THE nucleoside analogue zidovudine (3′-azido-3′deoxythymidine) inhibits human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication and is more effective than placebo in delaying death in subjects with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in delaying the ...

BEFORE 1984, prenatal screening for Down's syndrome (if there was no family history of the disorder) was restricted to asking a pregnant woman her age and then offering amniocentesis and chromosomal analysis if she was 35 years old or older. This approach ...

CHORIONIC-VILLUS sampling retrieves cells from the developing placenta for genetic or chromosomal analysis during the first trimester and has been used clinically since early 1984.^{1 , 2} The first method, transcervical sampling, was adopted rapidly at many ...

IDIOPATHIC membranous nephropathy is a primary glomerulonephritis that usually causes the nephrotic syndrome. Spontaneous remission of proteinuria may occur in some patients, but at least in whites, some 40 to 50 percent of the patients who are not ...

SCHIZOPHRENIA is a disabling major mental disorder that is characterized by disordered thinking and hallucinations and that affects 1 percent of the population. Although its underlying pathologic process is still not clearly understood, recent postmortem ...

From top to bottom the tracings represent the surface electrocardiogram (Lead V₁) and bipolar intracardiac electrograms recorded from the high right atrium (HRA) and right ventricular apex (RVA) during right atrial pacing (S denotes a stimulus artifact of ...

EPIDURAL spinal cord compression from metastases is among the most dreaded complications of cancer; it occurs in 5 percent of patients who die of cancer^{1 2 3} (approximately 20,000 patients a year in the United States). If untreated, metastatic epidural ...

OSTEOPOROSIS is one of the most important disorders associated with aging.^{1 , 2} More than 1.5 million Americans have fractures related to osteoporosis each year, with attendant pain, deformity, and loss of independence. The annual cost to the U.S. health ...

Presentation of Case

An eight-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital because of chronic diarrhea and inadequate weight gain.

He was born of a full-term uncomplicated second pregnancy by spontaneous vaginal delivery. The birth weight was 3.55 kg (75th ...

Advances in prenatal diagnosis provide new opportunities for patients and their physicians to distinguish the abnormal from the normal fetus. Demands from women to learn about their fetuses earlier in pregnancy have pushed investigators to identify new ...

Membranous nephropathy is found predominantly in middle-aged patients in association with proteinuria, which is often sufficient to induce a full nephrotic syndrome. It is characterized by immune aggregates on the outer, subepithelial aspect of the ...

The dideoxynucleoside analogues are a family of antiretroviral agents whose mechanism of action is inhibition of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase.¹ Zidovudine, the first member of this family to be approved for the treatment of ...

To the Editor: The Sounding Board article by Steinbrook and Lo on the Oregon Medicaid demonstration project (Jan. 30 issue)* takes a welcome, yet narrow, view of the question, Will the project provide adequate medical care? By focusing only on the list ...

To the Editor: Goodman et al. (March 26 issue)* report that prophylactic administration of fluconazole prevents fungal infections in recipients of bone marrow transplants. Significantly fewer patients died of fungal infections in the fluconazole group (1 ...

To the Editor: We agree with Heagarty and Abrams (March 26 issue)¹ that there is adequate scientific information to support widespread education about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with counseling and an offer of testing to all women, men, and ...

To the Editor: Kulhanjian et al. (April 2 issue)¹ imply that the use of serologic testing for herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) may have a role in the prevention of neonatal HSV infections. They appear to have identified a group of mothers at high risk ...

To the Editor: In summarizing our current understanding of retinopathy of prematurity, Phelps (April 16 issue)¹ omits mention of a role for iron in this disorder.^{2 3 4} Premature infants may be susceptible to injury from oxygen radicals because of a ...

To the Editor: Only one case of Creutzfeldt—Jakob disease in pregnancy has been reported so far.¹ We report our finding of the transmissible agent in samples from a pregnant patient with Creutzfeldt—Jakob disease.

A 38-year-old woman had visual ...

To the Editor: It has been reported that lovastatin, a potent 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, can cause a toxic, noninflammatory myopathy.^{1 , 2} We describe a 66-year-old woman treated for five months with pravastatin (...

Abortion has aroused intense personal and political passions for almost two decades in the United States, and demeaning sloganeering has long substituted for reasoned discourse. Just as few people have actually read the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade,¹ few ...

This is a good overall review of common and accepted applications of the laser in ophthalmic care. The initial chapters are devoted to a brief and concise review of the anatomy of the eye in relation to laser surgery and the lenses used in conjunction ...

The application of heat energy derived from monochromatic light (i.e., laser energy) as a form of treatment for gastrointestinal disorders is a relatively new form of technology. In 1977 Dwyer in Los Angeles and Kiefhaber in Germany reported successful ...

The past several years have seen a tremendous increase in the use of lasers in cutaneous surgery. As the variety of lasers and the procedures performed with them have increased, so too has the need for educational materials for practicing and prospective ...

Lasers in Head and Neck Surgery is for the most part a comprehensive, albeit uneven presentation of laser applications in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery. The book covers all clinically important types of laser and gives the reader sufficient ...

This is the second edition of Head and Neck Imaging by Drs. Peter M. Som and R. Thomas Bergeron. One must immediately emphasize this is not a revised edition but an entirely new book on head and neck imaging. The book contains the usual sections on ...

This book represents the work of 33 contributors edited by a specialist in nuclear medicine, 2 radiologists, and 2 internists. Its objective is to relate endocrine disorders and imaging techniques. Clinical problems, classified according to specific ...

This book is a compendium of the experience of one of the luminaries in the field of pediatric radiology and certainly one of the pioneers of pediatric ultrasonography. The authors have nicely illustrated this textbook with state-of-the-art images. A few ...

Biomedical Science

Advances in Pineal Research. Vol. 6. Edited by Andrew Foldes and Russel J. Reiter. 286 pp., illustrated. London, John Libbey, 1991. $65.

Biotechnology of Cell Regulation. (Serono Symposia Series: Advances in experimental medicine. Vol. ...

OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS

The symposium, subtitled "Metabolism and Biological Effects," will be held in Oslo, Norway, Sept. 15–19.

Contact Congress-Conf., Box 7609 Skillebekk, 0205 Oslo, Norway; or call (47)2 56–19–30.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Abstracts are being ...

Certain breakthroughs — such as the discoveries of electricity, the atom, and DNA — transcend their time by redefining our world. But the exact nature of the transformation is never known with certainty at the outset. This has been the case with the ...