Red-cell transfusions are a cornerstone of critical care practice,¹ but there are divergent views on the risks of anemia and the benefits of transfusion in this setting. One important concern is that anemia may not be well tolerated by critically ill ...

The condition of patients with sciatica usually improves over time.¹,² Several conservative therapies have been proposed for this disorder, with bed rest as a mainstay. For low back pain, bed rest has traditionally been considered effective, although ...

There are two thyroid hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine. The daily production of thyroxine is about 100 μg, all produced by the thyroid gland. The daily production of triiodothyronine is about 30 μg, of which about 20 percent is produced by the ...

Clinical studies have shown that among women with benign breast disease on biopsy, the risk of subsequent breast cancer is associated with the histologic category of the benign disease.¹–³ In particular, the risk of breast cancer among women with benign ...

Figure 1. A peripheral-blood eosinophil undergoing apoptosis displays the characteristic condensation of nuclear chromatin into large, electron-dense masses surrounding the central, relatively electron-lucent nuclear matrix. Other changes that are not ...

Blood transfusion and blood conservation (techniques or strategies to avoid the need for blood) are complementary activities that constitute the clinical arena of transfusion medicine. Recent improvements in the safety of the blood supply and the ...

A large number of changes, distant from the site or sites of inflammation and involving many organ systems, may accompany inflammation. In 1930 interest was focused on these changes by the discovery of C-reactive protein (so named because it reacted with ...

Presentation of Case

A 38-year-old woman (gravida 3, para 2) was admitted to the hospital because of left-sided chest pain.

The patient, who worked as a day-care provider, had been well until seven months earlier, when headaches and pain in the neck and ...

When Dr. E. Ratcliffe Anderson, the American Medical Association's executive vice president, announced on January 15, 1999, that he had fired the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), he said that an important factor ...

The art of fluid administration and hemodynamic support is one of the most challenging aspects of treating critically ill patients. Considering that every year in the United States over 11 million units of red cells are transfused in more than 3 million ...

Extracts of animal thyroid tissue, first used in 1892, contained both thyroxine and triiodothyronine and were the only available treatment for hypothyroidism for some 50 years. Because of concern about their variable potency,¹ these extracts have been ...

The recent proof, by DNA-microsatellite analysis¹ and DNA-fingerprinting techniques,² that Dolly the sheep had indeed been cloned as Wilmut et al. claimed,³ and the report by Wakayama et al.⁴ of the successful cloning of more than 20 healthy female mice ...

To the Editor: In his editorial¹ accompanying the reports on appetite-suppressant drugs and valvular heart disease, by Jick, Khan, and Weissman and their colleagues (Sept. 10 issue),²–⁴ Dr. Devereux converted the “risks” reported by Jick et al.² (e.g., ...

To the Editor: The article by Abenhaim et al.¹ on the association of anorectic drugs and primary pulmonary hypertension contributed to public concern about the use of these drugs and the subsequent withdrawal of dexfenfluramine from the market. The ...

To the Editor: Myonecrosis is a rare complication of sickle cell anemia. We report the development of myonecrosis with a sterile abscess in a 24-year-old black woman with sickle cell anemia, who was admitted to the hospital because of severe pain and ...

To the Editor: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is now the preferable method of detecting infections of the central nervous system due to herpesvirus.¹ It is at least as good as cell culture for detecting such infections caused by enteroviruses.² ...

The condition of hermaphroditism has been recognized since antiquity. The term derives from the Greek legend of the joining of Hermaphroditos and the nymph Salmacis into a single form that was neither male nor female, but both. Culturally, men and women ...

The subtitle calls this book “a social history of oral contraceptives, 1950–1970,” but since women could only get “on the Pill” beginning in 1961, it really describes use of the Pill only during a nine-year period ending in 1970. But which Pill?

As a ...

This book describes the development of a new type of therapy for breast cancer, from the discovery of the molecular target to the completion of successful randomized, clinical trials and approval for use.

It is written as the story of the triumph of an ...

The management of menopause promises to challenge patients, their families, and their physicians well into the next century. As the tidal wave of baby boomers enter their menopausal years, we anxiously await meaningful progress in this field. Clearly, we ...

A vibrant movement to improve the quality of health care has sprung up in the United States. Report cards on health plans, hospitals, medical groups, and even individual physicians have appeared on the front pages of newspapers, on television, and on the ...