RENAL cysts arise from diverticula or segmental dilatations of the renal tubules that develop as part of the normal aging process.^{1 , 2} Many poorly understood genetic, environmental, and local factors can enhance the development of cysts and thus result ...

THIS year, cancer of the colon will afflict over 100,000 persons in the United States.¹ As a cause of death due to cancer, it is second only to lung cancer. There is no established means of preventing colon cancer, and there is no reliable and cost-...

IN the past five years numerous studies have reported an association between the presence of spiral-shaped, gram-negative bacteria, now referred to as Helicobacter pylori and previously as Campylobacter pylori,¹ on the surface of the gastric mucosa and ...

PHENOBARBITAL is widely regarded as the drug of choice for the treatment of young children with febrile seizures,¹ and it is also used to treat nonfebrile seizures in infants and young children.^{2 3 4 5} A number of authors have reported behavioral and ...

SUICIDE is a major public health problem in the United States. In 1980 nearly 27,000 persons took their own lives, making suicide the 10th most common cause of death overall and the third most common cause among adolescents and young adults.¹ Given that ...

PERIODONTAL disease is a general term used to describe specific diseases that affect the gingiva and the supporting connective tissue and alveolar bone, which anchor the teeth in the jaws. The periodontal diseases are among the most common chronic ...

HUMAN T-cell lymphotropic virus Type I (HTLV-I), considered to be the causative agent of adult T-cell lymphoma/leukemia,^{1 , 2} is also associated with a chronic myelopathy (tropical spastic paraparesis) that is endemic in the Caribbean,^{3 , 4} Africa,^{5 6 7} ...

Presentation of Case

A 78-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of confusion, impaired memory, and a gait disturbance.

The patient was well and active in business until three months earlier, when he consulted a physician because of a headache ...

Potassium deficiency has long attracted the attention of both clinicians and physiologists because of its numerous effects on renal function. Since potassium is the most prevalent intracellular cation, it is not surprising that its deficiency results in ...

Colorectal carcinoma is second only to lung cancer as a cause of death from cancer in the United States. Although the majority of patients found to have a large-bowel tumor successfully undergo a removal of all gross tumor, 40 to 50 percent are found at ...

To the Editor: Cassel and Leaning began their editorial (July 27 issue)¹ with a review of the report on the Chernobyl nuclear accident by Baranov et al.² in the same issue, but they very quickly shifted to a barrage of warning shots across the bow of the ...

To the Editor: The report on dietary fatty acids and plasma cholesterol by Mensink and Katan (Aug. 17 issue)¹ suffers from a subtle flaw in design and, possibly, in execution. The control diet contained energy derived from fat as follows: 19.3 percent ...

To the Editor: The study of ticlopidine hydrochloride for stroke prevention (Aug. 24 issue)¹ noted an increase of 9 percent in mean total cholesterol levels, confirming a previous report.² During a mean follow-up of about three years, the potential ...

To the Editor: I have some misgivings about the clinical importance of the findings of Koenig and Christensen (Aug. 31 issue)* regarding the incidence and neutrophil kinetics of neonatal neutropenia associated with maternal hypertension.

The authors ...

To the Editor: The article by Braveman et al. and the accompanying editorial by Berwick and Hiatt (Aug. 24 issue)^{1 , 2} eloquently address the relation between maternal health insurance status and adverse outcomes in newborns. This article prompts the ...

To the Editor: Charness et al. make several remarkable statements in their article on ethanol and the nervous system (Aug. 17 issue).*

First, they state that it is beneficial to treat delirium tremens with paraldehyde, benzodiazepines, or clomethiazole. ...

To the Editor: In addition to the known deleterious effects of the illicit use of cocaine,^{1 , 2} we wish to report a local complication — an unusual form of dental erosion that appears to be directly and causally related to the oral use of cocaine.

A 31-...

To the Editor: The adverse effects of acute zidovudine overdose in adult patients have been limited to transient neurologic symptoms,^{1 , 2} and no hematologic toxicity has been documented.^{1 2 3 4 5} To our knowledge, zidovudine overdose in children has not ...

To the Editor: The addition of HIV infection to the conditions listed in Section 212(a)(6) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act is causing great and, I believe, unnecessary distress to patients wishing to visit the United States. This is ...

To the Editor: Reade and Ratzan (Aug. 17 issue)* described the difficulty they had in verifying credentials and concluded that the public has a difficult time trying to learn about physicians' qualifications. As chairman of the credentials committee at ...

As anticipated, the proposals for reforming the British National Health Service (NHS) that were announced in January 1989 in a government white paper entitled "Working for Patients"¹ have been widely debated. These proposals resulted from an internal ...

The second edition of this popular, multiauthored textbook on immunology is, like the first, intended for an advanced readership. As such it complements and does not compete with a work such as Ivan Roitt's Essential Immunology (6th ed. Chicago: Year Book,...

Recent progress in immunology has so increased the complexity of this field that practitioners not directly involved in the area often have difficulty keeping abreast of developments. Here, the author uses her extensive experience as an educator in the ...

This is not a book for the unwary. Although styled as a general immunology textbook, this is an extensive essay by a theorist who tries to be provocative, argumentative, and above all, different.

The book consists of a series of assertions and arguments ...

This book contains 14 chapters by 31 contributors; it is well written and easy to follow. It opens with a simplified overview of the immune system and a glossary of biologic-response modifiers and terms in adoptive cellular immunotherapy. Many of the ...

This multiauthored book on the treatment of infections in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of a series of monographs on infectious diseases edited by Scully and Neu. The editors have all had extraordinary experience in ...

If writing medical textbooks resembles writing in wet sand, writing a textbook on the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is more akin to writing in dry sand with a thin stick: the message disappears with a mild breeze or a faulty footstep. The ...

Susan Sontag has a history of innovative and insightful thought into the complex interaction between the patient and society. In her earlier book, Illness as Metaphor, Sontag stimulated a reconsideration of society's reaction to patients with cancer on ...

CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY

The course will be offered in Boston, March 5–9.

Contact Harvard MED-CME, P.O. Box 825, Boston, MA 02117; or call (617) 732–1525.

COOK COUNTY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

The following courses will be offered in Chicago: "Advances in ...

The Beneficence of Neonatal Hematopoiesis (October 26, 1989; 321:1190–1). On page 1190, the sentence that begins four lines from the bottom of the left-hand column should have read, "The volume of bone marrow in infants...," not newborns as printed.

Peritoneovenous Shunting as Compared with Medical Treatment in Patients with Alcoholic Cirrhosis and Massive Ascites (December 14, 1989; 321:1632–8). On page 1638, in the Appendix, the following participants from the Veterans Administration Medical Center ...