The cornea is a transparent, avascular tissue of the ocular surface whose integrity is vital for maintaining useful vision. The cornea is covered by stratified epithelium that is responsible for maintaining a smooth ocular surface as well as for providing ...

Successful transplantation of organs requires the use of agents capable of suppressing the immune response against alloantigens.¹–³ Use of these nonspecific immunosuppressive drugs, however, can lead to the development of opportunistic infection or ...

It is well recognized that host and viral factors modify the rate at which infection with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) progresses to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Identified host factors include age¹–⁴ and genetic ...

Acute fatty liver of pregnancy is a devastating disorder associated with substantial maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.¹–⁴ The HELLP syndrome (hemolysis, elevated liver-enzyme levels, and a low platelet count) is a more common maternal illness ...

Figure 1. Initiation of an immune response requires an interaction between antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, and helper (CD4) T cells. Antigen-presenting cells process antigens and attract helper T cells by means of chemokines. T cells ...

Within the past 20 years, the definition of alternative medicine has come to include a variety of behavioral techniques (e.g., spiritual techniques and relaxation methods) and clinical approaches (such as massage, herbal remedies, and chiropractic) that ...

Wasting was an early identifying characteristic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, originally termed “slim disease” in Africa.¹ As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), wasting in patients with the acquired ...

The treatment of patients with severe ocular-surface disease has been largely unsuccessful. Superficial keratectomy (the excision of abnormal cells on the corneal surface) can lead to invasion of the corneal surface by goblet cells derived from the ...

In 1970, almost a decade before molecular biology began to make its mark on immunology, Bretscher and Cohn¹ advanced a novel theory to explain how the immune system responds to foreign proteins. Stripped to its core and recast in modern terms, their model ...

The pathogenic effects of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are controlled by genes encoded by the virus and the host. One of the HIV genes, called nef, is associated with increased viral loads in animal models.¹ Nef protein promotes ...

In this issue of the Journal, Burstein and colleagues give us surprising new information about women who begin to use alternative medicine after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer.¹ The investigators studied 480 patients with newly diagnosed early-...

To the Editor: Dr. Darouiche and colleagues (Jan. 7 issue)¹ conclude that the use of central venous catheters impregnated with minocycline and rifampin is associated with a lower rate of catheter-related bloodstream infection than the use of catheters ...

To the Editor: Better predictors of stroke and myocardial infarction are clearly needed. The article by O'Leary and colleagues (Jan. 7 issue),¹ which draws attention to the association between carotid-artery intima–media thickness and the risk of stroke ...

To the Editor: The low success rate of out-of-hospital resuscitation fuels many studies. The excellent study by Gueugniaud et al. (Nov. 26 issue)¹ compares the effectiveness of high-dose epinephrine with that of standard-dose epinephrine for out-of-...

To the Editor: Spontaneous clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) has been reported in about 5 percent of immunocompetent patients with chronic hepatitis B, but not in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).¹ We describe an ...

To the Editor: In their review of attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Zametkin and Ernst (Jan. 7 issue)¹ acknowledged the eightfold rise in the use of stimulants in the United States over the past decade. They did not mention that the use of ...

To the Editor: Marinella (Jan. 14 issue)¹ described a patient with “widely metastatic thyroid cancer” (the sites of these metastases and means of documenting them were not mentioned) in whom abdominal ultrasonography and abdominal computed tomography ...

To the Editor: Our mentoring program at the University of Wisconsin is a time for our third-year medical students to present cases and to discuss their internal-medicine ward experiences. One day, my students seemed depressed.

“It's demoralizing,” they ...

In the classic story that exemplifies the public health approach to disease prevention, John Snow removed the handle of the Broad Street pump in London to halt a cholera epidemic. Snow knew neither the agent of the disease nor its mechanism, but he acted ...

How many of us would like our salaries paid in salt? Not these authors, for sure; but their opening chapters remind us with choice historical and biblical anecdotes of the economic imperatives that are mirrored in the derivation of the word from the Latin ...

The Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition is a superb attempt to incorporate into one three-volume textbook the many elements of the rapidly expanding science of nutrition. The book is timely, given the increased interest in diet and health by the general ...