Minerva

A new class of memory enhancing drugs known as ampakines is being investigated in experiments on rats, and the early results suggest that treatment enhances the animals' performance in learning the way through a maze (Science 1994;266:218-9). The hope is that these drugs may be useful in memory disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, but if they speed learning many healthy people may want them too.

Some messages are worth repeating again and again: one is the value of training members of the public in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A report in the “British Heart Journal” (1994; 72:408–12) from Gothenburg describes 1660 patients who had a cardiac arrest outside hospital. Survival was 25% in those in whom resuscitation was given by a bystander and only 8% in those in whom no help was given until the ambulance arrived.

The standard triple treatment for eradicating Helicobacter pylori uses metronidazole, but in developing countries the bacterium is often resistant to this drug. In a study in London (Gut 1994;35:1562–6) 27 out of 30 patients of Bengali origin being investigated for dyspepsia were found to have resistant forms of …