BOTH aspirin and heparin favorably influence the clinical course of patients with unstable angina. Aspirin protects against myocardial infarction and death during the acute,¹ intermediate,² and chronic³ phases of the disease. Heparin confers this benefit ...

UNSTABLE angina is a critical phase of ischemic heart disease associated with a high risk of myocardial infarction and sudden death.¹ Postmortem studies reveal that these fatal events are frequently preceded by microinfarcts.^{2 , 3} They are the result of ...

CADMIUM¹ and lead² are toxic to the kidney. Both metals are known to induce nephropathy in subjects with heavy exposure.^{1 , 2} Environmental exposure to cadmium is associated with renal tubular dysfunction,³ but few studies have attempted to evaluate the ...

THE association of polycystic ovaries, amenorrhea, hirsutism, and obesity was reported by Stein and Leventhal in 1935.¹ Abnormalities subsequently found to be characteristic of what is now called the polycystic ovary syndrome include hyperandrogenemia and ...

EPIDERMOLYSIS BULLOSA is a heterogeneous group of rare, heritable disorders characterized by abnormal fragility of the skin.¹ In affected persons, minor cutaneous trauma causes the formation of slow-healing blisters that are prone to secondary infection ...

DESPITE reports over more than a decade documenting a high level of use of psychoactive drugs among elderly residents in nursing homes, the use of such drugs continues to be a source of concern.^{1 2 3 4} In an earlier study,¹ we found that over half the ...

Scanning electron micrograph of ragweed pollen (×5200).

WITHIN a decade of the isolation of salicylate in 1892, aspirin was introduced as an analgesic and antipyretic agent. In 1971, Vane described its inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis from arachidonate in homogenates of guinea pig lung,¹ and Smith and ...

Presentation of Case

A 76-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of persistent diarrhea during treatment for possible tropical sprue.

The patient was well until approximately eight months earlier, when diarrhea developed while she was ...

Unstable angina often appears to be due to the disruption of a lipid-filled atherosclerotic plaque, with erosion of the fibrous cap containing monocytes and macrophages that were chemotactically attracted by lipid.¹ More than half of such disruptions ...

Androgens are part of normal female physiology, although their role in women is not as well defined as it is in men. Hyperandrogenism may be defined socially, clinically, or biochemically. In North America, the only acceptable type of androgen-dependent ...

Epidermolysis bullosa is a heterogeneous group of rare heritable diseases characterized by blistering of the skin after minor trauma. The clinical manifestations are highly varied, and the severity correlates with the level of the skin at which blisters ...

What happens if we physicians are motivated to say something hopeful that turns out not to be true? Will patients continue to believe us? Why should they? The answers to these questions vary with the circumstances, of course. Certainly, the stakes are ...

To the Editor: It is always unethical to abandon a patient. But the failure to acquiesce to a patient's request for euthanasia must not be construed as abandonment. In fact, Dr. Benrubi's assertion that physicians have a special duty to alleviate ...

To the Editor: The publication of the articles by Steinberg et al. and Barrett et al. (Feb. 13 issue)^{1 , 2} comparing different radiographic contrast agents for invasive cardiac examinations demonstrates again the inability of such clinical studies to ...

To the Editor: The complex paper from Classen and co-workers (Jan. 30 issue)¹ confirms, with heavy statistical flourishes, a clinical principle discovered by surgeons^{2 , 3}: a prophylactic antibiotic must be "on board" during the operation if it is to ...

To the Editor: Mizuno et al. (Jan. 30 issue)¹ provide important information about the morphology of coronary-artery thrombi in unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction using angioscopy. In this study, all the patients with acute infarction had red ...

To the Editor: Sigurgeirsson et al. (Feb. 6 issue)¹ used what must now be regarded as unacceptable criteria to distinguish between polymyositis and dermatomyositis. It is very likely that some of their patients classified as having polymyositis in fact ...

To the Editor: Thalidomide has recently been reported to be effective therapy for painful oropharyngeal ulceration associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).^{1 2 3} We wish to report the use of this drug for a debilitating and painful ...

Is the story true to life? We learned to ask that question in high school. Is the historical account wie es eigentlich gewesen war? We learned to ask that question in college. And the answer is, "Not quite." Wallace Stevens reminds us that "Things as they ...

Editors Björntorp and Brodoff, with the aid of 93 international contributors, attempt to summarize current research in and clinical aspects of obesity. The result is a sizable book with 11 major subsections and 66 chapters. These subsections cover such ...

The growing awareness of the importance of lowering elevated cholesterol levels in order to lower the risk of coronary heart disease and the introduction of powerful drugs to lower lipid levels have led to a dramatic and rapid increase in the number of ...

As the process of medical education is revised and the practice of medicine undergoes revolutionary changes, textbooks, even specialized textbooks, must incorporate the changes taking place in the worlds of academics and clinical practitioners. John ...

As recently as 20 years ago, there were relatively few books on free-radical biology. Then came the discovery of Superoxide dismutase, the finding that many toxins are metabolized through radical-mediated processes, and the discovery of enzymes (such as ...

This book, in its second edition, is a welcome resource on nutrition and its clinical applications. There is no doubt that nutrition has entered the clinical setting in a different form from that brought about by the classic diseases of nutrient ...

In the 1970s, it was popular to refer to infections and other complications in immunocompromised patients as "diseases of medical progress," as if to say that the impact on patients of these many, varied, and for the most part newly recognized syndromes ...

MEDINFO 92

The "7th World Congress on Medical Informatics" will be held in Geneva, Sept. 6–10. A pre-congress symposium and study tour will be held Aug. 27—Sept. 5.

Contact for Congress: SYMPORG SA, 108, route de Frontenex, CH-1208 Geneva, Switzerland; or ...