Erectile dysfunction, the persistent inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, is estimated to affect up to 30 million men in the United States.¹ The disorder is age-associated,¹–³ with estimated ...

Influenza A and B viruses are among the most common causes of respiratory tract illnesses that bring children to medical care, and influenza is a major cause of lower respiratory tract illness in young children.¹ The annual incidence of influenza ...

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a human herpesvirus linked to endemic (African) Burkitt's lymphoma, post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disease, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In vitro, EBV ...

Crigler–Najjar syndrome type I is a recessively inherited disorder characterized by severe unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia beginning at birth. The syndrome results from an absence of hepatic uridine diphosphoglucuronate (UDP) glucuronosyltransferase ...

Figure 1. A 46-year-old man with end-stage renal disease due to diabetic nephropathy had been undergoing hemodialysis for almost two years. Fourteen months after beginning dialysis, he reported pain below the right antecubital fossa, the site of an ...

The population with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States is composed of more than 200,000 patients who undergo dialysis and 70,000 patients with functioning kidney transplants.¹ With the prevalence of ESRD growing at a rate between 7 and 9 ...

Nodular thyroid disease is common. Palpable thyroid nodules were detected in 0.8 percent of adult men and 5.3 percent of adult women in Whickham, northeast England,¹ and in 1.5 percent of men and 6.4 percent of women between 30 and 59 years of age in ...

Presentation of Case

A 34-year-old right-handed woman was admitted to the hospital because of progressive confusion and visual loss.

The patient had been well until four months earlier, when her family observed a reduction in spontaneous speech, ...

Impotence — the preferred term is now erectile dysfunction — is a common problem, especially among older men,¹ and if it is not caused by psychological problems it certainly can cause them. Among the components of sexual function and satisfaction in men — ...

Influenza continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality, despite intensive efforts to vaccinate persons at high risk. In the United States, the annual rates of influenza range from 10 to 20 percent in the general population and may reach as ...

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), a B-lymphotropic herpesvirus carried by almost everyone as a lifelong asymptomatic infection, is implicated in the pathogenesis of at least three malignant disorders of B cells.¹ One is Burkitt's lymphoma, which in its endemic ...

Attempts to treat a variety of conditions, including type I diabetes mellitus and fulminant liver failure, with epithelial-cell transplantation have been disappointing. In this issue of the Journal, Fox and colleagues report partial correction of the ...

To the Editor: Meyer and Gibbons (Dec. 18 issue)¹ overstate the house call's fragile condition. In 1996, the Health Care Financing Administration reported charges for 1.6 million house calls. The numbers were essentially the same in 1994 and 1995, well ...

To the Editor: The December 25 issue of the Journal presents two important prospective, controlled studies on the use of platelet transfusions.¹,² Both studies, as commented on in an editorial in the same issue,³ could change transfusion policies. ...

To the Editor: In their report on the absence of a toxic effect of oats on patients with dermatitis herpetiformis, Hardman et al. (Dec. 25 issue)¹ conclude that moderate quantities of oats can be safely included in the diet of such patients. This ...

To the Editor: We report on an unusual manifestation of Gaucher's disease that responded to enzyme-replacement therapy. A 42-year-old woman with known type 1 Gaucher's disease who was homozygous for the N370S mutation was admitted to our unit with a ...

To the Editor: As a pediatrician who worked in Bosnia on four occasions from December 1993 to March 1997, I agree with the description and criticism of drug-donation practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina presented by Berckmans et al. (Dec. 18 issue).¹ I ...

To the Editor: A 10-year-old girl presented to the emergency room with pressure and discomfort in the nose. Earlier that day she had placed a pair of magnetic earrings in her nose, one on each lateral ala, to mimic a bilaterally pierced nose. These ...

Major depression is increasingly recognized as a worldwide cause of morbidity, mortality, and health expenditure. A study by the World Health Organization and Harvard University estimates that major depression is currently the fourth leading cause of ...

A roman à clef — from the French, “novel with a key” — is a novel that thinly disguises real people and real situations. It is a fictional representation of reality, first popular in 17th-century France, that is still often used to emphasize a social ...

The goal of this book is simple. Murphy wants to convince his audience that research on sexual orientation, whether aimed at discovering causes of or tests or treatments for homoeroticism, is not in itself a threat to the well-being of gay and lesbian ...