Doctors find brain abnormalities in victims of Cuba mystery

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Kimi Wei <kimi () thewei com>
> Subject: Doctors find brain abnormalities in victims of Cuba mystery 
> Date: December 9, 2017 at 11:38:27 AM EST
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
>
> https://www.apnews.com/bbed1d7f6f1a4320a7e60abfdce67d4d
>
> Doctors find brain abnormalities in victims of Cuba mystery
>
> JOSH LEDERMAN
> Associated Press•December 6, 2017
>
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors treating the U.S. embassy victims of suspected attacks in Cuba have discovered brain 
> abnormalities as they search for clues to explain hearing, vision, balance and memory damage, The Associated Press 
> has learned.
>
> It’s the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, 
> it led to perceptible changes in their brains. The finding is also one of several factors fueling growing skepticism 
> that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.
>
>
> Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different 
> parts of the brain communicate, several U.S. officials said, describing a growing consensus held by university and 
> government physicians researching the attacks. White matter acts like information highways between brain cells.
>
> Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect “sonic attacks.” 
> But officials are now carefully avoiding that term. The sounds may have been the byproduct of something else that 
> caused damage, said three U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. They weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly 
> and demanded anonymity.
>
> Doctors treating the victims of unexplained health attacks in Cuba have discovered abnormalities in the brain as 
> they’ve searched for clues to how U.S. embassy workers developed such a vast array of symptoms, the Associated Press 
> has learned. (Dec. 6)
>
> Physicians, FBI investigators and U.S. intelligence agencies have spent months trying to piece together the puzzle in 
> Havana , where the U.S. says 24 U.S. government officials and spouses fell ill starting last year in homes and later 
> in some hotels. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday he’s “convinced these were targeted attacks ,” but 
> the U.S. doesn’t know who’s behind them. A few Canadian Embassy staffers also got sick.
>
> Doctors still don’t know how victims ended up with the white matter changes, nor how exactly those changes might 
> relate to their symptoms. U.S. officials wouldn’t say whether the changes were found in all 24 patients.
>
> But acoustic waves have never been shown to alter the brain’s white matter tracts, said Elisa Konofagou, a biomedical 
> engineering professor at Columbia University who is not involved in the government’s investigation.
>
> “I would be very surprised,” Konofagou said, adding that ultrasound in the brain is used frequently in modern 
> medicine. “We never see white matter tract problems.”
>
> Cuba has adamantly denied involvement, and calls the Trump administration’s claims that U.S. workers were attacked 
> “deliberate lies .” The new medical details may help the U.S. counter Havana’s complaint that Washington hasn’t 
> presented any evidence.
>
> Tillerson said the U.S. had shared some information with Havana, but wouldn’t disclose details that would violate 
> privacy or help a perpetrator learn how effective the attacks were.
>
> “What we’ve said to the Cubans is: Small island. You’ve got a sophisticated intelligence apparatus. You probably know 
> who’s doing it. You can stop it,” Tillerson said. “It’s as simple as that.”
>
> The case has plunged the U.S. medical community into uncharted territory. Physicians are treating the symptoms like a 
> new, never-seen-before illness. After extensive testing and trial therapies, they’re developing the first protocols 
> to screen cases and identify the best treatments — even as the FBI investigation struggles to identify a culprit, 
> method and motive.
>
> Doctors treating the victims wouldn’t speak to the AP, yet their findings are expected to be discussed in an article 
> being submitted to the Journal of the American Medical Association, U.S. officials said. Physicians at the University 
> of Miami and the University of Pennsylvania who have treated the Cuba victims are writing it, with input from the 
> State Department’s medical unit and other government doctors.
>
> But the article won’t speculate about what technology might have harmed the workers or who would have wanted to 
> target Americans in Cuba. If investigators are any closer to solving those questions, their findings won’t be made 
> public.
>
> The AP first reported in August that U.S. workers reported sounds audible in parts of rooms but inaudible just a few 
> feet away — unlike normal sound, which disperses in all directions. Doctors have now come up with a term for such 
> incidents: “directional acoustic phenomena.”
>
> Most patients have fully recovered, some after rehabilitation and other treatment, officials said. Many are back at 
> work. About one-quarter had symptoms that persisted for long periods or remain to this day.
>
> Earlier this year, the U.S. said doctors found patients had suffered concussions, known as mild traumatic brain 
> injury, but were uncertain beyond that what had happened in their brains. Concussions are often diagnosed based 
> solely on symptoms.
>
> Studies have found both concussions and white matter damage in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who survived 
> explosions yet had no other physical damage. But those injuries were attributed mostly to shock waves from 
> explosions. No Havana patients reported explosions or blows to the head.
>
> Outside medical experts said that when the sample of patients is so small, it’s difficult to establish cause and 
> effect.
>
> “The thing you have to wonder anytime you see something on a scan: Is it due to the episode in question, or was it 
> something pre-existing and unrelated to what happened?” said Dr. Gerard Gianoli, an ear and brain specialist in 
> Louisiana.
>
> As Cuba works to limit damage to its reputation and economy, its government has produced TV specials and an online 
> summit about its own investigation. Cuba’s experts have concluded that the Americans’ allegations are scientifically 
> impossible.
>
> The Cubans have urged the U.S. to release information about what it’s found. FBI investigators have spent months 
> comparing cases to pinpoint what factors overlap.
>
> U.S. officials told the AP that investigators have now determined:
>
> — The most frequently reported sound patients heard was a high-pitched chirp or grating metal. Fewer recalled a 
> low-pitched noise, like a hum.
>
> — Some were asleep and awakened by the sound, even as others sleeping in the same bed or room heard nothing.
>
> — Vibrations sometimes accompanied the sound. Victims told investigators these felt similar to the rapid flutter of 
> air when windows of a car are partially rolled down.
>
> — Those worst off knew right away something was affecting their bodies. Some developed visual symptoms within 24 
> hours, including trouble focusing on a computer screen.
>
> The U.S. has not identified any specific precautions it believes can mitigate the risk for diplomats in Havana, three 
> officials said, although an attack hasn’t been reported since late August. Since the Americans started falling ill 
> last year, the State Department has adopted a new protocol for workers before they go to Cuba that includes bloodwork 
> and other “baseline” tests. If they later show symptoms, doctors can retest and compare.
>
> Doctors still don’t know the long-term medical consequences and expect that epidemiologists, who track disease 
> patterns in populations, will monitor the 24 Americans for life. Consultations with the Centers for Disease Control 
> and Prevention are underway.
> ___
>
> AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.
> Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP. Follow the AP's coverage of the Cuba attacks at 
> http://apnews.com/tag/CubaHealthMystery
>
>
> Kimi Wei
> kimi () thewei com  @kimiwei
> facebook.com/thekimiwei
> 862-203-8814




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