Neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid tumor of childhood, has a long-term survival rate of only 15 percent.¹ At diagnosis the defining characteristics of high-risk neuroblastoma include an age of more than one year, metastases, amplification ...

Postprimary tuberculosis, which occurs many years after a primary infection, may develop as the result of reactivation of the endogenous, primary infection or as a result of a recent exogenous infection. Models developed by Sutherland and colleagues¹ and ...

The DiGeorge syndrome is a congenital malformation that affects the development of the third and fourth pharyngeal pouches and is associated with a deficiency of T cells.¹–³ Many patients with the DiGeorge syndrome are hemizygous for 22q11⁴,⁵; in rare ...

Antenatal glucocorticoid therapy can prevent several life-threatening complications of preterm delivery such as the respiratory distress syndrome and intraventricular hemorrhage.¹ The recommended glucocorticoid regimens consist of the administration to ...

Figure 1. A 62-year-old previously healthy woman was admitted with a three-week history of fever, fatigue, night sweats, headache, and vomiting and a two-month history of progressive weight loss. She reported memory loss, poor concentration, and insomnia. ...

In the United States, lung cancer is the leading cause of death attributed to cancer among both men and women, claiming the lives of more than 150,000 people each year. About one third of patients with the most common histologic type of lung cancer, non–...

Growth hormone is produced by the somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary. Its secretion is stimulated by growth hormone–releasing hormone and inhibited by somatostatin, which are both produced by the hypothalamus. Growth hormone secretion is ...

Presentation of Case

A 33-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of wide-complex tachycardia.

The patient had been well until the evening of admission, when he had a five-minute episode of palpitations accompanied by dyspnea, dizziness, and a ...

Tuberculosis, like all infectious diseases, involves exposure to a pathogen resulting in an asymptomatic period of incubation or latency that may progress to active disease. Unlike most other infectious diseases, tuberculosis involves a delay between ...

In this issue of the Journal, Markert et al.¹ teach us that transplanting pieces of human thymus can rescue children with the DiGeorge syndrome. Complete DiGeorge syndrome is a rare congenital disorder in which the thymus and parathyroids fail to develop; ...

Modern perinatal care, including careful fetal surveillance, antenatal administration of glucocorticoids, surfactant therapy, and ventilatory assistance, has improved survival rates for infants with very low birth weights (less than 1500 g).¹ There has, ...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, accounting for more deaths per year than cancers of the breast, colon, prostate, and cervix combined. Blacks have a higher incidence of and death rate from lung cancer than ...

To the Editor: Blumenthal asserts in his Sounding Board article on health care reform (June 17 issue)¹ that the reason for the gap between evidence of poor care and the lack of political will to address it is that most Americans are satisfied with the ...

To the Editor: Ebenbichler and colleagues (May 20 issue)¹ conclude that “in patients with symptomatic calcific tendinitis of the shoulder, ultrasound treatment helps resolve calcifications and is associated with short-term clinical improvement.” The ...

To the Editor: Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas' disease, is endemic in Latin America, with 16 million to 18 million people infected.¹ The parasite is transmitted naturally by a triatome insect, but it can also be transmitted by blood ...

To the Editor: Levitz reported (June 10 issue)¹ on the successful use of intravenous vancomycin for treatment of a patient who had endocarditis caused by a penicillin-resistant strain of Streptococcus mitis. We treated a 48-year-old man with native-valve ...

To the Editor: Thrombocytopenia is a common hematologic disorder in persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).¹ Although often asymptomatic, the thrombocytopenia in these patients may be associated with a variety of bleeding ...

To the Editor: Kwiatkowski and colleagues (June 10 issue)¹ report one-year outcomes of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) trial of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for the treatment of stroke. The treatment ...

To the Editor: In their letter to the editor, Sitas et al. (June 17 issue)¹ report a relation between the titers of anti–human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) antibodies in mothers and the prevalence of anti–HHV-8 antibodies in their children. The authors explain ...

To the Editor: Obstruction of the salivary ducts is one of the main causes of sialadenitis. The principal diagnostic tool for disorders of the salivary duct is sialography, a procedure requiring high doses of radiation. Interventional sialendoscopy is a ...

A century ago, William Halsted introduced the radical mastectomy as a treatment for breast cancer and with it transformed breast cancer from an incurable disease to one whose course physicians could hope to alter. With the addition of radiation therapy ...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the Western world. Its incidence has gradually been rising and, since the introduction of screening mammography in the 1980s, its growth has even accelerated. Moreover, in some regions of Asia, a ...

Cancer of the gastrointestinal tract is the leading cause of death from cancer worldwide. In the United States, it is second only to lung cancer as a cause of death and accounts for almost 150,000 deaths per year. Because it is so common, all clinicians ...