IN Alzheimer's disease the brain has a variety of neurotransmitter deficits, and the most striking and consistent change is a marked decrease in the activity of choline acetyltransferase, a marker for cholinergic neurons. Although there are other changes ...

CARDIOVASCULAR abnormalities are common in children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection,^{1 2 3 4 5 6} but little is known about their cause or clinical course. The cardiovascular effects of zidovudine, which is used to treat most children with ...

PRETERM delivery and intrauterine growth retardation remain major health problems in both developing and developed societies.^{1 , 2} Although several epidemiologic studies in Latin America^{3 , 4} and elsewhere⁵ have consistently identified risk factors ...

THE dramatic decline in the incidence of cervical cancer in this country over the past 40 years has been attributed largely to the widespread use of cytologic screening to detect precancerous cervical lesions that can be treated successfully. These ...

EXPOSURE to low levels of lead in childhood may result in impaired neuropsychological development and classroom performance.¹ The extent of this relation, however, after adjustment for the confounding effects of socioeconomic and environmental covariates, ...

IN contrast to fetal lungs, in which neuroendocrine cells are abundant and are thought to play a part in the paracrine regulation of lung development, normal adult lungs contain few neuroendocrine cells.^{1 2 3 4 5 6} However, neuroendocrine-cell hyperplasia ...

A section of cerebral cortex (frontal region) from a patient with Alzheimer's disease is shown, stained with the Cajal silver method for axons and neurofibrils. On the right is a neuritic plaque (broad arrow) with a darkly stained core of amyloid. ...

IN recent years a large number of articles have appeared in clinical journals describing contemporary molecular methods and their applications in clinical medicine. This review addresses four applications of molecular techniques in infectious diseases: ...

Presentation of Case

A 70-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of a neuromuscular disorder complicated by agitated depression.

There was a seven-year history of diabetes mellitus that was managed with insulin during the six years before ...

The personal tragedy of progressive dementia, the emotional distress of family members, and the staggering cost of care to society all challenge the scientific and medical communities to find a cure, or at least an effective treatment, for Alzheimer's ...

Baghurst et al.¹ are to be congratulated for continuing their long-term studies of intellectual deficits in children who were exposed to lead in early childhood. These investigators have identified deficits in intelligence, not just delays in ...

After the upset senatorial victory of Harris Wofford in Pennsylvania in the spring of 1991, many political and health policy analysts prophesied that the presidential election of 1992 would revolve around reform of the health care system. My intention ...

Many have proposed blueprints for a new U.S. health care system, but few have focused on the process of designing a house we all can live in. Perhaps because we physicians are both providers and potential patients, we have as large a stake as anyone in ...

To the Editor: The study by Lau et al. (July 23 issue)¹ on the use of cumulative meta-analysis to determine clinical efficacy or harm presents an important concept in the analysis of clinical trials. The sequential combination of multiple small studies ...

To the Editor: Henderson's editorial (June 25 issue)¹ and the paper by McGuire and Clark² contain, in our opinion, misleading statements regarding the curability of breast cancer. Although many patients with this disease may achieve a "personal cure" (...

To the Editor: Antidepressant and anticonvulsant drugs are useful in the treatment of patients with pain caused by cancer or other disorders.¹ Unfortunately, doxepin and carbamazepine, useful drugs of their respective types, are not available in an ...

To the Editor: The article by Owen et al. (June 11 issue)* ostensibly demonstrates the superiority of magnetic resonance (MR) angiography in identifying patent pedal vessels that were not identified by conventional angiography. Although I have no doubt ...

To the Editor: Tallstedt et al. (June 25 issue)* reported that in patients 35 to 55 years old with hyperthyroidism caused by Graves' disease, ophthalmopathy was more likely to develop or progress if the disorder was treated with iodine-131 than if ...

To the Editor: Ezekowitz et al. (May 28 issue)¹ report the effectiveness of interferon alfa-2a for life-threatening hemangiomas of infancy, including the Kasabach—Merritt syndrome. Although their results look impressive, we would advise caution in ...

To the Editor: Snake-venom and insect-venom extractors are commercially manufactured plunger devices intended to extract venom through the same lesions through which it was injected. The plunger is placed over the snakebite or insect bite to produce ...

My initial reaction on hearing of the publication of another textbook of infectious diseases was similar to R.G. Petersdorf's comment that he could not "conceive a need for 309 more infectious-disease experts unless they [spent] their time culturing each ...

The paperback version of the third edition of this now standard book on the epidemiology of human viral infections has been issued without revision two years after the hardcover edition. Its multiple editions attest to the proved usefulness of this book, ...

This is the third book by Desowitz on issues in biomedical science for a general, nontechnical audience. Just as it was not necessary to be an astrophysicist to feel the grandeur and scope of Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time, it is not necessary to ...

Writing a microbiology textbook for medical students is a difficult task. Somehow the book must find the middle ground between concentrating on laboratory issues and presenting detailed descriptions of infectious diseases. Medical Microbiology contains ...

The Manual of Clinical Microbiology, first published in 1970, is now in its fifth edition. It can be viewed as a reference book for infectious-disease specialists, clinical microbiologists, pathologists, and personnel in the clinical-microbiology ...

HEALTH

The "2nd European Conference on Health Economics," "3rd Congress on Geography and Socio Economics of Health," and the "4th European Health Services Research Meeting" will be held in Paris, Dec. 16–18.

Contact Colloque Européen "De l'analyse ...

Book Review of Articulating the Elephant Man: Joseph Merrick and His Interpreters (July 16, 1992;327:209). The review states that "no photographic evidence [of Merrick's condition] . . . exists." In fact, two photographs were published in the British ...