The low rates of coronary heart disease in Japan and Greenland, where fish is an important component of the diet, suggest that the consumption of fish may be protective against such disease.¹–³ Possible mechanisms of this effect include the ability of ...

An estimated 30 million abortions are performed worldwide each year.¹ The safety of the procedure is therefore of global public health importance. Medical termination of pregnancy with a combination of mifepristone (RU 486) and prostaglandin is a ...

Ulcerative colitis is largely a disease of nonsmokers, and patients with ulcerative colitis who are exsmokers have usually acquired the disease within a few years after they stopped smoking.¹–⁵ Patients who smoke intermittently often experience ...

The antiphospholipid-antibody syndrome is a thrombophilic disorder in which venous or arterial thrombosis, or both, may occur.¹ The serologic markers of the syndrome are antiphospholipid antibodies (anticardiolipin antibodies, the lupus anticoagulant, or ...

Figure 1. A 72-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with delirium, acute renal failure, increasing hypertension, sudden impairment of vision in the left eye, and severe pain in the left foot. Funduscopic examination of the left eye (Panel A) showed a ...

In the United States, the elderly account for over one third of health care spending. Almost two thirds of their health care is paid for by Medicare — the largest single source of health spending in the United States — and Medicaid,¹ and a considerable ...

The taxanes are an important new class of anticancer agents that exert their cytotoxic effects through a unique mechanism. Paclitaxel (Taxol), the first taxane in clinical trials, is active against a broad range of cancers that are generally considered to ...

Presentation of Case

A 39-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of calcifications around the aortic root, a recent myocardial infarction, and subsequent congestive heart failure, with increasing aortic regurgitation.

The patient had been well ...

Epidemiologic and laboratory investigations suggest that eating fish confers protection against coronary heart disease.¹,² However, in this issue of the Jour-nal, Ascherio et al.³ report no association between fish intake and coronary heart disease in the ...

Truly elegant clinical science defines syndromes with precision, delineates pathogenic mechanisms, and compares treatments in prospective randomized trials. Conventional clinical science lacks precision and applies empirical remedies. According to these ...

Medicare is the largest publicly financed health program in the United States, with total expenditures of $154 billion in 1993 (19.3 percent of total spending on health care) for 36 million elderly and disabled persons.¹ According to recent actuarial ...

Accelerated, or malignant, hypertension is a disorder whose natural history has been so greatly changed by the availability of effective diagnosis and therapy that many physicians no longer encounter it. In this issue of the Journal, Messerli recalls the ...

To the Editor: The article by Kessler et al. (Nov. 17 issue)¹ provides a useful summary of questionable promotional activities by pharmaceutical companies. It does not discuss, however, the inappropriate promotional use of published and unpublished ...

To the Editor: Danzl and Pozos discuss active core rewarming for accidental hypothermia (Dec. 29 issue).¹ We are located in an alpine region and frequently encounter profound hypothermia caused by submersion in cold water,² snow-avalanche accidents, or ...

To the Editor: The article by Solomon et al. (Nov. 24 issue)¹ concerning renal dysfunction induced by radiocontrast agents was interesting, but the authors should have included information about the use of angiotensin-converting–enzyme inhibitors and ...

To the Editor: Nitric oxide is a gas neurotransmitter involved in multiple physiologic and pathologic processes.¹ We report a case in which the use of nitric oxide for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension after lung transplantation may have caused ...

To the Editor: The clinical benefit of vancomycin, useful for over 30 years in the treatment of patients infected with gram-positive bacteria, has recently been compromised by the development of resistance — especially by enterococci.¹ The Centers for ...

The headlines of April 13, 1945, stunned the nation and the world. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, had died in Warm Springs, Georgia, the day before. Presumably, he had been in excellent health, there was no indication of ...

Few surgical disciplines have been untouched by the advent of minimally invasive therapy. In the five or six years since laparoscopic cholecystectomy was popularized, virtually every branch of surgery has tested the hypothesis that minimal-access surgery ...

Not long ago, the clinician seeking to purchase a hardbound book dealing with critical care medicine had few choices. Now there are more than half a dozen texts on this topic. The newest entry is Surgical Critical Care, edited by Joseph A. Moylan.

...

Medical schools are scrambling to meet society's demand for primary care physicians by developing educational programs that address the knowledge, skills, and attitudes critical for providing high-quality primary care. The first step is to define the core ...

It is probably great fun to go to lectures by May Berenbaum in her Entomology 105 course, “Insects and People.” I expect she presents a great deal of information and covers a wide range of topics on the biology of insects. I expect there are a few good ...

Our understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma has changed dramatically over the past decade. An unprecedented research effort has shown that asthma is a complex chronic inflammatory process rather than merely an acute bronchospastic process. As a direct ...

PCR and the Misdiagnosis of Active Tuberculosis Correspondence, N Engl J Med 1995:332;128-129.. The name of one of the coauthors of the letter — Michael Beller, M.D., M.P.H. — was inadvertently omitted. Dr. Beller is affiliated with the Public Health ...