Croup (acute laryngotracheobronchitis) is a common cause of acute upper-airway obstruction in childhood, with an incidence of approximately 3 cases per 100 children less than six years of age. Up to 1.3 percent of affected children are hospitalized¹. ...

Misoprostol ((±)-methyl-11α, 16-dihydroxy-16-methyl-9-oxoprost-13E-en-1-oate) is a synthetic prostaglandin structurally related to prostaglandin E₁ ¹. It is principally used to prevent peptic ulcer disease induced by the ingestion of nonsteroidal ...

Ewing's sarcoma,¹ the second most common malignant bone tumor of children and young adults, is an aggressive osteolytic tumor with a marked propensity for dissemination. Accurate and rapid diagnosis is essential for clinical management, but classification ...

For many years, inflammation resulting from benign anal lesions, such as hemorrhoids and anal fistulas, has been considered to cause a predisposition to anal cancer. In 1927, Brofeldt wrote, “It seems, therefore, that all sorts of inflammatory processes ...

Figure 1. Ascaris lumbricoides.

Upper endoscopy was performed in a 19-year-old man from Afghanistan because of four days of watery diarrhea and dysphagia without abdominal pain. Stool examination revealed no parasitic ova, and cultures were negative for ...

Between 250,000 and 3 million people in the United States are homeless¹–³. Their health problems are difficult to characterize because truly representative samples of the homeless population have not been identified⁴–⁷.

Homeless people are especially ...

Septic abortion, an abortion associated with infection and complicated by fever, endometritis, and parametritis,¹ remains one of the most serious threats to the health of women throughout the world. Morbidity and mortality from septic abortion are ...

When recombinant DNA -- DNA deliberately coupled from different sources -- was first produced, it was seen as a dangerous example of molecular tinkering gone wild, with potentially disastrous consequences. Two decades later, recombinant DNA, now virtually ...

Stage

A 52-year-old man had a seven-month history of fatigue, weight loss, and pain in the lower abdomen and low back. Three months earlier, he had undergone a barium enema and upper endoscopy after he was found to have a hematocrit of 29 percent with a ...

In this issue of the Journal, Klassen et al. report that the nebulized glucocorticoid budesonide produces prompt and substantial clinical improvement in children who present to the emergency room with mild-to-moderate croup¹. These authors report faster ...

Over the past several decades, no issue has engendered more controversy, hostility, and even violence than abortion¹,². And there is probably no single issue for which a resolution is less likely. For those who believe that life begins at fertilization or ...

The application of molecular biology to the treatment of patients with cancer took root in pediatric oncology with the landmark demonstration of the association of amplification of the N-myc oncogene with a poor prognosis in children with neuroblastoma¹. ...

In 1986, during the course of assessing the health status and health care needs of homeless children in New York City, my colleagues and I visited one of the city's largest and most notorious family-placement welfare hotels. The experience was heart-...

To the Editor: In concluding that the current process for making decisions about coverage of high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer is “arbitrary and capricious,” Drs. Peters and Rogers (Feb. 17 issue)¹ assume that . . . only insurers have a financial ...

To the Editor: We have some pretty tough days too, for in addition to the clinical, academic, and administrative functions that are part of our careers, we now have to spend many hours persuading health insurance companies that we are not trying to ...

To the Editor: We disagree with the conclusion of Lenderking et al. (March 17 issue)¹ that the side effects of zidovudine make its use questionable in patients who have asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The most striking finding ...

To the Editor: Moore et al. (March 17 issue)¹ present data suggesting that among patients seeking treatment at their Baltimore HIV clinic, blacks were less likely than whites to have received previous antiretroviral therapy or prophylaxis against ...

To the Editor: Griffin et al. (March 17 issue)¹ report decreased duration of severe pain in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease after treatment with high-dose methylprednisolone. There are serious deficiencies in the methods used in this ...

To the Editor: A recent report¹ stimulated us to use aerosolized prostaglandin I₂ (PGI₂; also called prostacyclin or epoprostenol) to improve arterial oxygenation by producing selective pulmonary vasodilation in well-ventilated areas. PGI₂ decreases ...

To the Editor: We wish to inform you of an error in our paper “the Deteriorating Administrative Efficiency of the U.S. Health Care System” (May 2, 1991, issue).¹ The error was brought to our attention by Mr. Gilles Fortin of the Health Information ...

The Road to Reform is a clear, well-informed, and balanced primer on the American health care system, written for a concerned public. The book is an excellent source of insight into the numerous factors that have created the current climate of reform.

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This book is a political rather than a public health account of the considerable accomplishments of the Cuban health care system. The topic is felicitous for the debate about health care in the United States. At a time when new U.S. investments in global ...

Infectious disease is a major problem in obstetrics and gynecology, but reference sources are few and far between. Pastorek has attempted to fill the void with a comprehensive textbook written by a who's who in obstetric and gynecologic infectious ...

This textbook is an excellent resource for the pediatrician, gynecologist, general surgeon, or physician in adolescent or adult medicine and for other health care providers who care for children and adolescents. The format of the book facilitates its use ...