Organ transplantation and major cancer chemotherapy are often associated with prolonged neutropenia (defined as less than 500 polymorphonuclear neutrophils per cubic millimeter), alterations in phagocyte function and lymphopenia due to immunosuppressive ...

This large, randomized, multicenter trial compared voriconazole, a second-generation triazole, with liposomal amphotericin B as empirical antifungal therapy for 837 patients with persistent fever and neutropenia. The success rates in terms of composite outcome were similar: 26.0 percent with voriconazole and 30.6 percent with amphotericin B. There were fewer breakthrough fungal infections among those treated with voriconazole (1.9 percent vs. 5.0 percent).

The risk of fungal infections increases greatly in patients with profound and protracted neutropenia. Because of the insensitivity of diagnostic methods and the poor outcomes associated with established infections, empirical antifungal therapy is used for ...

Research on the treatment of the non-Hodgkin's lymphomas has finally emerged from decades of stagnation. These lymphomas, which usually arise from B lymphocytes, are the fifth most common type of cancer in the United States and are the fifth and sixth ...

Premature delivery is a leading cause of infant death. Approximately 5000 infants die each year in the United States from complications of prematurity and low birth weight. During the past decade, mechanisms contributing to prematurity have been ...

Financial conflicts of interest are present in many types of medical research. Until recently there has been no unified effort to address the many problems that arise because of such conflicts. The Association of American Medical Colleges recently approved guidelines for dealing with individual, as opposed to institutional, conflicts of interest. In this Sounding Board article, Kelch outlines the many features of the guidelines and urges their widespread adoption.

To the Editor: On October 4, 2001, the Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discussed¹ the results of the clinical trial reported by Walsh and colleagues in this issue of the Journal.² The authors present the ...

To the Editor: Two comments seem in order with respect to the revised “Uniform Requirements” document (Sept. 13 issue).¹ First, no mention is made of the more than 100 for-profit medical communication companies.² In addition to ghostwriting entire ...

To the Editor: The trial by Wiebe et al. (Aug. 2 issue)¹ of surgery as compared with prolonged medical treatment for temporal-lobe seizures clearly demonstrated the superiority of surgical intervention and illustrated the feasibility of conducting ...

To the Editor: Gattinoni et al. (Aug. 23 issue)¹ reported that placing patients with acute respiratory failure in a prone position improved their oxygenation but not their survival. One reason why improved oxygenation did not translate into a reduction ...

To the Editor: In their article on diet, lifestyle, and type 2 diabetes mellitus in women (Sept. 13 issue),¹ Hu et al. point out that obesity is an important cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus. I wish to point out that since diabetes does not develop in ...

This book is not a mystery story, so I can tell you the ending: 56 percent of patients with multiple sclerosis had a response to placebo in a double-blind, randomized trial, and 56 percent had a response to oral myelin (Myloral). Did the treatment fail, ...

To publish a one-volume textbook of surgery at the beginning of the new millennium is a challenging task, especially in view of the fragmentation of surgery into subspecialties. As growth of the surgical specialties continues, the role and future of ...

Identification of a Gene Responsible for Familial Wolff–Parkinson–White Syndrome Original Article, N Engl J Med 2001:344;1823-1831.. On page 1823, the first sentences under the heading “Clinical Evaluation” should have read, “Written informed consent was ...

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital (Case 33-2001) Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, N Engl J Med 2001:345;1263-1269.. On page 1266, in Table 5, Mycobacterium bovis should have been listed as a member of the Mycobacterium ...