Catheter-related* septicemia, a hazard of intravenous therapy, complicates up to 8 per cent of venous cannulations¹ and affects approximately 25,000 patients in the United States each year.² Conclusive identification of catheter-related septicemia ...

Recent recognition of the associations of selected histocompatibility antigens of the HLA system with specific pathologic entities has focused attention on the genetic constitution of the cell as an important determinant of some acquired diseases. The ...

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, an important cause of steatorrhea, has several common origins, including cystic fibrosis, alcoholism and surgical resection of portions of the pancreas. The pancreas has a large functional reserve capacity, and ...

Although oral enzyme replacement for treatment of malabsorption secondary to chronic pancreatic insufficiency has been available for many years, reviews^{1 2 3 4} have pointed out the lack of rational therapeutic guidelines based on sound physiologic ...

Somatostatin is a tetradecapeptide hormone widely distributed in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract.^{1 2 3} In the pancreas, somatostatin is localized within the delta cells of the islets⁴ in close proximity to the alpha and beta ...

Since the introduction of a scheme of universal medical-care insurance in Saskatchewan in 1962, the Department of Health has had a computerized record of all medical treatments carried out on Saskatchewan residents, both inside and outside the province. ...

Probably no organ in the body was less understood two decades ago than the pineal. Textbooks of physiology and endocrinology published during that "Dark Age" characteristically dismissed the pineal as Descartes' "Seat of the Soul," as the rudimentary "...

Scrapie of sheep, transmissible mink encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and kuru of man constitute the nosologic group of subacute spongiform virus encephalopathies.¹ The possible transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from person to person ...

Of all episodes of peritonitis among patients undergoing chronic peritoneal dialysis 15 to 30 per cent^{1 , 2} are described as aseptic — that is, all symptoms and signs of peritonitis are present, but cultures of the effluent are negative. No responsible ...

Presentation of Case

A 17-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital because of fever.

She was well until two weeks previously, when an upper-respiratory-tract infection developed, with a progressive sore throat. Nine days before entry a physician found ...

Treating pancreatic exocrine insufficiency with orally administered pancreatic enzymes is more difficult than is usually imagined.¹ The goals of therapy are to prevent weight loss and muscle wasting, to reduce or eliminate diarrhea and (in children) to ...

A recently completed Canadian study shows that saccharin can act as a bladder carcinogen in rats.¹ As a result, the United States Food and Drug Administration proposes to prohibit the use of saccharin as a food additive. This action is required by a 1958 ...

Any successful plan to control health-care costs will necessarily focus on the physician's role in generating costs. Although physicians' incomes constitute only about 15 per cent of national health-care expenses, their orders — notably for prescription ...

DEATHS

deHaas — Karel Johannes deHaas, M.D., of Andover, died on November 10. He was in his 59th year.

Dr. deHaas received his degree from the Medische Faculteit Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden in 1946. He was a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

...

In the Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts, 1850, Lemuel Shattuck compared mortality rates for earlier years in urban Boston and in country towns with those reported from England. Shattuck's detailed report showed that the country towns had ...

To the Editor: In their letter to the editor of the Journal (N Engl J Med 296:341, 1977), Drs. Lobe and Martin assert, "In appropriately selected jaundiced patients, CEA determinations predict neoplastic or benign disease with greater probability than ...

No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.

No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.

To the Editor: Feldman (N Engl J Med 296:433, 1977) suggests that bacteremia associated with bacterial meningitis is due to seeding of the blood with bacteria from the cerebrospinal fluid. He bases this conclusion on the finding that bacterial counts in ...

To the Editor: Drs. Chang and O'Keefe, in their letter regarding cesarean section and genital herpes (N Engl J Med 296:573, 1977), note that cesarean sections are being performed in large numbers for the prevention of neonatal herpes simplex virus ...

No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.

To the Editor: Dr. Rothman and Ms. Liess studied the sex ratios of offspring of women who had used oral contraception before pregnancy, and concluded that the sex ratio was not related to duration of use or to the interval between conception and ...

To the Editor: Norman Fost's paper on "Children as Renal Donors" (N Engl J Med 296:363–367, 1977) argues that since consent from adult renal donors "is generally not informed," there is no reason to exclude pre-teen children as donors solely because they ...

No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.

William Worthy, controversial wartime traveler to Red China and Cuba and a journalist with impressive academic credentials, is a resident of New York City and a neighbor to Columbus Hospital. He and his fellow tenants engaged in the Columbus Hospital ...

The receipt of the following books is acknowledged, and this listing must be regarded as sufficient return for the courtesy of the sender. Books that appear to be of particular interest will be reviewed as space permits.

Medicine

Clinical Skills: A ...

FELLOWSHIPS IN CLINICAL NUTRITION

The Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, will offer fellowships in clinical nutrition, starting July, 1978, and training ...