During the early stages of primary infection with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), viral titers in plasma reach high levels. This phase of viremia is followed by a rapid decline, in which viral titers in serum and the load of provirus in ...

In 1959, Turcot and colleagues described two teenaged siblings with numerous adenomatous polyps of the colorectum in whom malignant tumors of the central nervous system developed.¹ One patient had a medulloblastoma involving the spinal cord (the brain was ...

Lung disease in patients with cystic fibrosis is characterized by persistent bacterial infection leading to bronchitis and bronchiectasis. The airways are plugged with thick mucopurulent secretions containing abundant bacteria and neutrophils, and death ...

Cryptosporidium parvum is a coccidian parasite of many animal species. The agent is a common cause of diarrhea in virtually all human populations, and it has a particular predilection for certain hosts, including those who have contact with animals, ...

Figure 1. Stored bipolar intracardiac electrograms obtained from a 66-year-old man with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator were retrieved during a routine office visit. The patient had reported a brief episode of lightheadedness followed by a ...

Colorectal cancer ranks second as a cause of death due to cancer in the United States; approximately 56,000 deaths and 150,000 new cases are predicted this year.¹ Improvements in fiberoptic technology over the past two decades have made the elimination of ...

Glucocorticoids are the most effective therapy available for patients with asthma. They may be administered either orally or, much more safely, by inhalation. With the recognition that airway inflammation is present even in patients with mild asthma, ...

Presentation of Case

A 56-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of abdominal pain, a falling hematocrit, and a pelvic mass.

The patient had been well until five days earlier, when there was the onset of pain in the anterior part of the right ...

AIDS is probably the most intensively studied infectious disease in history, yet enormous gaps remain in our knowledge of its pathogenesis. Clinicians have long been intrigued by the question “Is human immunodeficiency virus type 1 [HIV-1] infection ...

Genes with key roles in the development of cancer have been identified by the study of families with an inherited predisposition to particular neoplasms, such as retinoblastoma, breast and colon cancer, and now brain tumors. In each of these conditions, ...

During the two decades that followed the identification, in 1938, of cystic fibrosis as a distinct disease,¹ few patients lived past the age of five years. At that time, most patients with cystic fibrosis died of rapidly progressive pulmonary infections. ...

To the Editor: It is informative to contrast the results of the two clinical trials comparing bypass surgery and angioplasty (Oct. 20 issue)¹,² with the results of a previous observational study.³ Neither clinical trial found any difference in mortality ...

To the Editor: Connor et al. (Nov. 3 issue)¹ report that a multicenter clinical trial, conducted in the United States and France, demonstrated a reduction in maternal–infant transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) with zidovudine ...

To the Editor: Despite the strong evidence reported by Connor et al. (Nov. 3. issue)¹ that zidovudine therapy administered to pregnant woman with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection can significantly reduce the risk of maternal–infant ...

To the Editor: The urine tests used by Brookoff et al. (Aug. 25 issue)¹ detected neither cocaine nor the active component of marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, but did detect their metabolites, benzoylecgonine and COOH-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. ...

To the Editor: One way to reduce alcohol-related crashes, the subject of the Special Article by Brewer et al. (Aug. 25 issue),¹ is to reduce consumption by raising the price of alcoholic beverages. There is a strong relation between total alcohol ...

To the Editor: Penicillin-resistant strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae are found in many countries and are spreading, especially among children in day-care centers. Many authorities now recommend treating suspected cases of pneumococcal meningitis with ...

To the Editor: In their Clinical Problem-Solving article “Pain in the Marriage,” Mevorach and Heyman (Jan. 5 issue)¹ opportunely highlighted the possibility that exposure to carbon monoxide can precipitate unstable angina. This point has received very ...

look-alikes except for size

born of playful moments

how much alike they are to us!

fragile individuals

swayed by invisible forces

upon a closer look

revealing hidden beauty

each one its own configuration

of red and blue swirls

unique in time and space

...

This book is a distillation of rather less than half of the two-volume Textbook of Diabetes, also edited by Pickup and Williams and published in 1991 (Boston: Blackwell Scientific); it weighs 1.5 kg, as compared with the 4.9 kg of the original. Maybe ...

This three-volume set, unassumingly entitled Handbook of Growth Factors, is in fact an encyclopedic review of the entire field of mitogens and signaling pathways. The books are comprehensive, detailed, and well written and, in my opinion, will serve as ...

Overproduction of red cells resulting in erythrocytosis has been recognized by clinicians for more than 100 years, since the initial descriptions by Louis Henri Vaquez and then by William Osler. As pointed out in the preface to this book, physicians and ...