Each year in the United States, there are an estimated 800,000 to 4 million salmonella infections, and approximately 500 are fatal.¹ Approximately 40,000 of these infections are confirmed by culture; isolates are serotyped at state public health ...

Increasing numbers of children with cancer survive and reach reproductive age. In Denmark, between 1983 and 1987, the mean five-year cumulative survival rate was 64 percent for patients who were under the age of 20 when cancer was diagnosed,¹ and in ...

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy¹ results from infection with a human DNA papovavirus, designated JC virus,² and occurs in conditions associated with deficient cell-mediated immunity.³ It is estimated to affect up to 4 percent of all patients ...

Congenital hyperinsulinism is the most common cause of recurrent hypoglycemia in early infancy.¹ Affected children present with seizures or coma and are at high risk for permanent brain injury. Treatment consists of diazoxide, octreotide, or subtotal ...

Figure 1. A 46-year-old woman with an unsteady gait, muscle weakness, and tingling and numbness in both hands was found to have brisk deep-tendon jerks and an extensor plantar response on the left. T₂-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the cervical ...

Antibodies to DNA are of interest to a broad spectrum of physicians and other scientists. The presence of large amounts of serum antibodies to double-stranded DNA is specific for systemic lupus erythematosus, and some subgroups of these antibodies are ...

Palpitations are one of the most common problems of outpatients who present to internists and cardiologists. Although usually benign, they are occasionally a manifestation of potentially life-threatening conditions. The physician's fear of missing a ...

In the aftermath of the shootings at the Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Karen Curtner, the principal of the school, said, “The issue here is not the weapon or the gun that was used. That has really nothing to do with what happened. We have ...

Resistance to antibiotics is a problem that confronts all of us, thwarting treatment of inpatients and outpatients and compromising therapy for animals, fish, and agricultural crops.¹ The frequency of resistance in bacteria and the numbers of drugs to ...

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy is an opportunistic demyelinating infection caused by a ubiquitous, usually nonpathogenic papovavirus known as JC virus. The symptoms and characteristic radiologic findings of progressive multifocal ...

In randomized clinical trials of treatment, information about which subjects are receiving the new treatment and which are receiving the standard treatment is often withheld from both the researchers and the subjects. Such masking is a reasonable ...

To the Editor: Daoud et al. (Dec. 18 issue)¹ reported a reduction in the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation with prophylactic amiodarone after cardiac surgery. This absolute reduction of 28.3 percent was associated with reduced hospital stays ...

To the Editor: Thun and coworkers (Dec. 11 issue) ¹ report some benefits of moderate alcohol consumption in nearly 500,000 subjects who were middle-aged or older. This is a large group, but an even larger group was excluded because alcohol consumption ...

To the Editor: Essential mixed cryoglobulinemia (type II) has turned out to be secondary to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the large majority of patients.¹ Interferon is now considered the treatment of choice.²–⁵ It is generally believed that the ...

To the Editor: Becquemin (Dec. 11 issue) ¹ reports the results of a randomized, prospective study demonstrating the improved patency of infrainguinal-vein bypass grafts in patients treated with the antiplatelet agent ticlopidine as compared with placebo. ...

To the Editor: We are concerned about the implication in Hillberg and Johnson's review of noninvasive ventilation (Dec. 11 issue)¹ that noninvasive pressure-cycled ventilation is more comfortable than volume-cycled ventilation and more desirable for ...

To the Editor: Quill et al. (Dec. 11 issue)¹ discuss the problems associated with the use of the rule of double effect in making decisions about care at the end of life. It would be a mistake to impugn the rule of double effect, since it is the leading ...

To the Editor: Tick-borne rickettsioses have been suspected but not documented well in the Americas.¹ We report a case of Rickettsia africae infection in the West Indies.

In July 1997, a 50-year-old French woman was bitten by a tick on her right foot ...

In 1955, Walter Blount published his classic textbook Fractures in Children (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins). His clear descriptions of nonsurgical techniques defined the standard of care for the next 25 years. This 276-page textbook, with its memorable ...

In the 1920s, there were only three surgeons in North America whose practices were limited to children. One of them, Dr. William E. Ladd, organized a training program in pediatric surgery at the Boston Children's Hospital in the 1930s. His superb clinical,...

Orthopedic surgeons who care for patients with bone tumors have seen a vast improvement in clinical outcomes in the past several years. Much of this progress can be ascribed to the multidisciplinary attack orthopedic surgeons have mounted with the help of ...