Many epidemiologic studies have been performed to detect risk factors for exocrine pancreatic cancer -- a common and usually fatal gastrointestinal tumor. Smoking and reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables appear to be the best established risk ...

Postinflammatory hyperpigmentation presents as irregular, darkly pigmented spots occurring after inflammation of the skin such as that caused by acne, folliculitis, eczema, or shaving irritation. These spots commonly persist for months but usually ...

Rapidly growing evidence suggests that oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) plays an important part in atherosclerosis. As Steinberg et al. have found,¹–³ oxidized LDL is taken up more readily than native LDL by macrophages to create foam cells. ...

Antioxidants such as vitamin C, carotenoids, and vitamin E¹,² are hypothesized to help prevent atherosclerosis by blocking the oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which may be selectively incorporated by monocytes in the arterial wall^...

Endotoxin, a lipopolysaccharide component of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria, is involved in the pathogenesis of septic shock, but it is unclear whether endotoxin alone is capable of causing all the manifestations of the septic shock ...

Figure 1. Hydatid Disease of the Liver.

A computed tomographic scan of the liver of a 57-year-old woman reveals large cystic, lobulated structures with daughter cysts, consistent with hydatid disease. The patient had severe abdominal pain and a markedly ...

The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

The past decade has seen an explosion of knowledge and literature about one disease, AIDS, that is unprecedented in medical history. Respiratory complications are among the most common clinical problems associated ...

One of the most frequent and serious problems confronting clinicians is the management of a serious infection and the systemic response to infection, a syndrome termed sepsis. When this syndrome results in hypotension and organ dysfunction, it is called ...

Presentation of Case

A 23-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of a rapidly enlarging mass in a tooth-extraction socket and an osteolytic mandibular lesion.

The patient had been in excellent health until one month earlier, when a left ...

Pancreatic cancer is the 5th leading cause of death from cancer and the 11th most common cancer in the United States¹; each year 24,000 people die of pancreatic cancer in this country. The incidence of pancreatic cancer increased dramatically several ...

Although it is easy to dismiss problems such as postinflammatory hyperpigmentation under the rubric of “cosmetic concerns,” pigmentary disorders are a frequent cause of distress because of our society's excessive focus on appearance. Postinflammatory ...

This issue of the Journal contains two important reports of large-scale prospective studies, one in men¹ and one in women,² showing that the use of large doses of vitamin E supplements is associated with a significantly decreased risk of coronary heart ...

Almost 30 years after the nation's last brush with comprehensive health care reform, the prospect of fundamental change once again seems almost palpable. As in 1965, policy analysts, interest groups, and the public are debating the nature and extent of ...

To the Editor: Lichtman et al. (Dec. 31 issue)¹ investigated why some obese persons have difficulty losing weight, although their diet is reportedly hypocaloric. The authors concluded that “failure to lose weight despite a self-reported low caloric ...

To the Editor: The images of massive obesity simulating lymphedema (Dec. 31 issue)¹ are quite impressive. The photograph clearly shows the condition of lipomatosis of the legs, also known as lipedema. When confined to the thighs, the condition is known ...

To the Editor: Robertson (Dec. 24 issue)¹ contends that pancreatic transplantation should no longer be considered an experimental procedure. I do not understand how he can reach this conclusion, when the proper use and results of pancreatic ...

To the Editor: The informative paper by Theobald et al. on the prediction of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in bone marrow transplantation between HLA-identical siblings (Dec. 3 issue) states, “No practical test is currently available to identify ...

To the Editor: Rodgers et al. (Jan. 14 issue)¹ report the use of erythropoietin to induce the fetal-hemoglobin response in patients with sickle cell disease (hemoglobin S: β6 Glu-to-Val) under treatment with hydroxyurea. We report an increased level of ...

To the Editor: Schneider et al. (Dec. 24 issue)¹ concluded that a single dose (either 480 mg or 960 mg) of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole once a day is superior to aerosolized pentamidine once a month for the prevention of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (...

To the Editor: Duffy's commentary on the case of pneumococcal pneumonia presenting as abdominal pain followed by shock and death (Jan. 7 issue)¹ states that the case highlights “any number of interesting and important aspects of today's medical ...

To the Editor: In November 1992, Whitehall Laboratories replaced the inactive preservative ingredient phenylmercuric nitrate in some stocks of Preparation H suppositories, ointment, and cream. Reformulation was dictated not by new scientific evidence but ...

To the Editor: The practice by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) of demanding board certification of participating physicians has become an important factor influencing access to health care in Massachusetts and the rest of the United States.

When ...

To the Editor: Ursodiol has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the dissolution of gallstones, but it is also widely used to treat chronic cholestatic liver diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis and sclerosing cholangitis¹–⁴. ...

My first perusal of this three-volume textbook, which was compiled by a team of some 150 British pathologists and strengthened by a few continental and transatlantic colleagues, ended on a positive note. I was impressed with the visual quality of this ...

While perusing a book exhibit on the last day of a pathology meeting several years ago, I picked up this textbook in its first edition. I was immediately impressed by the beautiful color photographs and the practical approach to diagnostic problems. ...

The main purpose of this book is to provide physicians in training and those practicing pathology or hematology with comprehensive and concise information on bone marrow pathology and a means of improving their diagnostic skills. To a considerable degree, ...

New editions of two hematology atlases have appeared within the past two years: one from Cambridge, England, by F.G.J. Hayhoe and R.J. Flemans and one from Boston, by Carola T. Kapff and James H. Jandl. Both are the works of renowned hematologists and ...

The aim of this ambitious book is to present pathologists with basic and reliable information about the ultrastructure of nonmalignant diseases. As the editors stress in their preface, many of these disorders can be diagnosed by techniques other than ...

The coming of age of modern hematopathology began in the 1970s, largely as a result of key discoveries in basic immunology. These findings led to the seminal concept that malignant lymphomas could be characterized as neoplasms that developed from defined ...

There has been a surge of interest in genitourinary pathology in the field of surgical pathology over the past several years. The time was therefore right for a high-quality atlas of urinary tract pathology. Bernstein, Churg, and coworkers have produced a ...