Appetite-suppressant medications such as fenfluramine and phentermine have been used for several decades for the treatment of obesity, with phentermine approved for use in the United States in 1959 and fenfluramine approved in 1973. These medications were ...

Recent reports have implicated a combination of two appetite-suppressant medications, fenfluramine and phentermine, in increasing the risk of cardiac-valve disorders, particularly aortic and mitral insufficiency.¹–⁴ Although most of the reports involved ...

Obesity is associated with serious health risks, including an increased incidence of heart disease, stroke, and hypertension.¹,² The use of fenfluramine and phentermine increased dramatically after a report on the efficacy of the combination was ...

In postmenopausal women, vertebral fractures are often attributed to low estrogen production, and hip fractures to secondary hyperparathyroidism due to age-related declines in calcium intake and in calcium absorption mediated by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,...

More than 4 million urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infections occur in the United States annually.¹,² They occur in young, sexually active persons from all socioeconomic groups, with prevalence ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent.³,⁴ Women, especially, ...

Figure 1. A 20-year-old college student, newly arrived in the United States, was evaluated for severe abdominal pain. What is the diagnosis?

Although the cellular physiology of megakaryocyte and platelet production has been understood for nearly a decade, the humoral basis of this process has remained enigmatic until recently. “Thrombopoietin — At Last” heralded one editorial¹ when the cloning ...

Presentation of Case

A 64-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of a productive cough during treatment for suspected Wegener's granulomatosis.

The patient had been well until seven months earlier, when he began to have unsteadiness and right-...

The populations of industrialized nations are becoming steadily more overweight as a result of changes in physical activity and diet. In recent years, concern about health and appearance has led ever-increasing numbers of people to use a wide variety of ...

The central role of estrogen deficiency in postmenopausal bone loss was demonstrated many years ago.¹ We know estrogen can inhibit bone resorption and decrease bone turnover, but the precise pathways by which these effects occur are not known. The effect ...

Short of an effective vaccine, successful control of sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infections will require broadly based screening programs. This conclusion stems from several observations. First, chlamydial infections are highly prevalent, ...

To the Editor: Treatment with the appetite-suppressant drugs fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine, alone or in combination with phentermine, has been associated with cardiac-valve abnormalities.¹–³ Five echocardiologic surveys reviewed by the Food and Drug ...

To the Editor: Artlett et al. (April 23 issue)¹ put forward the provocative hypothesis that systemic sclerosis may be caused by a graft-versus-host–like reaction induced by retained fetal cells in the mother. Although the hypothesis is intriguing, the ...

To the Editor: In their review article, Orth and Ritz (April 23 issue)¹ state that membranous nephropathy is the most common cause of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in adults, citing as a source data from a book published in 1988.² According to these data,...

To the Editor: In his review of inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–encoded protease (April 30 issue),¹ Dr. Flexner states that ritonavir causes hypertriglyceridemia in no more than 5 percent of patients and has not caused pancreatitis. ...

To the Editor: Simon's argument against population screening for colorectal cancer by fecal occult-blood testing (April 16 issue)¹ contains inaccurate conclusions related to our Minnesota screening trial.² First, he concludes that the fecal occult-blood ...

To the Editor: The article by Meier et al. (April 23 issue)¹ on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in the United States contains somewhat misleading information about the Oregon law on assisted suicide. The authors say that the majority of ...

To the Editor: Transfusion-transmitted virus has recently been identified as a potential cause of post-transfusion non-A, non-B, non-C hepatitis.¹ The virus has a single-stranded DNA genome whose organization is similar to those of members of the ...

To the Editor: Under the plan proposed by Gramm et al. (April 30 issue),¹ uninsured workers would pay for current Medicare recipients and their own future benefits, but they still would have no current medical insurance. Why not have an investment-based ...

That screening mammography substantially reduces mortality from breast cancer is a major medical accomplishment of our time and one with potential remaining to be fulfilled. During its development, mammography has taught us much about the biology of ...

Gone are the days of the standard 70-kg man. The differences between men and women in health, illness, and lifestyle have encouraged the development of women's specialty clinics and new (sometimes premature) standards of treatment. This book is a timely, ...

The difficulty of finding comprehensive data on women and cardiovascular disease makes this a timely and welcome book. In the introduction, the editors state that heart disease is the most common cause of death among women, yet this fact is not widely ...