In infants the prone sleeping position has been found to be associated with an increased risk of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in a number of retrospective studies¹–⁵. We have reported that the habitual use of the prone sleeping position was ...

Thrombolytic therapy has been shown to reduce early and long-term mortality by about 20 percent when administered to patients with suspected myocardial infarction¹–³. The results of previous randomized clinical trials of thrombolytic therapy administered ...

The diagnosis of head and neck cancer is made in approximately 43,000 people annually in the United States¹. Many patients receive radiation therapy delivered to the head and neck as sole treatment or in addition to surgery for their cancer. Radiation ...

Amaurosis fugax, a brief loss of vision in one eye, is caused by hypoperfusion of the retinal circulation. If an attack of amaurosis is prolonged, the patient is at risk of permanent visual loss. Since the 1950s, amaurosis fugax has usually been ...

Figure 1. Vertebral Osteomyelitis.

A 63-year-old man, admitted to the hospital for an exacerbation of chronic lung disease, had blood cultures that were positive for Staphylococcus aureus. Imaging studies of the spine showed that he had vertebral ...

How much does it cost to administer America's hospitals? This seemingly arcane matter divides health care reformers. Some see an obese bureaucracy gobbling billions of dollars; to others, administrative costs appear not unreasonable. If administrative ...

Antiprogestins, agents that inhibit the action of progesterone, are among the most controversial and yet the more interesting therapeutic compounds developed in the past 20 years. These agents provide the most effective and safest means of medical ...

Stage

A 33-year-old rancher and outdoorsman reported four days of fever, low back pain, arthralgia, and myalgia. Two days before admission to the hospital, headache, nausea, vomiting, and fever (temperature, 39.7 °C) developed.

Response

One of the most ...

Presentation of Case

A 49-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia and painful osteolytic lesions of the right femur.

He had had essential thrombocythemia for 10 years that evolved into myelofibrosis with ...

Despite the data from at least 13 retrospective studies and 1 prospective study, all of which found that the prone sleeping position increases the risk of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),¹ and despite an official recommendation from the American ...

Amaurosis fugax, or transient monocular blindness, is caused by an abrupt, temporary reduction in blood flow to one eye. The loss of vision is sudden, usually lasting seconds or minutes. Blindness is complete, although it is sometimes limited to a sector ...

For many physicians, the report by Woolhandler et al.¹ on hospital administrative costs in this issue of the Journal will merely confirm their personal experience with the “suits and suites” syndrome -- the apparent proliferation of well-appointed ...

To the Editor: “Referral filter” bias can affect the generalizability of the results of any clinical trial¹. The three clinical trials comparing angioplasty with thrombolytic therapy in the March 11 issue of the Journal did not mention the referral ...

To the Editor: Brain natriuretic peptide was originally isolated from the mammalian brain¹,² and acts as a cardiac hormone resembling atrial natriuretic peptide³,⁴. Brain natriuretic peptide is synthesized primarily by the ventricles, and its expression ...

To the Editor: Oriscello and Robertello (March 25 issue)¹ present a computed tomographic scan demonstrating air in the right ventricle. The case description raises serious questions about quality assurance. Because conventional motorized intravenous ...

To the Editor: Edelman and Warach provide a comprehensive review of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (March 11 and 18 issues)¹. They compare MRI with bone scintigraphy and note that MRI is “the imaging method of choice for acute osteomyelitis.” There ...

To the Editor: Morgan (March 25 issue)¹ concluded that despite the plethora of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) centers in Orange County, California, access was severely limited for both Medicaid patients and patients lacking private insurance. Canada, ...

To the Editor: We read Dr. Ragozzino's account (March 18 issue)¹ of the recreational athlete who had acute scrotal injury after a seemingly benign session of physiotherapy. Our curiosity lay not with the proposed mechanism of injury but with the use of ...

To the Editor: The presence of nicotine and its metabolite cotinine in the body fluids of nonsmokers is usually taken as evidence of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied 800 people, ...

In their preface to Smith's General Urology, the editors state that their goal “has been to keep the book current, to-the-point, and readable.” That goal has been admirably met in the present edition (the first was published in 1957). Smith's is not ...

This book is the first of a planned collection of subspecialty surgical works, the “Mastery of Surgery” series, edited by Nyhus and Baker. Volumes on plastic, orthopedic, and pediatric surgery are expected.

Each chapter of this book is written by a ...

Discoveries in the fields of endocrinology, vascular physiology, neurology, and pharmacology during the past decade have been responsible for the evolution of the subspecialty of male erectile dysfunction. These scientific findings have demonstrated that ...

Impotence is more common than most clinicians realize. Recent reports estimate that more than 20 million American men between the ages of 40 and 70 years have some degree of erectile dysfunction. Wagner and Kaplan believe that antisexual, Victorian codes ...

In a 1991 article, “The Politics of Prolapse: A Revisionist Approach to Disorders of the Pelvic Floor in Women” (Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 34:486-496), Wall and DeLancey discussed the single musculofascial support structure of the pelvic floor, ...

This well-written book clearly outlines a wide array of breast problems seen by obstetricians, gynecologists, internists, and general practitioners. Even though there are many excellent books on breast cancer and breast diseases, this book readily fills a ...

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital (Case 21-1993) Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, N Engl J Med 1993:328;1550-1558.. On page 1552, in the 14th line of the left-hand column, the term “β₂-macroglobulin” should have been “β_...