Several forms of chemoprophylaxis can prevent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and thereby improve survival in persons with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease.¹–⁹ Trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole, the most widely recommended drug, can also ...

Prophylaxis against opportunistic infections is a major part of the care of patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Prophylactic treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia has been clearly shown to prevent initial episodes, ...

Ischemic heart disease is a multifactorial disease, influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Although the recognition of a number of environmental risk factors has led to important advances in the prevention and treatment of the disease, our ...

Epidemiologic data have strongly linked cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption to the development of certain cancers.¹,² Smoking is the most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States, and tobacco and alcohol use accounts for one third ...

Figure 1. Dysfunctional tripolar mitotic figures usually indicate neoplasia. The cell shown here, however, represents an abnormal but nonneoplastic astrocyte, presumably infected with papovirus, in a patient with progressive multifocal ...

The epidemic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has increased concern about the risk of transmitting infectious diseases through blood transfusion. In response to this concern, there has been a dramatic increase in preoperative autologous ...

Patients who report having diarrhea for more than four weeks should be evaluated for chronic diarrheal diseases, since most infectious enteritides and other causes of acute diarrhea generally resolve spontaneously within this period.¹–³ We suggest a two-...

Presentation of Case

A 75-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of cranial-nerve deficits and a footdrop.

The patient had been well until the age of 74 years and 3 months, when an erythematous, nonpruritic rash developed on the scalp, ...

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has become a chronic disease that lasts at least 10 to 15 years. One of the major clinical advances has been the implementation in the mid-1980s of antimicrobial prophylaxis for patients with severe immune ...

Dread of contracting AIDS from blood transfusion has driven the dramatic expansion in autologous blood donation programs that began in the mid-1980s. At that time, the blood-banking community, sharing the public's concern about AIDS and anxious about ...

The failure of national health care reform in 1994 had too many causes to list. But surely one was doubt that costs could be controlled and coverage expanded simultaneously. That doubt became the fear that most Americans would lose as a result of reform. ...

Metaphors matter, as our sterile debate on the fi-nancing of health insurance demonstrates so well. In that debate the traditional metaphor of American medicine, the military metaphor, was displaced by the market metaphor in public discourse. Metaphors, ...

To the Editor: In their editorial (Oct. 13 issue),¹ Carabello and Crawford remind us that the therapy for mitral stenosis has come full circle. Just as fascinating is the way in which medical attitudes toward mitral stenosis have changed. Elliott Cutler ...

To the Editor: Two double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have demonstrated that intravenous immune globulin reduces serious and minor bacterial infections and hospitalizations in children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who have ...

To the Editor: The competing goals of justice and optimal outcome in the allocation of cadaveric kidneys were addressed in the September 22 issue of the Journal. ¹–³ Takemoto and coauthors accept the premise that current policies place black candidates ...

To the Editor: Gingival hyperplasia is a known complication of cyclosporine therapy. It appears to be worsened by the concomitant administration of nifedipine or phenytoin.

Two transplant recipients had dramatic improvements in symptomatic gingival ...

To the Editor: The potential for cancer to develop at the sites of chronic wounds was described in 1828 by Marjolin.¹ We report a skin cancer in a 58-year-old woman at the site of the extravasation of doxorubicin, 10 years after the drug was ...

To the Editor: Burroughs Wellcome shares the concern expressed by Pourmotabbed (Oct. 27 issue)¹ about confusion between our Lanoxin brand of digoxin and another manufacturer's Levoxine brand of levothyroxine sodium. The medication error described ...

“Maybe I never learned this language right, medicine,” says the sorrowful and guilt-laced physician protagonist of one story in this superb collection. “Oh god how I loved my language my tongue my home,” says a young American girl marooned in a vengeful ...

Two decades separate Dr. Sidney Goldstein's first edition of this book, called Sudden Death and Coronary Heart Disease, and the current version, entitled Sudden Cardiac Death. He has been joined in the new book by two Spanish cardiologists who, like him, ...

This book lives up to its ambitious title. The editors avoid the usual approach of collecting authoritative views on what is known. Instead, they focus on how the flood of knowledge about atherosclerosis can be used to look ahead. Their book provides an ...

PrimePractice Cardiology is the first issue of a quarterly medical journal on CD-ROM that has been developed by Mayo Clinic physicians as a continuing-medical-education (CME) tool for primary care physicians. Subsequent issues will focus on other ...

In addition to the well-known 2600-page, single volume of the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR), the PDR library includes three lesser-known books: PDR for Nonprescription Drugs, PDR for Ophthalmology, and the PDR Guide to Drug Interactions, Side Effects ...