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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Ashcroft to Undergo Gallbladder Surgery

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove his gallbladder Tuesday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He entered the hospital on March 4 complaining of stomach pain. He was eventually diagnosed with a severe case of gallstone pancreatitis.

Gallstones can cause pancreatitis and they usually require surgical removal. After the stones are removed and inflammation goes away, the pancreas usually returns to normal, according to the National Institutes of Health. Some people have more than one attack and recover completely after each attack.

But acute pancreatitis can be a severe, life-threatening illness with many complications. About 80,000 cases occur in the United States each year, with some 20 percent of them severe. Acute pancreatitis occurs more often in men than women, the NIH says.

Surgery to remove the gallbladder usually takes about two hours. In cases involving pancreatitis, patients are usually kept in the hospital for four to five days for observation.

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Anthrax Drugs Show Promise

Two experimental drugs designed to ward off the deadly effects of anthrax infection are showing promise in animal tests, indicating efforts to devise an effective treatment for the bioterror threat may eventually pay off, the Washington Post reports.

Maryland-based Human Genome Sciences and New Jersey-based Elusys Therapeutics are developing similar drugs to mimic the body's natural proteins that fight off invading germs, the newspaper says. According to both firms, tests on rabbits and mice indicate that if administered immediately ahead of time, the drugs appear to protect against the lethal effects of inhaling anthrax spores.

The drugs are in various stages of testing and scrutiny by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and could still be several years away, the Post reports.

The two companies and others have been working on medications to counter the deadly bacterium since a still-unidentified source sent anthrax spores through the mail to several East Coast journalists and Capitol Hill leaders in the fall of 2001. Five people died, 18 were sickened, and thousands more were forced to take strong antibiotics as a precaution.

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Asthma Rates Rose Near Ground Zero

A new study appears to contradict federal assurances that the air near Manhattan's Ground Zero was safe to breathe following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the Associated Press reports of a new study.

In the year following the attacks, asthma-related medical visits jumped significantly for children living near the former World Trade Center site, Stony Brook University researchers conclude. /p>

Federal environmental officials announced a week after the attacks that the air in downtown Manhattan was safe to breathe. But a review panel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has since criticized the agency for what it deemed misleading health assurances, the AP reports.

In the year before the attacks, 306 children made 1,044 asthma-related visits to a health clinic in nearby Chinatown. That number jumped to 510 patients and 1,554 visits in the year after the twin towers' collapse, the Stony Brook researchers say.

Results of their research appear in the March issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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FDA Approves Hyperparathyroidism Drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug in a new class of compounds designed to treat certain patients with hyperparathyroidism or parathyroid cancer.

The parathyroid glands are four pea-sized glands located on the thyroid gland in the neck. Though their names are similar, the thyroid and parathyroid glands are separate glands, each producing distinct hormones with specific functions. The parathyroid glands secrete parathyroid hormone (PTH), a substance that helps maintain the correct balance of calcium and phosphorous in the body.

If the glands secrete too much hormone, as in hyperparathyroidism, the balance is disrupted and blood calcium rises. Symptoms include mental confusion, fatigue, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and kidney damage.

In clinical trials involving more than 1,000 patients with chronic kidney disease, Amgen's Sensipar (cinacalcet) was proven effective in countering the effects of hyperparathyroidism, the FDA says.

In 85 percent of people with this disorder, a benign tumor has formed on one of the parathyroid glands, causing it to become overactive. In most other cases, the excess hormone comes from two or more enlarged parathyroid glands. In rare cases, hyperparathyroidism is caused by cancer of a parathyroid gland.

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Allergy Season Off to Fast, Early Start

So you managed to escape the flu season unscathed, but you're suddenly struggling with a sore throat, headache, running nose and watery eyes.

A late-season cold? Try an early season allergy.

Doctors across the United States are reporting that the spring allergy season is off to a fast, premature start. They attribute the early outbreak to a recent run of unseasonably warm weather across much of the country, enticing trees such as elm, maple and oak to part with their pollen particles, the Associated Press reports.

"Normally, it wouldn't be until the end of March or the start of April," says Dr. Leonard Bielory, director of the Asthma and Allergy Research Center at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

This early start to the allergy season is unwelcome news to the estimated 30 percent of Americans who suffer from allergies, the sixth-leading cause of chronic disease in the country, the AP says.

One of the few regions to buck the trend is the winter-weary upper Midwest. Dr. James Li, an allergy specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told the news agency that his patients are fine. The reason: There's still snow on the ground and trees don't normally start pollinating for at least six more weeks.

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Child-size Heart Pump Introduced

A scaled-down version of the original heart pump designed by renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey is ready for use in children and could be implanted in a matter of weeks, the Associated Press reports.

The pump is meant for children ages 5 to 16 who are awaiting human heart transplants. The original version was too large for such children, many of whom were forced to be hospitalized on heart-lung machines for long periods until human donors could be found.

The DeBakey ventricular assist device helps weak hearts pump blood throughout the body, aiding the job of the organ's left ventricle. Experts say about 500 children worldwide are awaiting heart transplants and may be candidates for the new device, the AP reports.

The adult version, weighing less than 4 ounces, has been implanted in some 240 patients since it was introduced in 1998.

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