Most patients with heart failure are treated with a combination of drugs that usually includes cardiac glycosides, diuretics, and afterload-reducing agents.¹,² Such regimens provide symptomatic relief,² but their effects on survival have been variable or ...

Wasting is a major complication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and it makes an important contribution to both the morbidity and the mortality of the disease.¹ Weight loss in patients with HIV infection tends to be periodic, occurring ...

There is little information available on the incidence and natural history of neuropathy diagnosed according to clinical and electrodiagnostic criteria in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Up to 7.5 percent of patients with ...

Cystic fibrosis is the most common lethal autosomal recessive disorder among whites, with an incidence of about 1 in 2500 live births. One person in 25 is an asymptomatic carrier.¹ The gene containing mutations responsible for cystic fibrosis was cloned ...

Figure 1. Transverse Leukonychia.

Multiple white lines are present in the fingernails of a patient undergoing anthracycline chemotherapy for metastatic carcinoma of the breast. The spacing of the lines coincides with the three-week intervals between ...

In 1982, the vitamin A analogue isotretinoin (Accutane) was introduced in the United States for the treatment of severe recalcitrant cystic acne. Because studies in animals had suggested that isotretinoin might be teratogenic in humans, the drug was ...

Occupational asthma has become the most prevalent occupational lung disease in developed countries.¹–⁵ Surveillance programs in the United Kingdom⁴ and in British Columbia, Canada,⁵ indicate that asthma is the most frequently reported occupational lung ...

Presentation of Case

A 33-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of fever and increasing pain in the right leg.

The patient had been well until 11 days earlier, when a sore throat developed while he was attending a meeting in Texas. No other ...

Two recent studies have suggested that amiodarone, a potent antiarrhythmic agent, is a promising drug for the treatment of ventricular tachyarrhythmias after myocardial infarction.¹,² The results of two additional studies of the use of amiodarone after ...

The wasting syndrome, defined as the unintentional loss of more than 10 percent of body weight, is a devastating complication of AIDS, other infections, and cancer.¹ Because weight loss is an independent contributor to death,²,³ reversing it could ...

No one who attended the hearings on isotretinoin at the Maryland headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 1988 could have failed to notice that the physicians present were split into two camps. On one side sat the dermatologists. ...

To the Editor: Isenberg and colleagues (March 2 issue)¹ demonstrated the effectiveness of povidone-iodine prophylaxis against ophthalmia neonatorum but limited their observation of side effects to local toxic reactions. Were the systemic effects of ...

To the Editor: The patient with possible systemic lupus erythematosus described in the March 2 Clinical Problem-Solving article¹ most likely had primary or secondary antiphospholipid-antibody syndrome.²,³ She had documented thrombi in both legs, along ...

To the Editor: Neglia et al. (Feb. 23 issue)¹ report an increased incidence of gastrointestinal cancer in patients with cystic fibrosis and suggest a relation between the action of the defective gene and the development of cancer in the gastrointestinal ...

To the Editor: Chin and Sarno (Feb. 23 issue)¹ state, ``Osteonecrosis can also occur with short-term use of corticosteroids.'' This statement is inexact and incomplete, and it could be used unfairly by lawyers in malpractice suits.

My colleagues and I ...

To the Editor: We wish to correct data related to the long-term survival of patients in the persistent vegetative state. In our report,¹ estimates of the long-term survival of such patients were based on data from four published series.²–⁵ The number of ...

To the Editor: In their letter ``Trans Fatty Acids in European Margarines'' (Feb. 23 issue),¹ Michels and Sacks present a misleading perspective on the science of trans fatty acids and do not accurately describe today's margarine products. Although some ...

Since the end of the Second World War, Buddhist thought (especially its Zen version) has become an increasingly familiar aspect of American secular life -- that of our upper bourgeois segment, at least. The so-called Beat writers of the 1950s introduced ...

One hundred years ago, psychotherapy was born of Breuer and Freud's attempt to cure mental illness by recovering memories of trauma that had, according to their theory, been denied to conscious awareness. Today, classical psychoanalysis has largely been ...

Stories about recovered ``memories'' of childhood sexual abuse -- memories supposedly long lost to consciousness and brought to light by techniques such as guided imagery, dream interpretation, and group therapeutic sessions -- have flooded the news these ...

I recently suggested to a group of residents in psychiatry that they spend a few nights sleeping on their acute care wards, to get a patient's perspective on the inpatient experience. They listened, agreed that this might be useful, laughed nervously, and ...

Once, one could select from among just about three categories of psychiatric drugs -- antidepressants, major tranquilizers, and minor tranquilizers. The choice depended on whether the patient appeared depressed, looked psychotic, or was feeling nervous. ...

Foxglove Correspondence, N Engl J Med 1995:332;1386.. Leonhard Fuchs named the plant "Digitalis purpurea," not "foxglove," as stated in the letter. We regret the error.

Book Review of Child Mental Health and the Law Book Review, N Engl J Med 1995:332;1451-1452.. On page 1451, in the publication information at the beginning and in the first line of the third paragraph of the review, the author's name should have been ...