In a preliminary report published in the Medical and Surgical Journal (Boston), Dr. Henry I. Bowditch and Dr. Ralph D. Leonard express the belief that a valuable cure for whooping cough has been found in X-ray treatment of this disease, which has stubbornly resisted most, if not all, of the other remedies applied.
Definite improvement was noted in most of 26 cases of active pertussis (whooping cough) treated with the X-ray, the subjects of which ranged in age from three months to 40 years, with disease stages from one to ten weeks. The physicians added that they could not give any rational explanation of the action through which the X-ray appeared to produce beneficial results. The report said:
“Each patient received three or four applications of the X-ray at intervals of two or three days.”
Many of these cases have not been observed sufficiently long to determine the final result. Nevertheless, “it is evident to us that there resulted a definite improvement in these patients which cannot be explained by mere accident.... It does not seem likely that [the beneficial result] is due to any direct bactericidal property of the X-ray.
“We feel warranted in classifying a small percentage of these 26 cases under the heading of “prompt cures.” By this we mean that after two or three applications of X-rays, covering a period of six days, the spasms and whoops entirely disappeared and the patients were clinically well, except for, possibly, a very slight cough.
“The bulk of the cases, however, we have classified as relieved. This group consists of perhaps 70 percent of the total. By relieved we mean that there has been a gradual diminution in the number of spasms.
“There is a small percentage of cases, perhaps 10 to 15 percent, which apparently were not relieved. In this group are included one moribund case and one rather difficult feeding case.
“While our evidence so far is not sufficient to warrant any definite conclusions, we have the feeling that the X-ray at the present time may be of more value in the treatment of pertussis than any other form of treatment, including serum.”
X-RAYS FOR MALARIA
An Italian physician, Dr. Antonio Pais, of Venice, has since 1916 been successfully treating malaria by means of X-rays. This treatment is, however, not employed as a substitute for quinine, but merely to reinforce its action. The X-rays are directed toward the region of the spleen, and the effect is to reduce its enlargement. At the same time the composition of the blood is modified. The success obtained by Dr. Pais has, according to the Bibliothèque Universelle et Révue Suisse (Lausanne), been so great that the Italian Government decided to introduce his method of treatment into the military hospitals.