Liver cancer is the third leading cause of deaths due to cancer in Japan¹. The age-adjusted incidence rate has increased 1.7-fold during the past 10 years in Osaka,² but the survival rate remains very low. To detect potentially curable cases of ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the seventh most common form of cancer in men worldwide and the ninth most common in women¹. In Japan, the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma has increased steadily in the past 10 years, resulting in an increase in the ...

Group B streptococci (Streptococcus agalactiae)¹,² are the leading cause of sepsis and meningitis in newborn infants, affecting at least 1.8 infants less than 90 days old per 1000 live births, or approximately 9600 infants annually in the United States³. ...

Dietary supplementation with fish oil is said to have a wide range of favorable actions on the cardiovascular system and immunologic responses in laboratory animals¹–⁴. Psoriasis, an immune-related skin disease affecting approximately 2 percent of the ...

The spectrum of hematologic and immunologic abnormalities in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection is broad¹,². Although the incidence of B-cell-associated neoplasms is increased, relatively few cases of multiple myeloma have been ...

Figure 1. Kayser-Fleischer Ring in a Patient with Wilson's Disease.

Slit-lamp photography shows a dense deposit of copper in Descemet's membrane (a Kayser-Fleischer ring) in a 17-year-old girl with Wilson's disease (Panel A). After eight years of therapy ...

More than 300 million people cross international boundaries each year¹. Diarrhea is by far the most common medical problem among people traveling to the tropical and semitropical areas of Latin America; parts of the Caribbean, such as Haiti and the ...

Hepatic fibrosis is a common response to chronic liver injury from many causes, including alcohol, persistent viral and helminthic infections, and hereditary metal overload. Emerging evidence suggests that cellular mechanisms of hepatic fibrosis are ...

Presentation of Case

A 67-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of increasing back pain and osteolytic changes in the 11th and 12th thoracic vertebras.

There was a history of coronary artery disease with multiple subendocardial infarcts, which ...

Early in this century, Rebecca Lancefield discovered that β-hemolytic streptococci could be classified into serogroups according to the immunoprecipitation of bacterial extracts with specific antiserum. With the development of the Lancefield system, other ...

Those who suffer from psoriasis often elicit one of two responses when others around them learn of their plight. The first is therapeutic advice based on anecdotes and household nostrums; the other is apt to be withdrawal, the avoidance of eye or physical ...

To the Editor: Reports in the February 11 issue of the Journal review the epidemiology of “AIDS” without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, or idiopathic CD4+ T-lymphocytopenia¹–⁷. Two of these studies report that AIDS is absent and persistent ...

To the Editor: Somers et al. (Feb. 4 issue)¹ found that rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is associated with profound sympathetic activation in normal subjects. Because sleep cycles change with aging, the hemodynamic and sympathetic changes found during REM ...

To the Editor: Schroeder et al. (Jan. 21 issue)¹ present preliminary evidence to suggest that the calcium-channel blocker diltiazem prevents the accelerated coronary artery disease observed in heart-transplant recipients. They attempt to explain their ...

To the Editor: Two recent articles (Feb. 25 issue)¹,² extend our knowledge of the relation between physical activity and fitness levels and mortality. We disagree with the implication of Dr. Curfman's accompanying editorial that there are insufficient ...

To the Editor: When a person enters zero gravity, a large amount of fluid (1 to 2 liters) shifts toward the head. The response to this shift includes the principal cardiovascular effects of spaceflight -- e.g., hypovolemia, dehydration, and postflight ...

To the Editor: In their review of the pathogenesis and treatment of gallstones (Feb. 11 issue),¹ Johnston and Kaplan suggest that it is unlikely that a randomized comparison between laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy will ever be carried out. We are ...

Obese people have an increased risk of premature death and disability, mainly from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoarthritis, gallstones, and certain types of cancer. The more severe the obesity, the greater the excess risk, so any definition of a ...

This book neatly fills a niche among liver textbooks. It is designed to reach a wide audience of physicians in training, internists, and gastroenterologists. It is not meant to compete with weighty, multiauthored reference works, of which several ...

The publication of this two-volume textbook of hepatology attests to the rapidly expanding body of knowledge of liver function and dysfunction. This new textbook differs from others on liver disease in its organization, scope, and size. In contrast to ...

The last overview of hepatic encephalopathy, a clinical problem in which two distinct disciplines meet, was written by a hepatologist more than a decade ago; it was criticized for its omissions of neurochemical issues. Now Lockwood, a neurologist as well ...

Optimal brain function requires a stable metabolic environment. Extracerebral systems provide the necessary nutrients, remove metabolic products, and protect the brain from sudden metabolic perturbations. It is not surprising, therefore, that conditions ...

“To know alcoholism is to know medicine.” Medical scholars will quickly recognize that I have used literary license in paraphrasing an adage attributed to Sir William Osler, one that referred to syphilis, a disease that in the pre-antibiotic era was ...

This interesting and important book is among the first to highlight the medical importance of the concurrent abuse of drugs such as cocaine and alcohol. David D. Newland, in a discussion of drug conditioning and craving (chapter 8), notes that “it is ...