30 million Americans suffering from skin diseases. The study might also lead to new therapies for treating sufferers of asthma, arthritis and other diseases in which inflammation plays a role, the researchers said. In addition, the findings suggest that there is scientific evidence to support the widespread belief that anxiety and stress make itching, eczema, psoriasis and other skin diseases worse.

BOSTON Inflammation linked to heart attacks Inflammation that smolders for years inside the arteries, perhaps as a result of an infection, appears to be a powerful trigger of heart attacks and strokes and may even be as bad as too much cholesterol, a study has found. Researchers found that after several years of this low-level inflammation, men are three times as likely to suffer heart attacks and twice as likely to have strokes. The inflammation is so subtle that it shows up only on blood tests, and seemingly normal levels may be hazardous.

Q: A friend has vasculitis and is unable to explain exactly what the disorder is all about. Can you define it and give the treatment most commonly used? A: Vasculitis simply means "inflammation of blood vessels. " This seemingly straightforward term encompasses a wide variety of disorders, however; anything that inflames blood-vessel walls is classified as vasculitis. Thus, the diagnosis of vasculitis is really the starting point of a diagnostic trail. The classification of vasculitis is based on which blood vessels are involved: large or small veins, large, medium-sized or small arteries.

Cole Hamels now knows why he couldn't get loose during his start Friday against the Washington Nationals. The lefthander had an MRI Monday, which showed inflammation in the posterior rotator cuff behind his left shoulder, and will miss his turn in the rotation Friday. It's uncertain when Hamels will make his next start. Hamels downplayed his condition, saying he's missing the start because dye was injected into his shoulder prior to the MRI. "I think because they had to inject dye and because it's very uncomfortable and it takes over 24 hours to come out, so I'm not supposed to throw for two days," Hamels said before the Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks began a three-game series Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park.

Q: What causes calcium deposits in the lungs? Is there a cure, or can I expect the condition to get progressively worse with time? A: As a defense mechanism, the body deposits calcium at the sites of inflammation. The calcium walls off the inflammation and may prevent contamination of surrounding tissues. Sometimes the calcium deposits cause more trouble than the inflammation itself; for example, calcific deposits in tendons often cause severe pain. Lymph glands can also calcify.

If you're worried about the recent study linking aspirin use to an age-related disease that leads to blindness , specialists at Wills Eye Institute have some reassuring advice. The Australian study, published last week in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that taking aspirin at least once a week more than doubled the chance of macular degeneration, including the more damaging "wet" type, among 2,389 adults followed for 15 years. But the 15-year incidence was still relatively small - about 5.8 percent of regular aspirin users compared with 2.2 percent of nonusers.

The advice Roy Halladay received from the Phillies, the single-best thing he can do to return his strained shoulder to baseball shape, runs counter to the hard-driving ethic that has made the all-star righthander one of the game's best and most diligent pitchers. Rest. "Really, in the end, it's going to be time," Bradford Parsons, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, said Wednesday when asked what the now-disabled Halladay might do to hasten his return.

Please floss and brush, by all means. It's still good for your teeth and gums. But don't imagine that you're going to ward off heart disease in the process. That's the message of a new "scientific statement" from an expert committee of the American Heart Association, which analyzed more than 500 papers and articles on the topic. The idea that periodontal disease might impair the cardiovascular system dates back more than a century, according to the statement, published in the journal Circulation, and the hypothesis had a resurgence beginning about 20 years ago. Indeed, people with bad gums are more likely to have strokes, heart attacks, and hardening of the arteries.

LAKELAND, Fla. - Something about Domonic Brown's right hand attracts injuries. "I'm telling you," Brown said. "I do everything with it. " In the last two years, Brown has suffered four injuries to his right hand. The latest, a sprained right thumb, was deemed not serious after an MRI exam Thursday showed only inflammation. He says he expects to play next week. Brown said he planned to take some swings in the cage Friday. Much of the inflammation and scar tissue is remnants of a similar injury he suffered last May at triple-A Lehigh Valley while diving for a ball.

As any trauma surgeon will tell you, two people can suffer similar injuries from a car crash or bullet wound, yet one will live while the other dies. There's no good way to tell who will make it. Princeton University scientists say they now are starting to get some answers. The key, they reported in a new study, is to track activity levels in certain of the patient's genetic pathways - in particular, two that regulate inflammation and help the body recognize harmful microbes.

For the most part, ballplayers are a superstitious lot. That's why so many of them recoil when asked to explain a hot streak. It was no surprise, then, that Carlos Ruiz waved his hand and shook his head when someone broached the subject of his recent 11-game hitting streak, which ended Friday in the Phillies' 6-5 loss to Florida, their last game before Hurricane Irene washed out the rest of the series. "Sometimes you feel good at the plate, and sometimes you don't," Ruiz said Saturday.

WITH AN 8 1/2-game lead over the Braves in the NL East and a 13 1/2-game lead over the next-closest wild-card team, the Phillies entered last night with plenty of reason to err on the side of caution in their handling of their two biggest injury concerns. But both Ruben Amaro Jr. and Charlie Manuel emphasized that with 6 weeks of baseball left and a schedule laden with games against fellow contenders, they were not in a position to make postseason health a priority. The chief concern is Cole Hamels, who had a precautionary MRI on his throwing shoulder on Monday after a start against the Nationals in which his velocity was down 3-to-5 mph from its usual range.

Cole Hamels now knows why he couldn't get loose during his start Friday against the Washington Nationals. The lefthander had an MRI Monday, which showed inflammation in the posterior rotator cuff behind his left shoulder, and will miss his turn in the rotation Friday. It's uncertain when Hamels will make his next start. Hamels downplayed his condition, saying he's missing the start because dye was injected into his shoulder prior to the MRI. "I think because they had to inject dye and because it's very uncomfortable and it takes over 24 hours to come out, so I'm not supposed to throw for two days," Hamels said before the Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks began a three-game series Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park.