Oral anticoagulant therapy is routinely given to most patients who have had episodes of venous thromboembolism. Two recent multicenter trials have demonstrated that if the duration of treatment after a first episode of thromboembolism is extended to three ...

Patients who have symptomatic deep-vein thrombosis of the legs remain at risk for recurrent venous thromboembolism despite adequate treatment with heparin and warfarin.¹ In a recent long-term follow-up study of a consecutive series of patients with a ...

Thrombocytopenia is a complication of chemotherapy that can increase the risk of hemorrhage,¹ necessitate platelet transfusions, and limit the doses of myelotoxic agents. Platelet transfusions can prevent bleeding, but infectious and allergic ...

Men with idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and Kallmann's syndrome (idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and anosmia) have severe gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) deficiency.¹,² Typically, men with either form of isolated GnRH deficiency ...

Figure 1. An 82-year-old woman with a history of myocardial infarction and heart failure collapsed during rehabilitation following a cerebral infarction with hemiparesis. Several days earlier, the presence of deep venous thrombosis of the right leg was ...

We investigated factors influencing the attitudes and practices of physicians in the San Francisco Bay area regarding physician-assisted suicide for patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). We evaluated whether, and to what extent, ...

The success of solid-organ transplantation has increased the need for an expanded supply of organ donors.¹,² In response to this need, the age limit for cadaveric donors has been increased, and donors over the age of 50 years are now routinely evaluated. ...

Patients with venous thromboembolic disease require treatment to stop the thrombotic process. The importance of immediate therapy with parenteral anticoagulants or thrombolytic agents (or both) is unquestioned.¹,² Furthermore, several well-designed ...

For approximately 30 years, hematologists have sought the humoral regulator of platelet production, thrombopoietin.¹ Although a factor with the appropriate physiologic effects was partially purified, the goal continued to evade researchers until 1994, ...

Because there is a wide gap in the United States between the number of patients on waiting lists for organ transplants and the number of organs available for transplantation, any system of allocation is likely to seem inequitable from the viewpoint of ...

To the Editor: At no point in Dr. Orentlicher's article on the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (Aug. 29 issue)¹ is there any mention of the Hippocratic oath, which states: “You will exercise your art solely for the cure of your patients, and ...

To the Editor: Hylek et al. (Aug. 22 issue)¹ imply that the lowest effective intensity of anticoagulation for patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation is an international normalized ratio (INR) >2.0. Although this intensity may be optimal to prevent ...

To the Editor: In their examination of the influence of cardiac-surgery performance reports on referral practices and access to care, Schneider and Epstein (July 25 issue)¹ note, “Now, employers, patients, and insurers are all pressing for more and ...

To the Editor: In the United States, an increasing number of Medicare and Medicaid patients are enrolling in managed-care organizations, either voluntarily or because of state Medicaid reforms. Data on the use of health care by these patients and on ...

To the Editor: In their Sounding Board article on the emerging role of “hospitalists” in the American health care system (Aug. 15 issue),¹ Drs. Wachter and Goldman express their view that developing a hospitalist specialty to care for inpatients is ...

The failure of the 103rd Congress to pass any kind of health care–reform bill in 1994 was stunning and depressing. Stunning, because no one thought such an outcome was even remotely possible, and depressing, because it induced dark thoughts about the ...

The study of nervous system cancer has become a subspecialty, neuro-oncology. As the hyphenated name implies, neuro-oncology is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on primary tumors of the nervous system and the effects of systemic cancer on the ...

This is an excellent and timely book. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and is discussed most frequently in terms of classical surgery, chemotherapy, and palliation. In this refreshing approach, editors from three continents ...

Total Burn Care is an excellent book both for physicians experienced in the care of burns and for novices. It covers all aspects of burns from acute care to recovery, whereas most books on the subject focus on only one aspect of management. The book has ...

Premature Atherosclerosis in Patients with Familial Chylomicronemia Caused by Mutations in the Lipoprotein Lipase Gene Original Article, N Engl J Med 1996:335;848-854.. In the Abstract and on pages 850, 851, and 852, when the word “ultrasonography” is ...

Cowboys, Camels, and the First Amendment — The FDA's Restrictions on Tobacco Advertising Legal Issues in Medicine, N Engl J Med 1996:335;1779-1783.. On page 1782, 18 lines from the bottom of the right-hand column, the citation for the quote should have ...