X-Message-Number: 2540 From: "Micheal B. O'Neal" <> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 11:55:05 -0600 Subject: CRYONICS Re: Cryopreservation Protocol for BioPreservation Clients I would like to thank Mike Darwin for making the BPI suspension protocol available to the net. The document appears very thorough, which I appreciate -- even if I don't have the background to follow all of the details. Since I believe the copy being circulated is a working draft, I have included below some unsolicited comments / suggestions. First, I believe the document would be easier to follow if an overall time line of the major activities (pronouncement, initial cardiopulmonary support, total body washout, transport, introduction of cryoprotectants, cephalic isolation, and cooling to dry ice temperature) were summarized in a chart or table at the beginning of the document. In addition to acquainting the reader with the procedure, such a chart could firmly establish the order, time of initiation, and duration of each of the major tasks. This time line is not easy to reconstruct directly from the document. For example, Mike reports that death occurred at 17:47 on June 9th and cooling to -77*C was completed at 16:00 on June 11th. Did the process really take two days? or is that a typo that should read June 10th? Since some times are reported with dates and others are not, and I have no feel for how long some of these procedures should take, I really wasn't sure. A second matter that concerned me to some degree was the "case history" approach to presenting the suspension protocol. Especially since Mike stated that "The actual case history has been modified ... to bring it into line with the advances in technique now employed by BPI." While it is quite reassuring to see the level of technical competence and detailed collection of data that is expected to take place in BPI suspensions, and certainly, using a case history allowed Mike to do this; it is difficult or impossible to tell which aspects of the account are fictionalized and which actually took place. For example, is all of the patient data "real", or are these simply illustrative of the type of results BPI expects? It could be that the changes Mike made to the patient history were very minor, but even the suggestion that data may have been modified in a quasi-scientific document makes me very nervous. Perhaps Mike could see fit to modify the document so that it first presents the BPI suspension protocol without reference to any particular patient. The protocol could then be followed by a "composite / fictionalized" case history which would illustrate the type of expected results. This case history could be replaced with an actual case history as soon as one becomes available. Again, thanks to Mike Darwin for releasing the BPI suspension protocol to CryoNet / sci.cryonics. Mike O'Neal Micheal B. O'Neal Louisiana Tech University Department of Computer Science Ruston, Louisiana 71272 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2540