Reagan’s Health ‘Excellent,’ Tests Show

President Reagan underwent a semiannual physical examination Friday and the White House said the tests indicated he “is in excellent health” with no sign of cancer recurrence.

An examination of the President’s colon found no polyps, said Army Col. John Hutton Jr., the White House physician. Eleven such fleshy growths have been removed from Reagan’s intestine and colon on four occasions in the past.

Reagan spent nearly four hours at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, where a team of physicians also conducted a CAT scan, a chest X-ray and an electrocardiogram during a stress test to measure cardiovascular functions.

All exams produced normal results, Hutton said in a statement. “This physical indicates the President is fit and enjoys a remarkably strong and healthy condition,” he said.

Hutton said the only pending laboratory test results deal with an examination of Reagan’s prostate gland. “But we expect no problems,” he said of those results, which will be available in several days.

Reagan underwent successful prostate surgery on Jan. 5, 1987, to relieve what a spokesman called “mild, recurring discomfort” apparently caused by enlargement of the gland, which surrounds the urethra at the base of the bladder.

The President, who will turn 77 on Feb. 6, was ill earlier in the week, suffering briefly from an upset stomach on Wednesday. But White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Friday that Reagan had recovered and was “in fine shape this morning.”

Joked With Reporters

Before leaving for the hospital, Reagan joked with reporters when told that his spokesman had said the President was looking forward to the examination. “To getting it over with,” the President added.

Reagan underwent a colonoscopy, a procedure in which a flexible instrument is used to allow physicians to view the inside of the lower intestinal tract. A colonoscopy performed in July, 198892084332malignant two-inch polyp from Reagan’s colon, along with two feet of his intestinal tract.

At that time, doctors said the cancer had not spread beyond the tissue that was taken out. Since then, Reagan has had benign polyps removed from his intestine and colon at various times. Friday’s examination reached as far as the point of the 1985 surgery.

The President’s CAT scan, which provided doctors with a three-dimensional view inside his body, was to focus on the liver and abdominal region, Fitzwater said before the procedure. “It’s the routine checkup he has every six months,” the White House spokesman said.

The latest procedures were performed by a team that has examined the President in the past. It was made up of David Utz of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Oliver H. Beahrs, also affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, and Beahrs’ son, J. Randolph Beahrs, who is in private practice in St. Paul, Minn.

After the hospital visit, the President and Nancy Reagan, who accompanied him to Bethesda, flew by helicopter to Camp David, Md., where they are spending the weekend.