X-Message-Number: 4476
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 1995 11:54:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CI's procedures

I do apologize to Mr. Ettinger if my characterization of Cryonics
Institute perfusion procedures seemed "vague and pejorative." Obviously
this was not my intention. I was trying to summarize, in as few words as
possible, the difference in philosophy between CI and BioPreservation. In
this, to some extent, I was guided by a letter that I received a couple of
years ago from Mr. Ettinger, stating that he believed in minimizing
medical treatment of CI patients. I'm sorry if I misread the letter, or
characterized its content inaccurately. 

When I referred to the use of medical equipment on patients, I was not
talking about scalpels and sutures. Rather, I was thinking of equipment
such as the blood-gas analysis setup, x-ray machine, heat exchanger,
fiber-optic probes, and so on which are used at BioPreservation to
monitor, control, and gather data during the perfusion process. As I
understand it (and I am NOT medically trained, merely a writer who has
picked up facts here and there) this equipment also enables gradual
increase of glycerol concentration during perfusion to higher levels than
those used at CI, without significant damage to small capillaries. I
believe that if you want those high levels, precise control and monitoring
is mandatory. The BioPreservation research report, plus the
photomicrographs which I have seen, seem to show that high glycerol
concentrations are very desirable. But of course I am looking forward to
independent verification of this work, and I am very glad that Mr. 
Ettinger is funding research in this area.

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Charles Platt / 1133 Broadway, room 1214 / New York / NY 10010
Phone 212 929 3983     email      fax 212 807 6111


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