The results of controlled metabolic studies have suggested that dietary fatty acids containing at least one double bond in the trans configuration (trans fatty acids) have a detrimental effect on serum lipid levels relative to fatty acids containing only ...

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) frequently have exacerbations that require hospitalization. Hospital treatment for this common condition is associated with high costs and relatively poor outcomes.¹ In addition to antibiotics, ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by a progressive and largely irreversible limitation of airflow. Cigarette smoking is the principal risk factor, and smoking cessation has been shown to decrease the rate of decline in lung ...

Genetic studies have an important role in formulating the prognosis in children with neuroblastoma, because certain acquired genetic abnormalities in the tumor cells correlate closely with the clinical outcome.¹ Established indicators of the ...

Infants with extremely low birth weights (≤1000 g) have low plasma and tissue concentrations of vitamin A,¹–³ and vitamin A deficiency may predispose these infants to chronic lung disease.⁴ A meta-analysis⁵ of clinical trials of vitamin A supplementation ...

Figure 1. A 36-year-old woman with newly discovered diabetes mellitus had eruptive xanthomata on her elbows and knees together with striking retinal changes. Her vision was normal, but all retinal vessels appeared creamy white, and the veins were ...

Neurodegenerative disorders, which are chronic and progressive, are characterized by selective and symmetric loss of neurons in motor, sensory, or cognitive systems. Delineation of the patterns of cell loss and the identification of disease-specific ...

Presentation of Case

A 55-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of a painful right tibial lesion.

Twenty-one months before admission, the patient had undergone orthotopic liver transplantation at this hospital because of cryptogenic cirrhosis. ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to a group of disorders characterized by a persistent reduction in the maximal rate of exhalation despite aggressive treatment. In the United States, COPD was ranked as the fifth leading cause of death ...

Neuroblastoma is a malignant tumor in children that arises from primordial neural-crest cells destined to populate the adrenal gland and sympathetic ganglia, hence its varied clinical presentation and course. It accounts for 8 to 10 percent of all ...

Trans unsaturated fatty acids are produced commercially in large quantities by heating vegetable oils in the presence of metal catalysts and hydrogen to form shortening and margarine.¹ They are so named because the carbon atoms adjacent to their double ...

To the Editor: The study by Weinblatt et al. (Jan. 28 issue)¹ attempts to demonstrate the efficacy of combined therapy with methotrexate and etanercept through a randomized, double-blind trial. This study design is powerful, but a prerequisite is that ...

To the Editor: Heikkinen et al. (Jan. 28 issue)¹ studied the prevalence of various respiratory viruses in samples of middle-ear effusions from children with acute otitis media and found that respiratory syncytial virus had the highest rate of detection. ...

To the Editor: In their study of the treatment of small-cell lung cancer with radiotherapy and concurrent cisplatin and etoposide, Turrisi et al. (Jan. 28 issue)¹ concluded, “Twice-daily treatment significantly improved survival as compared with ...

To the Editor: Handgretinger et al. (Jan. 28 issue)¹ present evidence that a clone of large granular lymphocytes induced pure red-cell aplasia by attacking erythroid progenitors with a deficiency of HLA class I antigens. They show that glycophorin A+ ...

To the Editor: Celecoxib (Celebrex), a cyclooxygenase (COX)-2–specific nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID), was recently introduced in the U.S. market. COX-2 is induced in inflammation, whereas COX-1 produces protective prostaglandins in the ...

To the Editor: A 72-year-old man with recurrent dizziness, confusion, and syncope told an internist that cold, carbonated beverages caused him to feel strange, dizzy, and confused and might have triggered several episodes over a one-year study period. A ...

To the Editor: Chen et al. (Jan. 28 issue)¹ found that mortality rates for patients with myocardial infarction were lower at top-ranked hospitals than at others. Although the study was well done, it is premature to conclude that hospital rankings by ...

To the Editor: Communication within the world medical community could be improved if native speakers of English at international conferences displayed the same awareness and skills that they use so well in writing for the medical literature. I translate ...

The heroic efforts of Harvard chemist E.J. Cohn in pioneering the fractionation of albumin from plasma for delivery to the battlefields of World War II are widely known. With the end of the war these efforts were diversified, and by the late 1940s a new ...

Autotransfusion, a technique in which blood obtained from a patient is at some later time given back to the patient, has existed since the beginning of the 19th century. Until Karl Landsteiner's discovery of the ABO blood groups and the development of a ...

In an era of textbooks and monographs written by dozens of contributors, a book of substantial size by a single author is a bit of a rarity. When the book completes a five-volume work (volume 1 appeared in 1985) comprising 58 chapters and spanning more ...