OPTIC NEURITIS is an acute demyelinating disease of the optic nerve. It may occur in a patient with confirmed multiple sclerosis or as an isolated neurologic finding, in which case it may represent a forme fruste of multiple sclerosis.¹ The typical ...

THE most common causes of acute pancreatitis are alcohol abuse and gallstone disease, which together account for nearly 70 percent of cases. Fewer than 2 percent of the cases of acute pancreatitis are caused by hypercalcemia, hyperlipidemia, and drugs. ...

INFECTIONS acquired in the intensive care unit are a major cause of death in hospitalized patients. Infection is also the main cause of multiple-organ failure, which usually ends in death.^{1 , 2} Recent reports have suggested that selective decontamination ...

APPROXIMATELY 1.2 million osteoporotic fractures occur in the United States annually, making osteoporosis an important cause of morbidity and mortality among the elderly.¹ Although it is more common in women, osteoporosis also develops in men.^{2 3 4 5} One ...

IN sickle cell disease hemoglobin S tends to form intracellular polymers that distort the red cell.¹ The disease is characterized clinically by chronic hemolytic anemia, recurrent bouts of pain, and organ infarction, including stroke.^{1 2 3 4 5} Cerebral ...

IN systemic mastocytosis, an abnormal proliferation of mast cells infiltrates the skin, bone marrow, spleen, liver, and lymph nodes.^{1 2 3} The release of mast-cell mediators such as histamine causes systemic attacks, with flushing, itching, headache, ...

RESISTANCE to the action of androgens, like other forms of hormone resistance, is characterized by partial or complete absence of the usual effects of the hormones and normal or increased hormone production.¹ Since androgens are important for normal male ...

Presentation of Case

A 65-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital for electrophysiologic studies because of ventricular tachycardia.

There was a long history of a bipolar affective disorder that was managed with haloperidol and benztropine. The ...

OPTIC neuritis is an acute inflammatory optic neuropathy with an average annual incidence of 6.4 cases per 100,000 in Olmsted County, Minnesota — the only American population for which such data are available.¹ About half the cases are idiopathic, and the ...

ACUTE idiopathic pancreatitis, which accounts for 10 to 30 percent of cases of acute pancreatitis in most series, remains a frustrating problem. Before the diagnosis of acute idiopathic pancreatitis is made, a thorough search for disorders known to be ...

In the 40 years after the first description of sickle cell disease in 1910, roughly a paper per decade described neurologic complications, including stroke, and attributed them to the likes of anemia, fever, meningitis, hemorrhage, and even cerebral fat ...

THE hyperplasia of mast cells that defines systemic mastocytosis in most cases is neither clonal nor neoplastic.¹ It can occur at any age and is slightly more common in men than women. Because mast cells originate from pluripotent bone marrow cells that ...

To the Editor: We suggest that the conclusions reached by Sharief et al. (Sept. 12 issue)1 are insufficiently supported by their data. They have convincingly shown that an oligoclonal IgM antibody population that reacts with a mixture of types 1, 2, and ...

To the Editor: In the article of Van de Perre et al. (Aug. 29 issue)¹ there are some important definitions concerning the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that are not proved. The authors assume that a negative result on polymerase-...

To the Editor: The conclusion of Cohen et al. (Aug. 29 issue)¹ that stress increases infection rates after an experimental rhinovirus challenge cannot be accepted on the basis of the results presented. Persons with low or absent titers (≤2) of serum ...

To the Editor: Patients who have aortic stenosis with severe heart failure and cardiogenic shock usually do not survive. Since it has been shown that balloon aortic valvuloplasty may transiently improve severe left ventricular dysfunction in patients ...

To the Editor: I compliment Drs. Moller and Flier (Sept. 26 issue)¹ on their clear review of the mechanisms underlying insulin resistance. However, they failed to mention the possibility that insulin resistance may also have a hemodynamic origin. Insulin ...

To the Editor: We have identified errors in our paper, "Altered Platelet Calcium Metabolism as an Early Predictor of Increased Peripheral Vascular Resistance and Preeclampsia in Urban Black Women" (Aug. 16, 1990, issue).* Errors in the platelet ...

To the Editor: In the article by Belongia et al. on an outbreak of herpes gladiatorum at a high-school wrestling camp (Sept. 26 issue),¹ I failed to see a mention of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Was HIV testing done? Because of the fears it ...

This book is the 19th edition of a textbook originally entitled Diseases of Infancy and Childhood, written by L. Emmett Holt and published in 1897. This classic work has undergone numerous revisions by various distinguished pediatricians, including L. ...

Gone are the days when a third-year medical student could read a simple 250-page textbook and master the principles of clinical pediatrics. The purpose of this textbook for self-paced instruction is to "place the student in a participatory mode rather ...

June Goodfield's book starts with what I believe to be humanity's most magnificent accomplishment, the eradication of smallpox, and ends with one of our greatest challenges: providing the world with broad-based initiatives for child survival and well-...

The relation between chromosomal imbalance and abnormal human fetal development remains poorly understood. This monograph represents an attempt to archive and describe fetal characteristics associated with specific chromosomal abnormalities found at ...

Even more than other clinical disciplines, pediatric neurology is learned through experience, not textbooks. This reflects the available textbooks as well as the subject matter. This edition of Brett's textbook is one of the most useful sources of ...

This book is compact and may seem expensive, but relative to the large number of illustrations, the price is reasonable. As is appropriate for a book on imaging, the illustrations are of excellent quality; I particularly admired the color Doppler figures.

It was a particular pleasure to review Long-Term Paediatric Urology by Christopher Woodhouse. This book is unique in that the problems of pediatric urology are approached from the standpoint of a urologist treating young adults with the sequelae of ...

This book contains the collaborative wisdom of many authors with roots in neonatology at the University of Michigan. Although the title suggests an emphasis on emergencies in the neonate, the book deals with the fundamentals of neonatal medicine. In that ...

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CONGENITAL BONE MARROW DYSPLASIAS

A symposium, entitled "Stem Cell Factor and ...