Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common neoplasm in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS),¹ and in some cohorts of homosexual men with AIDS, the lifetime risk of Kaposi's sarcoma approaches 50 percent.² Epidemiologic evidence suggests an ...

In patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) there is a probability of approximately 40 percent that cancer will develop, especially Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.¹–⁴ Chang et al.⁵ recently found evidence suggesting an ...

Refractory ascites is the complication of portal hypertension that most severely affects both quality of life and long-term survival.¹–⁵ Depending on the patient's general clinical state and whether there are additional complications, such as renal ...

Cigarette smoking is a serious health problem worldwide. Smoking has been strongly implicated as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and atherosclerosis.¹–³ Because cigarette smoke is known to contain a large number of ...

Figure 1. A 27-year-old man who was seropositive for the human immunodeficiency virus presented with severe periorbital and facial edema (Panel A) and generalized cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma. Note the lesion (arrows) on the nose. Computed tomography (CT) ...

The frequency of blindness and visual impairment increases among older persons,¹–⁴ but little work has been done to document the magnitude and severity of this problem among the oldest old people, many of whom reside in nursing homes or extended-care ...

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease characterized by hyperglycemia and by complications that include microvascular disease of the eye and kidney and a variety of clinical neuropathies.¹ Although diabetes is also associated with premature macrovascular ...

Molecular tools have sparked a revolution in the diagnosis of genetic disorders. In the past, genetic diagnosis was based exclusively on clinical criteria or on biochemical tests for the gene product or the consequences of its absence. Clinical criteria ...

Stage

A 22-year-old man was apparently in good health until, suddenly and without warning, he lost consciousness in the back seat of a car. The patient was rushed to a nearby clinic, where he was found to be apneic and to have no pulse. ...

Humans are infected with at least eight different herpesviruses, if 6A and 6B are counted as distinct. The discovery by Chang et al.¹ of number 9 (to be known, perversely, as human herpesvirus 8 [HHV-8]) should have caused barely a ripple. That it stirred ...

Epidemiologic studies of vision usually describe the frequency of impaired vision in noninstitutionalized populations. Few such studies have surveyed vision in residents of long-term care facilities. Because Tielsch et al., the authors of a report in this ...

Publication of “report cards” on hospitals and surgeons is an important new trend.¹ The New York State Department of Health pioneered this practice by developing the Cardiac Surgery Reporting System (CSRS), which generated the first physician-specific ...

To the Editor: Our observations at our substance-abuse program for pregnant women and mothers correspond to those of Edlin and colleagues (Nov. 24 issue).¹ Women addicted to “crack” cocaine are at substantially increased risk of contracting human ...

To the Editor: The article by Bjøro et al.¹ and the accompanying editorial by Schiff (Dec. 15 issue)² focus on the potential risks of transmission of hepatitis C by intravenous immune globulin. In this follow-up study of Norwegian patients who received ...

To the Editor: We wish to raise a note of caution about the use of anticoagulant agents to treat patients in whom protruding atherosclerotic plaques of the aortic arch have been diagnosed, because of the experience in our laboratories. We have followed ...

To the Editor: Although the review of childhood brain tumors by Pollack (Dec. 1 issue)¹ is excellent, it is based on the assumption that “the initial step in treatment is surgery to establish the histologic diagnosis and to reduce the tumor burden.” The ...

To the Editor: Ifosfamide is a chemotherapeutic agent used in the treatment of cervical carcinoma, soft-tissue sarcomas, and germ-cell tumors. Myelosuppression is common. Hemorrhagic cystitis is prevented by the administration of mesna. Confusion and ...

To the Editor: As a physician and a molecular biologist, I am struck by the Journal's series on molecular medicine. To my ear, the series is marked by a kind of overexuberance that belongs in a sales pitch for biotechnology investors, not in a reasoned ...

“Literary intellectuals at one pole — at the other scientists. . . . Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension.” That is how C.P. Snow characterized the relation between the two groups that this book concerns. Roslynn Haynes, an English professor ...

Cook County Hospital of Illinois, founded in the 1860s, is one of the few great public hospitals that continue to survive and endure. Sydney Lewis, who studied with Studs Terkel, has captured the turbulent past and present of this institution in the ...

This book is a personal, thoughtful, and eminently readable account of three extraordinary physicians who exemplify responsible leadership in academic medicine: Soma Weiss, Eugene Stead, and Paul beeson — the last two close associates and friends of the ...

This book presents 13 diverse essays held together by Konrad Bloch's encyclopedic knowledge of biochemistry and by his ability to arouse interest in anything he chooses to discuss. A recipient of the Nobel prize in 1964 for his elegant research on the ...