Dementia has become a major health problem because of the worldwide increase in elderly populations, especially those 80 years of age or older¹. From the results of 47 studies, the prevalence of moderate or severe dementia was estimated to be 10.5 percent ...

Cigarette smoking is an important risk factor for the development of squamous-cell cancers of the head and neck¹,². There is also evidence that patients with other forms of cancer who have a history of smoking have more advanced disease at the time of ...

Accelerated coronary artery disease in transplanted hearts has become the primary problem limiting long-term survival among cardiac-transplant recipients¹,². We and others have reported that up to 50 percent of patients have evidence of vascular disease ...

Anemia contributes markedly to morbidity in patients with chronic renal insufficiency treated with hemodialysis. Although the pathogenesis of the anemia is multifactorial, a deficiency of erythropoietin secretion is probably the most important cause¹,². ...

A variety of oxidative mechanisms, involving the activity of monoamine oxidase and the formation of free radicals, have been implicated in the degeneration of neurons in the substantia nigra¹. The possible role of such mechanisms in the pathogenesis of ...

Head and neck cancer was last reviewed in the Journal in 1983¹. At that time, there was promising new information on a possible role for chemotherapy¹,². During the past decade, chemotherapy has undergone further investigation and important clinical ...

Presentation of Case

A 51-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with diffuse aches and mediastinal lymphadenopathy.

The patient was well until 15 months earlier, when she began to experience pain in the shoulders, right arm, and legs with the onset ...

Understanding the twin phenomena of aging and the dementing illnesses common in old age is a challenge to clinicians and investigators. Alzheimer's disease has now garnered the most attention as the predominant cause of dementia. Not long ago, a major ...

The kidney is the principal source of erythropoietin, and renal failure represents a state of erythropoietin deficiency; patients with chronic renal failure have low plasma concentrations of erythropoietin relative to the severity of their anemia¹. ...

To the Editor: The report by Mattson et al. (Sept. 10 issue)¹ that carbamazepine is more effective than valproate for the treatment of complex partial seizures is at variance with previous comparative trials²–⁵. Mattson and the Veterans Affairs group ...

To the Editor: Selective decontamination of the digestive tract is widely used to prevent nosocomial pneumonia in patients receiving mechanical ventilation, although its benefits are unproved¹. Objections to this procedure concern the possible selection ...

To the Editor: Kaposi's sarcoma is a tumor of endothelial or spindle-cell origin classically described as a multicentric, pigmented angiosarcoma appearing on the lower extremities of older men of Jewish or Mediterranean ancestry¹. Since the first report ...

To the Editor: The Food and Drug Administration has approved two assays for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody for use by “properly trained personnel” in physicians' offices, clinics, emergency rooms, and other settings “where enzyme ...

To the Editor: Takemoto et al. (Sept. 17 issue)¹ report a 9 percent improvement in one-year graft survival and a doubling of the estimated half-life for cadaveric renal allografts matched for six antigens, as compared with HLA-mismatched allografts. ...

To the Editor: Dr. Frohlich and colleagues are to be commended for their excellent review of hypertension and the heart (Oct. 1 issue)¹. We would like to elaborate on the references they cited regarding radionuclide scintigraphy in hypertensive patients²,...

To the Editor: Shea et al. (Sept. 10 issue)¹ identify several factors associated with uncontrolled hypertension, including the lack of a primary care physician, the lack of insurance, and noncompliance, and they note that the cost of medications has been ...

One of the quotations the author effectively employs to introduce each chapter, a snippet from David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, states, “Nor has Rhubarb prov'd always a Purge, or Opium a Soporific to everyone who has taken these ...

“Indigenous medical systems,” writes coeditor Holly Mathews, “are known by a confusing plethora of terms including alternative, unorthodox, vernacular, fringe, nontraditional, unofficial, and ethnomedicine.” In this book 10 authors from various ...

In this book Michael Murphy, cofounder of the Esalen Institute and an activist in the “human potential movement” for 30 years, presents an encyclopedic overview of extraordinary human physical, mental, and spiritual capacities. In 785 pages with more than ...

Most people value the goal of personal health highly. Considerable differences of opinion and belief exist, however, about how best to preserve and promote one's own physical and mental well-being. Usually, there is no problem when “alternative” ...

Since 1976 Silverman, Lydecker, and Lee have conducted quadrennial surveys that identify the single-drug entities or fixed-drug combinations marketed in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe and describe the manufacturers' indications and ...

The worried well present a treatment dilemma in our technology-oriented medical system. Lynn Payer, author of Disease-Mongers, accuses “doctors, drug companies, and insurers” of exploiting patients' fears for financial profit. Her book, aimed at a lay ...

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital (Case 42-1992). On page 1226, in Table 1, the units for the measurement of pulmonary vascular resistance should have been “dyn • sec • cm^-5,” not “dyn • sec/cm^-5” as printed. We regret the error.

Images in Clinical Medicine: Cardiac Amyloidosis. Sarah E. Katz, who is affiliated with the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, should have been listed as coauthor. We regret the error.