THE Marfan syndrome is a common genetic disorder of connective tissue, with characteristic manifestations in the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and ocular systems.¹ Recently, two independent studies^{2 , 3} linked the syndrome to a fibrillin gene localized ...

DESPITE improvements in the management of sickle cell disease, morbidity and mortality from the failure of major organ systems remain a problem,¹ and renal failure may occur in as many as 18 percent of affected patients.² Although renal-replacement ...

DESPITE the availability of antiviral therapy, herpes simplex virus (HSV) continues to produce substantial morbidity and mortality among neonates.^{1 , 2} Most infants contract HSV type 2 (HSV-2) from an infected maternal genital tract at delivery. About 70 ...

BONE marrow transplantation is effective therapy for many hematologic disorders, but pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity after transplantation, with a reported incidence of 40 to 60 percent^{1 , 2} and a high mortality rate.³ In up to 35 percent of cases,...

THERE have been several important developments related to hypertension in pregnancy since this topic was reviewed in the Journal in 1985.¹ These include observations that may help to explain, prevent, and treat the dangerous conditions of preeclampsia and ...

The step-by-step process of clinical problem-solving is the subject of this new Journal feature. The author presents information about a real patient (boldface type) to an expert clinician in stages to simulate the way such information emerges in ...

Presentation of Case

A 37-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of recurrent hematochezia of six days' duration.

The patient was well until six days earlier, when hematochezia occurred. The next day he again passed fresh blood per rectum, with ...

IN previous decades the intricacies of the American health care system were largely irrelevant to a physician's day-to-day work and were easy to ignore. But not today. The progressive decline in doctors' independence and public esteem, the increasing ...

DESPITE more than three decades of research, there is no effective strategy for preventing most cases of neonatal infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV). From the early 1970s until 1988, it was recommended that pregnant women with a history of genital ...

SHOULD patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease be told their diagnosis? We became interested in this subject in the course of evaluating and caring for patients with Alzheimer's disease and dealing with their care givers and families. Unlike ...

To the Editor: Infante-Rivard and colleagues (Oct. lO issue)¹ make an important point that enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) that can detect low titers of lupus anticoagulant and antiphospholipid antibodies do not distinguish between normal ...

To the Editor: Walsh et al. (Oct. 24 issue)¹ examined the effects of estrogen-replacement therapy on the concentration and metabolism of plasma lipoproteins. We believe that their conclusions about changes in the metabolism of very-low-density ...

To the Editor: In their recent review of gastrointestinal endoscopy Morrissey and Reichelderfer (Oct. 17 and 24 issues)¹ indicate that endoscopic percutaneous gastrostomy has largely replaced surgical gastrostomy for feeding patients who cannot swallow. ...

To the Editor: The controversy generated by the article by Prinz et al. (Aug. 23, 1990, issue)¹ about the use of benzodiazepines to treat withdrawal from ethanol or sedative—hypnotic agents in elderly patients stems not from errors, as indicated by Kales ...

To the Editor: I report an unusual finding in a stool specimen that may have important implications in the evaluation of sexual abuse of children.

A 12-year-old boy who appeared otherwise well was seen by his general practitioner because of a short ...

To the Editor: As a long-time reporter on science and medicine who has wrestled with the Ingelfinger Rule for many years — and who has discussed it privately and in public forums with both Dr. Ingelfinger and Dr. Relman, as well as with my journalism ...

To the Editor: Over several years in the midwestern United States, I have observed the following incidents. (1) At a children's hospital, a respected senior surgeon examined a soupy wound on a child's abdomen without gloves, then wiped his hands off in a ...

These two volumes are recent translations by David B. Meyer of a German edition published in 1987. Meyer, an anatomist, has done a superb job of producing a most readable, idiomatic anatomy textbook.

The book is divided into two sections, on general and ...

This is a histology textbook written not by anatomists but by self-described "working histopathologists." Consequently, a main objective, which Stevens and Lowe are capable of attaining, is to illuminate the effects of disease on basic microscopical ...

This well-known textbook (first published in 1963) has once again undergone revision of its contents without a change in its unique format. It remains shorter, more concise, and physically smaller than competing textbooks of human physiology, and it ...

This book is written for the beginning student of the health professions, with the goal of teaching the fundamentals of human respiratory physiology. The author's strategy is to provide the essential facts the student needs to know, as well as the ...

Immunology is a maturing science that, at its cutting edge, is becoming indistinguishable from cell biology, molecular biology, and surface chemistry. Nevertheless, a core of knowledge about lymphoid cells and their interactions, mostly gained in the past ...

Without some background in molecular biology, a regular reader of the Journal may not fully understand and appreciate the importance of many of its articles. The explosion in molecular biology has revolutionized the practice of medicine. Knowledge ...

The first edition of Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics has always had a prominent place on my bookshelf, though in fact it has been infrequently consulted. Despite an outstanding set of contributors, the book has not achieved ...

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SOCIETY FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

The 10th annual meeting will be held ...

IN a world where most industrialized countries concentrate their resources in one health insurance system that provides universal or nearly universal coverage to their populations, the United States presents an altogether different picture. Its array of ...