Capsules

P:To end fuzzy talk about brain "strokes," the first complete classification of cerebrovascular diseases was announced last week by eight top neurologists, appointed by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. Scaled according to the tissue damage that each disease creates in the brain and blood vessels, there are nine major groups, some with as many as 30 subclassifications. Most important: "cerebral infarction," or death of a part of the brain, and "intracranial hemorrhage," or bleeding inside the skull. But chances are that when Presidents are afflicted with any one of the lesser varieties, such laymen as headline writers will go on calling them "strokes." P:As of last August, only 42% of all Americans had gone to the dentist in the past three years, reported the U.S. Public Health Service, and only 36% had gone during the preceding year. Of those who did go, most were women who live in cities. Another dentographical statistic: more than 21 million Americans, or 13% of the population, have nary a single natural tooth.

P:Four weeks after her radical kidney-transplant operation at Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (TIME, April 28), Mrs. Gladys Lowman, 31, died last week. Main cause: weakened defense against infection due to lack of white blood corpuscles. Forced to transplant a kidney from a child with no genetic relation to Mrs. Lowman, physicians had the problem of countering antibodies that would have rejected the alien organ. For the first time, they tried to solve it by destroying the antibodies' source, the patient's bone marrow, with X rays. Though new bone marrow was injected, it failed to generate enough white corpuscles to prevent the spread of infection. But physicians consider the attempt highly valuable toward perfection of future kidney transplants.

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