Thrombus formation is the proximate cause of myocardial infarction, but atherosclerosis, the chief underlying cause, is a chronic disease that progresses over decades of life.¹ Laboratory and pathological data support the idea that inflammation has a role ...

The value of adding radiotherapy to surgery in the treatment of patients with resectable rectal cancer has been assessed in trials using either preoperative¹–⁶ or postoperative⁷–¹⁰ irradiation. Lower rates of local recurrence have been found with ...

Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common tumor in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).¹,² The lesions associated with the disease have four characteristic components: thin-walled neovascular formations, extravasated red cells, ...

Male pseudohermaphroditism results from the abnormal differentiation of male external genitalia in a genotypic male. One cause of male pseudohermaphroditism is a deficiency of 5α-reductase-2, the enzyme that converts testosterone to 5α-dihydrotestosterone ...

Figure 1. A 32-year-old man infected with the human immunodeficiency virus presented with multiple papules of various sizes, many of which were umbilicated. The lesions were located mainly on his face (Panel A), with lesser involvement of the trunk, ...

Known since antiquity,¹ osteomyelitis is a difficult-to-treat infection characterized by the progressive inflammatory destruction and new apposition of bone.²–⁴ This review focuses on current knowledge of the disease and the progress being made in ...

Stage

A 60-year-old man came to the hospital because of intermittent wheezing, progressive dyspnea on exertion, and severe orthopnea, which had been present for several weeks. The patient had also had occasional vague chest pressure that was not clearly ...

Eli Ginzberg's predictions of the future of American medicine span more decades than do the careers of most physicians. Nearly 40 years ago he caused a great ruckus when he testified to a congressional committee that the plan to enlarge the physician work ...

Cardiac and cerebral ischemic events develop unpredictably in patients with widely varying degrees of atherosclerotic disease. Thus, a major area of research is the study of the stimuli that provoke ischemic events. The weak relation between ischemic ...

The usual initial treatment for patients who present with clinically resectable rectal cancer is surgery. Adjuvant therapy for this disease has improved considerably in the past decade, and most clinical trials now focus on postoperative combination ...

Americans are not inclined to spend much time or effort assessing the past; directing their energies to shaping the future, they believe, will result in much larger benefits. But it can be argued that underinvestment in assessing the past is likely to ...

To the Editor: Dürr and colleagues (Oct. 17 issue)¹ correlated the phenotypic features of Friedreich's ataxia and the size of an intronic GAA-triplet repeat in the gene that causes the disease, X25, and concluded that “the clinical spectrum of Friedreich'...

To the Editor: When the findings of a clinical trial are diametrically the opposite of those anticipated, a reevaluation of the original premises of the study is appropriate. Packer et al. (Oct. 10 issue)¹ reported that amlodipine reduced mortality in a ...

To the Editor: In their interesting analysis of the use of angiography and coronary revascularization in the first Global Utilization of Streptokinase and Tissue Plasminogen Activator for Occluded Coronary Arteries trial (GUSTO-1), Pilote et al. (Oct. 17 ...

To the Editor: Narula et al. (Oct. 17 issue)¹ describe the existence of apoptosis in seven explanted human hearts. On the basis of our own data on 10 explanted hearts (5 ischemic and 5 nonischemic),² we agree that cardiomyocyte apoptosis is present in ...

To the Editor: Benlian et al. (Sept. 19 issue)¹ describe four patients with familial chylomicronemia due to lipoprotein lipase deficiency and, contrary to current opinion,² conclude that such patients have an increased risk of premature atherosclerosis. ...

To the Editor: The Image in Clinical Medicine involving syphilitic gummas in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who presented with focal seizures (Oct. 10 issue)¹ caused us much concern. Our concern was heightened by the letter ...

To the Editor: It has been claimed that melatonin has many actions, mostly on the basis of uncontrolled studies of widely varying oral doses. It is commonly assumed that the administered dosage of melatonin bears a direct relation to its circulating ...

To the Editor: The National Hospice Organization welcomes the announcement of a new diagnostic code for palliative care and the possible development of a special diagnosis-related group (DRG) that would allow payment for end-of-life care in the hospital. ...

To the Editor: California recently enacted legislation requiring either surgical castration or “chemical castration” — a misnomer — for persons convicted of repeated sexual crimes against children.¹ Other states may follow suit. The California law ...

Recently, the debate over some of the biggest environmental issues — global climate change, population growth and depletion of resources, and chemical toxins — has taken on an antiscientific tone. Enjoying new access to the mainstream media and great ...

The premise of war is that something is worth dying and killing for, that something is more important than life itself. For professionals whose role depends on the belief that life is precious, society's use of war as a policy tool can therefore be deeply ...

The role of stressful life events in the development of illness is an important and evolving area of research. The emotional impact of wartime conflict, combat in particular, is an example. Many of the factors that make combat so tragic for the ...

There are riveting books about politics and books about riveting politics. The Weisserts have created a competent example of the latter type, concentrating their attention on the way in which the American political system — and especially its national ...

Most health workers, including many who care for injection-drug users or are involved in programs to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), do not know the steps used by injection-drug users to prepare and inject illegal drugs. ...

Effect of Atenolol on Mortality and Cardiovascular Morbidity after Noncardiac Surgery Original Article, N Engl J Med 1996:335;1713-1721.. On page 1718, two lines from the bottom of the right-hand column, and on page 1719, in the sixth line of the left-...

Successful Treatment of a Patient with a Thymoma and Pure Red-Cell Aplasia with Octreotide and Prednisone Original Article, N Engl J Med 1997:336;263-265.. On page 264, the sentence that begins three lines from the bottom of the right-hand column should ...