Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 30

C4 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Wednwday, March 31, 1982 nn rt IP 4 Ultrasound Helps Probe The Brain 4 Li, 3 Components' Cost Not All-Important In Home Computers By JOHN TEETS A colleague who finally bought a home computer dropped by my office the other day to gloat a little. "My family decided to be wildly tical," he said, with the gleam that infects each new computerite. "Instead of taking a winter vacation this year, we shopped around and got a computer with all the home-accounting systems and programs and a few games thrown in for good measure. The games really astonish me." His eyes were starting to glow. "The resolution is incredible.

And the games are really challenging, too," he said. You could tell he still saw himself at the joystick, protecting the universe from whatever invader was on his little diskette. After those few minutes of everishness, though, he calmed down to ask the question he'd come in about: "What kind of printer should I get?" He said he thought a relatively cheap model would do one without "too much" speed, which raises the cost considerably. He'd been prudent in shopping for his original system, getting price quotes on the full package from three area dealers before settling on the lowest and saving several hundred dollars. Still, I wondered why he thought cheapness should be his prime consideration: Though he paid less for his system than he might have, it still topped $2,000.

And initial investment isn't the only consideration: There will still be costs for extra software (programs), peripherals (add-on machinery, like printers and telephone modems for "long-distance" computing), cables, connectors and increasingly remote computer services. sniTCCJinG on If i I OS. UPI By SHARON RUTENBERG United Press International CHICAGO Two University of Chicago doctors using ultrasound in brain surgery, rather than CT scans, liken the procedure to Superman looking into the skull with his X-ray vision. Dr. George Dohrmann, a neurosurgeon, and Dr.

Jonathan Rubin, a radiologist, began using the technique about 1 Vz years ago. They believe they are among the first surgeons to use it in delicate neurosurgery. 1 Ultrasound, commonly used for diagnostic purposes on pregnant women and cardiac and abdominal patients, uses sound waves to generate television-like images of internal organs. "CT (computerized tomography) scans look into the brain, but they look into the brain in a constrained way the way a machine looks into the brain," Rubin said. "The ultrasound allows the surgeon to look at it while he's operating, sort of like Superman.

He's got X-ray vision right through the head." Surgeons can guide their way through the brain by holding a transducer, the scanning portion of the equipment, and looking at a nearby video screen showing exactly what is happening. During surgery, a portion of the skull is removed to expose the dura mater, an opaque, fibrous membrane covering the brain. A saline solution is dripped onto the dura mater as a coupling agent. The transducer is covered with a sterile, transparent plastic bag and placed directly on the dura matter to scan the brain. CT scanners are "huge and would not really fit in most operating rooms," Dohrmann said.

Ultrasound is portable and easily functional in the operating room. The doctors planned to operate on a young woman who had a brain tumor. "It's in such a dangerous location that no one was really willing to get a specimen of it to see what it is," Dohrmann said. Previously, neurosurgeons relied on pre-operative CT scanning and angiograms to direct them to tumors. But the map-like images provided only reference points for locating the tumor.

"There's no more looking or guessing. We can see it So effectively we explore the brain with our eyes prior to opening its protective covering," Dohrmann said. Ultrasound allows surgeons to view tumors directly as surgery takes place. A computer calculates exact depth and diameter. The surgeon then plans the best operative approach at an angle least disruptive to delicate brain tissue, avoiding parts of the brain that control speech and movement.

"Every time the brain is manipulated, it can be dangerous," Dohrmann said. "If it's near a sensitive University of Chicago surgeon George Dohrmann, left, and radiologisttJonathan Rubin, right, believe they are among the first to use ultrasound in delicate neurosurgery. area, we can move away from that, by tipping the transducer." The surgeon finds out where the tumor is, "how big it is, whether it's fluid or solid because that doesn't always show up on the CT scan. We can even see tiny cysts and blood vessels," Dohrmann said. A teenager had a malfunction in the brain stem, which controls vital functions such as heartbeat and breathing.

"There was a lesion there, an abnormality which looked On the CT scan as if some fluid-filled spaces were there," Dohrmann said. "With ultrasound, we could see exactly where the spaces were on the brain stem. There was no guesswork." Surgical instruments are guided directly to the tumor. The surgeon can see the instrument pierce the surface of the tumor and move into its center. A biopsy, or tissue sample, is taken from the center of the tumor for the most accurate diagnosis.

Previously, surgeons were unable to verify if a biopsy was taken from the center or edge of the tumor or the brain adjacent to the tumor. Repeated biopsies often were "Very importantly, we. know the tissue comes from the tumor," Dohrmann said. If the tumor is removable, surgeons are able to determine which part of the brain is attached to the tumor and which blood vessels are supplying it. The tumor is removed rapidly, without surgically probing the brain.

Surgeons view the area with ultrasound to make sure the entire tumor is removed. Unlike CT scanners, ultrasound does not use radiation, injections or dyes. "Sometimes people can have a reaction to the dye in a CT scan or angiogram. There are always risks involved with that," Dohrmann said. "Ultrasound is safe.

There is no radiation at all," he said. "Not only is it safe because it's not an X-ray, but there are none of the other things involved that would offer any risk." Surgeons using ultrasound also are able to locate and drain cysts and abscesses in the brain. Previously, surgery for multiple cysts was not possible because locating took extra time and exploration. New Cartridges Putting Players in the Driver's Seat Would he ever be tapping into data bases? It turns out he'd never thought of it. But if he did, he'd realize one factor that up to now hadn't even entered his internal debate: hookup times.

So I gave him a little lesson in data bases. The user of a personal computer dials a telephone number, usually a local number that links, via microwave, to a giant main computer hundreds or thousands of miles away. Once access is gained, the electronic sky is the limit. Depending on the data base, users can read abstracts from The New York Times, get tips on the stock market "talk" with other users, play big-computer games, put entries on electronic bulletin For the past year, U.S. Rep.

James K. Coyne, has even had an "electronic mail" number that his subur- ban Philadelphia constituents can dial from their own computers to leave messages. Other members are using the House's Dialcom service to send memos from office to office, and they're encouraging other federal agencies to join the network. When average folks dial in, however, they're charged by the minute for the computer time they use, much as long-distance phone charges are computed. So if they call up a long file, it's probably cheaper to print it out and read it later than to read it line by line on the terminal's display screen, in active computer time.

(Costs, by the way, are usually greater in business hours and much less at times when corporate customers aren't on the line. So, like phoning, it's cheaper on nights and weekends.) And if Printer spews out copy twice as fast as Printer hookup time will be half as long. Depending on the way hookup costs are computed, total billing may be cut by as much as half, too. It may be cheaper in the long run to get a slightly more expensive printer. My major point here is not whether to buy an expensive printer or a cheap one in every instance; rather, it's to know the kind of use you'll be requiring of your system and build it accordingly with an eye toward both ease and economy, if possible.

Scour the literature; ask the experts; shop wisely. And, like my colleague, enjoy the games, too. Have a question about home video systems? Address them to John Teets, in care of The Hartford Courant, Features Dept, 285 Broad St, Hartford, CT. 06115. Letters will be forwarded to Teets.

cally simulate a billiards game. Using three balls and a cue ball, Trick Shot allows a player to choose from 14 different variations. To enhance realism, players can even put top or bottom spin on shots. Bank shots and multi-ball combinations are possible. And Trick Shot offers a single-player practice mode.

By June of this year, Imagic plans that its library will grow to include 12 games, adaptable to the Atari and Mattel Intellivision systems. The first cartridge for use with the Intellivision system is yet unnamed, but is of the fantasy-adventure genre. The Imagic cartridges will retail for $31.95 and will have a two-year warranty, the first such warranty in the industry. In addition to playing for points, an agile "Star Voyager" will be promoted through the ranks to lieutenant, major, colonel and finally, general, in recognition of each successful mission flown. While Demon Attack is much like Space Invaders and Galaxians, it adds an element of surprise.

The player commands a fighter that can move either left or right along the bottom of the screen. Each wave of COATING THE VIDEO GAMES aliens swoops down toward the player's zone, strafing portions of the playfield. Most of the diving demons can be disposed of in the conventional manner with a direct hit. Some of them, however, will divide when hit doubling what an unsuspecting player thought was a dead demon. Still others will grow and spew out more and more bombs.

Trick Shot is the first home video game to realisti By MICHAEL BLANCHET You can expect to see more and more home video games that place you in the cockpit or the driver's seat, cartridges that I call first-person games. You won't just be firing guns or knocking out space invaders, you will get the feeling you are zipping along the race track or hurtling through space. One such game is Star Voyager, due out in April from Imagic, a company new to the business. It was started by William Grubb, former sales manager for Atari, and it has a design staff that came from Atari and Mattel. Imagic is also bringing out Demon Attack and Trick Shot.

The underlying strategy of Star Voyager is energy conservation and management Each blow to the player's deflector shields, whether from enemy fire or collision with a meteor, saps precious power. If the player chooses to retaliate, a laser gun and photon torpedoes are' at his disposal The twist is that each shot also depletes energy resources. To refuel, a pit stop is necessary. But first the player must locate a Stargate," an outer space gas station hidden somewhere among the stars. This column welcomes questions and comments from readers.

Send yours Co Michael Blanchet, care of The Hartford Courant, Features DepL, 285 Broad St, Hartford, CT. 06115. Tunes Fill Commercial Breaks Associated Press KKfh Greater CONNECTICUT SPORTS CLUBS 9th Annual UUL11 Hartford commercial TV across the Atlantic. Public television in this country does not carry ads. To fill the airtime, vocalist Jeanie Stahl sings eight songs of the 1930s the period in which "Love in a Cold Climate" is set The tunes include "I'm Just Foolin Myself' ad "Am I Blue?" NEW YORK Producers of public TVs "Masterpiece Theater" have created period-style musical segments to fill commercial time in the current presentation from England, "Love in a Cold Climate." The eight-part series, based on two semi-autobiographical novels by Nancy Mitford, was broadcast on Find out about this other Club activities like.

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