The holy grail of cancer screening is a sensitive, specific, and noninvasive test for the detection of malignant cells. Cytologic analysis of urine or sputum has not lived up to its early promise because it lacks sensitivity. Far more sensitive is the ...

Although we view the paper and electronic versions of the Journal as complementary, the electronic version can offer services to readers and authors that are simply not possible on paper. Today the personal digital assistant (PDA) is taking the place of ...

The mortality rate among hospitalized patients with acute renal failure is high and has not changed substantially since dialysis was introduced several decades ago.¹ Although it might be argued that patients with acute renal failure are more seriously ill ...

Until now, systemic immunosuppressive agents, particularly oral corticosteroids, have been the standard treatment for bullous pemphigoid, which accounts for about 75 percent of cases of autoimmune blistering skin disease.¹–³ Nearly two thirds of cases ...

Medical progress is made at the interface between the biologic and physical sciences and clinical practice. Traditionally, physician-scientists have worked at this interface, providing the expertise to fill the gap between the art and science of medicine. ...

The pool of physician-scientists is dwindling, as it has been for more than two decades.¹,² There are many reasons for this problem,³–¹⁷ but the most important one involves the initial decision whether to pursue a career in research.¹⁶,¹⁷

When ...

Programs of educational-debt relief sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have recently been enacted as a means of recruiting and retaining clinical investigators who perform patient-oriented research. Should these programs be extended ...

To the Editor: Hubacher and colleagues (Aug. 23 issue)¹ report that the use of copper intrauterine devices (IUDs) is not associated with an increased risk of tubal occlusion among nulligravid women. However, only 6 percent of the women in the study had ...

To the Editor: The reports of Xiang et al.¹ and Tillmann et al.² (Sept. 6 issue) further document that coinfection with the apparently nonpathogenic flavivirus GB virus C (GBV-C, or hepatitis G virus) prolongs survival in patients infected with the human ...

To the Editor: In his review, Ades (Sept. 20 issue)¹ describes the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation in patients with coronary heart disease. He notes the improvement that takes place with cardiac rehabilitation in a range of psychological factors and ...

To the Editor: We make the following observations about the review of cephalosporin allergy by Kelkar and Li (Sept. 13 issue).¹ First, anti-cephalosporin IgE antibody assays are available and are used by clinicians in Australasia. Second, specific ...

To the Editor: Several important issues were overlooked in the Case Record of the 14-year-old boy with oncogenic hypophosphatemic osteomalacia (Sept. 20 issue).¹ Terek was correct in stating that oncogenic hypophosphatemic osteomalacia has many ...

To the Editor: Emanuel and Miller (Sept. 20 issue)¹ characterize the current debate about placebo-controlled trials as a debate between two orthodoxies: placebo orthodoxy and active-control orthodoxy. We used the term “placebo orthodoxy” to describe the ...

To the Editor: Up to 50 percent of patients with cancer seek help in the form of alternative medicine.¹ Such therapies may include cesium chloride, a blocker of the inward-rectifying potassium channel that is used in animal models to study the long-QT ...

The study of homocysteine and its role in homeostasis and disease has grown considerably over the past decade. What began as a series of observations about a rare inborn error of metabolism (homocystinuria) has now evolved into a substantial body of work ...

There have been important advances in our understanding of neuromuscular disorders during the past decade. Molecular genetics has had a profound effect on the way we investigate these disorders in our patients. Further delineation of inflammatory ...

Fondaparinux Compared with Enoxaparin for the Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism after Hip-Fracture Surgery Original Article, N Engl J Med 2001:345;1298-1304.. On page 1300, the sentence that begins five lines from the bottom of the right-hand column ...

Recurrence Rates after Treatment of Breast Cancer with Standard Radiotherapy with or without Additional Radiation Original Article, N Engl J Med 2001:345;1378-1387.. On page 1378, the last sentence of the Results paragraph of the abstract should have read,...