Antibodies against alloantigens on donor platelets are a major cause of refractoriness to platelet transfusions in patients with thrombocytopenia. These antibodies usually arise in response to HLA class I antigens on leukocytes and platelets, and they may ...

It is generally accepted that prophylactic platelet transfusions reduce the risk of hemorrhage in patients undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia or cancer.¹,² These prophylactic transfusions are usually given when the platelet count falls below 20,000 per ...

Bacillary angiomatosis was first described early in the epidemic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).¹–⁴ This unusual vascular lesion can involve many different organs, ...

A gluten-free diet is the treatment of choice for patients with celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.¹,² Dermatitis herpetiformis is an irritating eruption characterized by blisters on the elbows, buttocks, and knees and IgA deposits in the dermal ...

Figure 1. Bacillary angiomatosis and Kaposi's sarcoma can be especially difficult to differentiate clinically. In each pair of figures, one shows a bacillary angiomatosis lesion (Panels A and B) and one shows a clinically indistinguishable Kaposi's ...

The relation between low income and poor health is well established.¹–⁵ Groups whose incomes are low are disproportionately exposed to social and psychological conditions that may have negative effects, while also possessing fewer economic resources to ...

Symptoms of vaginitis are nonspecific, and neither self-diagnosis nor diagnosis by a physician is reliable without laboratory confirmation. The management of vaginitis remains largely empirical, and many assume that vaginitis is never life-threatening and ...

Presentation of Case

A 23-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for treatment of a mediastinal tumor.

The patient had been well until five months earlier, when a nonproductive cough developed. Antibiotic treatment resulted in only slight improvement. ...

The value of platelet transfusions for thrombocytopenia was first reported in 1910, when Duke described three patients with bleeding due to thrombocytopenia, each of whom showed improvement with transfusions of platelet-containing fresh, whole blood.¹ ...

Bacillary angiomatosis and bacillary peliosis are new opportunistic infections that were first recognized at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. They are caused by Bartonella henselae and B. quintana, tiny gram-negative bacilli that are difficult to ...

To the Editor: The report by Tardif et al. (Aug. 7 issue)¹ of the very effective reduction in the rate of restenosis after coronary angioplasty with probucol was based on the assumption that probucol may act only as a powerful antioxidant. However, a ...

To the Editor: Cardiac adrenergic signals have an important role in regulating cardiac function and myocardial blood flow.¹,² We describe a patient with normal coronary arteries who had angina at rest, which was associated with myelitis of the thoracic ...

To the Editor: The study by Adachi et al. (Aug. 7 issue)¹ of intermittent etidronate therapy for the prevention of corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis addresses one of the greatest challenges in rheumatology: how to harness the benefit of the most potent ...

To the Editor: In their review, Riordan and Williams (Aug. 14 issue)¹ state that protein restriction is a well-documented therapy for hepatic encephalopathy and imply that a high dietary protein intake is a common cause of hepatic encephalopathy in ...

To the Editor: Automated reticulocyte analysis is based on flow-cytometric techniques and the Sysmex R series of instruments for quantification of erythrocyte fluorescence. These machines have greatly simplified and accelerated reticulocyte counts, ...

To the Editor: In their study of occupational back injuries, Daltroy et al. (July 31 issue)¹ show that gains in knowledge can fail to result in improvement in practice or outcome. This is certainly familiar to clinicians who attempt to encourage weight ...

July 1997 marked the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Medical Repository, the first medical journal indigenous to the United States (Figure 1). It was printed by T. & J. Swords, Printers to the Faculty of Physic of Columbia College in New York ...

Periodically, a textbook genuinely meets a need by filling a void in the literature. Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Workplace is just such a book in that it provides historical insight, discusses the existing and often disparate research from the ...

Over the past two decades, advances in the neurosciences have led to striking changes in the practice of clinical neurology. As knowledge of the pathophysiologic substrates of neurologic diseases has increased, the complexity of neurologic diagnosis and ...

No area of medicine is free from controversy. Few book titles are as intriguing as those that promise to explore controversial issues. In Controversies in Rheumatology each chapter is written by well-known experts in rheumatology and immunology.

The ...

Allergic diseases affect 20 percent of the population and are among the most frequent disorders treated by family practitioners, pediatricians, and general internists. This is the reason the editor gives for a second edition of Allergy.

The book has five ...