Since it was first recognized in California in 1969,¹ enterovirus 71 infection has been reported in at least 12 small and large outbreaks throughout the world.² Like other types of enteroviral infections, enterovirus 71 infection may be asymptomatic or ...

Enteroviral meningoencephalitis generally has a good prognosis,¹ except when the cause is enterovirus 71, in which case there is a substantial mortality rate.²,³ Since it was identified in 1969,⁴ enterovirus 71 has caused epidemics in several parts of the ...

The morbidity and mortality associated with preterm delivery, defined as delivery before 37 weeks of gestation, have decreased dramatically in recent decades, and today very preterm deliveries (those occurring before 32 weeks) account for the majority of ...

Normally, the rate and depth of breathing are regulated by a negative-feedback system that maintains the partial pressure of arterial carbon dioxide within a narrow range throughout life. Changes in the partial pressure of carbon dioxide lead to changes ...

Figure 1. A 51-year-old woman presented with dyspnea on exertion and cardiomegaly. She had a long-standing history of poorly controlled hypertension. Physical examination revealed an elevated jugular venous pressure, clear lungs, a left ventricular S₃, ...

Dying patients frequently have important and wide-ranging needs for assistance in addition to the medical care received from physicians and hospitals. Previous studies have documented that a majority of terminally ill patients require assistance, ...

Hair loss is a common and distressing symptom. With the approval of two drugs that promote hair growth — finasteride and minoxidil — we can now treat patients with some types of hair loss. Both drugs influence the hair-growth cycle and increase the length ...

Presentation of Case

A 34-year-old woman was referred to a hospital in Texas because of an intermittent cough and hemoptysis.

The patient had been well until nine months earlier, when her temperature rose to 39.4°C. Subsequently, she had a low-grade fever,...

Enteroviruses are members of a family of viruses (the picornaviruses) that commonly infect humans throughout the world. They are associated with a broad range of diseases, including various enanthems and exanthems, hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, myocarditis, ...

In this issue of the Journal, Javaheri reports on his ongoing studies of periodic breathing during sleep in patients with congestive heart failure.¹ Since breathing is usually regular, periodic breathing, with its clusters of breaths separated by ...

Surgical procedures are frequently introduced into general practice on the basis of uncontrolled studies that are less rigorous than those required for the approval of medical interventions.¹ The standard for the evaluation of surgical therapy is lower ...

The recent use of sham surgery in randomized, controlled trials raises three critical questions about research involving human subjects. The first question concerns the tension between the highest standard of research design and the highest standard of ...

To the Editor: The article by Silverstein et al. (May 13 issue)¹ on the influence of margin width on local recurrence in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ who were treated with breast-conserving therapy provides no data showing that margins (of any ...

To the Editor: Rao et al. (May 13 issue)¹ reported five deaths that were related to tumescent liposuction over a five-year period.

In San Diego, California, six cases of cardiac arrest or severe hypoxemia associated with outpatient liposuction were ...

To the Editor: Bejjani et al. (May 13 issue)¹ reported the induction of transient acute depression by stimulation of the left subthalamic nucleus in a woman with Parkinson's disease. We have found that pallidotomy may also cause depression in patients ...

To the Editor: The story Levine tells in her Sounding Board piece (May 20 issue)¹ is tragically familiar to any primary care physician. I sympathize with her for the loss of the man who was once her husband and is now her family care patient. Clearly, ...

To the Editor: A 51-year-old high-school teacher had a myocardial infarction and was taken to a community hospital in cardiogenic shock. His condition was stabilized, and he was transferred to a university hospital, where he spent seven days in the ...

Each year more than 50,000 people in the United States receive the diagnosis of a benign or malignant tumor of the head and neck. Head and neck cancers are usually curable when they are detected at an early stage, but all too many patients present with ...

Since the 1960s, screening for breast cancer by mammography has been the subject of a number of controlled trials. These studies showed that, among 45-to-64-year-old women, regular mammography was associated with a 30 percent decrease in mortality due to ...

For nearly three quarters of a century, it has been recognized that more than 30 percent of men over 50 years of age harbor a latent form of prostatic adenocarcinoma that is detected only on postmortem examination. Yet the rates of detection in ...