The reliability of objective testing of the efficacy of antiarrhythmic drugs in patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia and in those surviving a cardiac arrest is controversial¹,². Both invasive electrophysiologic study and noninvasive Holter ...

The relative efficacy as well as the safety of various antiarrhythmic drugs used to prevent the recurrence of ventricular tachyarrhythmias in susceptible patients has not been rigorously compared. In the Electrophysiologic Study versus ...

Despite the use of various combined chemotherapeutic regimens for advanced-stage intermediate- and high-grade lymphomas, roughly half of patients treated do not have a complete remission or eventually have a relapse after a remission. This situation has ...

Women with rheumatoid arthritis often have remissions or improvement of arthritis during pregnancy¹. Although early research into the cause of this phenomenon contributed to the eventual discovery of cortisone, subsequent work showed that increased serum ...

Despite the use of pneumococcal vaccine and prophylactic oral penicillin, septicemia due to infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among young children with sickle cell disease¹. Traditionally, febrile ...

Figure 1. Streptococcus pneumoniae.

A ubiquitous gram-positive pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae often appears in a diplococcal form (x14,520).

The growing consensus among the public and the scientific community that women's health issues have been neglected has kindled unprecedented interest in the quality and quantity of health care that women receive¹. In response, Congress and others have ...

Body temperature, like other fundamental aspects of human biology, is closely regulated by intricate control mechanisms. These homeostatic controls allow body temperature to display a predictable diurnal rhythmicity, increasing from a nadir of about 36 °C ...

Presentation of Case

A 27-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of syncope.

The patient had been in excellent health until the day of admission, when he experienced palpitations and dizziness while playing soccer and abruptly lost ...

Only two decades ago, the treatment of patients with recurrent ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation was entirely empirical and relied exclusively on drug therapy. The proarrhythmic effects of drug treatment and the possibility that such treatment ...

The recognition of associations between HLA antigens and a variety of diseases has stimulated many immunologic studies of the pathogenesis of complex human diseases. This is particularly true of autoimmune diseases¹,² and, more recently, some reproductive ...

Physicians in developing countries who treat patients with sickle cell disease have traditionally relied heavily on clinical judgment. The combination of the high prevalence of the disorder and the limited diagnostic and therapeutic facilities available ...

To the Editor: In their report on the sick building syndrome (March 25 issue),¹ Menzies et al. conclude that “increases in the supply of outdoor air did not appear to affect workers' perceptions of their office environment or their reporting of symptoms ...

To the Editor: Testa et al. (April 1 issue)¹ compared two antihypertensive medications, captopril and enalapril, with regard to their effects on quality of life in men. Patients treated with captopril had more favorable changes in overall quality of life,...

To the Editor: The study by Manning et al. on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coronary angiography (March 25 issue¹) is an important first step toward identifying a noninvasive method of visualizing coronary anatomy. I am concerned, however, about the ...

To the Editor: From their study of dietary calcium and other nutrients (March 25 issue),¹ Curhan et al. concluded that “a high dietary calcium intake decreases the risk of symptomatic kidney stones.” This statement has resulted in much confusion and ...

To the Editor: In the Clinical Problem-Solving feature (April 1 issue),¹ an 87-year-old woman with no known heart or pulmonary disease went to see her physician because she was short of breath. The article does not address the inappropriate treatment for ...

To the Editor: The stonefish (synanceja) is a member of the scorpion fish family and lives in shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific region. Its length averages 15 cm, with 13 venomous spines located on the dorsal surface. Although stonefish envenomation is ...

To the Editor: In 1991, a colleague and I summarized data on cases of AIDS reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1989 and 1990.¹ This letter updates recent trends in AIDS cases in the United States by comparing end-of-the-...

The apparent ability of the mammalian fetus to defy the natural law regarding the rejection of foreign tissue has long intrigued scientists. With a few notable exceptions, this fascination has not extended to obstetrician-gynecologists, family doctors, ...

This book, part of the Biomedical Ethics series, consists of eight essays on moral and legal issues relating to the fetus. The first chapter, by Roger Dworkin, is alone worth the price of the book. Dworkin's text, “Every silver lining has a cloud,” ...

Many medical applications using fetal tissue have been conceived, and in a number of instances they have been tested clinically. Unfortunately, the field of fetal-tissue transplantation has engendered more than its share of controversy. Some proponents ...

The relatively new concept that the fetus should be viewed as a patient reflects the development of high-resolution ultrasonography and ultrasound-guided techniques of prenatal diagnosis and treatment. Remarkable advances in molecular genetics have also ...

This two-volume textbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date review of obstetrics and gynecology and of the role of ultrasound in this field. The title is something of a misnomer, since many of the topics covered are unrelated to ultrasound. These ...

The practice of reproductive medicine is inherently controversial. This is a function not only of the accelerating pace of technological advances and their rapid assimilation into clinical practice, but also of the conflicts encountered in a discipline in ...