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September 16, 2004  Vol. 351 No. 12

Perspective
1163-1164

The subordination of teaching to research and patient care overshadows all other obstacles to establishing a student-oriented curriculum. Yet the situation is far from hopeless, explains Dr. Kenneth Ludmerer.

1165-1167

    The Match was born out of a struggle between medical school faculty and students. Last month, a federal judge dismissed the antitrust lawsuit filed by medical residents. Drs. Alexi Wright and Ingrid Katz describe the history and the controversy.

    1167-1169

    Dr. Rafael Campo writes that physicians forget that we actively participate in the creation of our own narrative about illness. Perhaps the boundary between our level-headed explication of patients' diseases and their intensely personal stories of their ...

    1170-1172

    One dream of scientists is to be able to rebuild, in vitro, “spare parts” to replace injured or diseased tissues — a notion that was once relegated to the realm of science fiction. The concept that stem cells that are ostensibly site-specific can give ...

    1172-1174

    Cardiac arrhythmias are common; some are life-threatening, others merely a nuisance. They are caused by abnormalities in impulse formation or conduction that lead to slow or fast, regular or irregular heart rhythms. It is not difficult to treat patients ...

    Original Articles
    1175-1186
    • Free Full Text

    More than 400 Swedish parents who had lost a child to cancer were asked whether they had talked with that child about death. None of the parents who had done so regretted it. In contrast, more than one quarter of the parents who did not talk with their child about death regretted not having done so, especially if they had sensed that their child was aware of his or her imminent death.

    1187-1196

    Four patients with severe corneal opacification and resultant visual loss had bilateral total corneal stem-cell deficiency and underwent transplantation of autologous oral mucosal epithelial cells in carrier-free cell sheets to reconstruct their corneal surfaces. All four patients (four eyes) had restoration of corneal transparency and improvement in visual acuity. Corneal reconstruction with tissue-engineered cell sheets composed of autologous oral mucosal epithelium has the potential to restore vision in patients with severe bilateral ocular-surface disorders.

    1197-1205

    Some children with asymptomatic Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome are at high risk for tachyarrhythmias and sudden death. These children can be identified because they have inducible tachyarrhythmias on electrophysiological testing. This randomized clinical trial found that such children benefit from radiofrequency catheter ablation of accessory conduction pathways.

    1206-1217

    Among patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)–negative chronic hepatitis B, the rates of suppression of hepatitis B virus DNA to below 20,000 copies per milliliter were 43 percent with peginterferon alfa-2a alone, 44 percent with peginterferon alfa-2a plus lamivudine, and 29 percent with lamivudine alone after 48 weeks of treatment and 24 weeks of follow-up; the rates of suppression to below 400 copies per milliliter were 19 percent, 20 percent, and 7 percent, respectively.

    Review Articles
    1218-1226

      Owing to improvements in imaging techniques, cystic lesions of the pancreas are being identified more often, even in patients who are asymptomatic. These lesions range from benign to premalignant to highly malignant. This review offers guidance on the strategies for establishing the diagnosis, assessing risk, and making difficult decisions about when surgical resection is indicated.

      1227-1238
      • Free Full Text

      Although most children with Turner's syndrome are under the care of specialists, the authors of this article suggest that most affected women can best be served by their primary care practitioners, with the use of informed judgment about the need for referral to specialists. This article reviews current concepts in the genetics, diagnosis, and management of Turner's syndrome.

      Images in Clinical Medicine
      1239
      • Free Full Text

      A 37-year-old man was involved in a motor vehicle collision. On examination in the emergency department, the patient was hemodynamically stable but had a steering-wheel imprint on the anterior chest wall. A computed tomographic scan of the chest showed a ...

      e11

      This 62-year-old man was diaphoretic and had a markedly tender, pulsatile abdominal mass.

      Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
      1240-1248
      • Video

      A 75-year-old woman with a history of aortic-valve stenosis and coronary artery disease awoke in the night with chest pain. The electrocardiogram showed ST-segment depression, and the troponin T levels were elevated. The chest pain resolved, but fever developed. Blood cultures were positive for the Streptococcus milleri group; fever persisted despite antibiotic therapy. A cardiologist, an infectious-disease specialist, and a cardiac surgeon discuss the diagnosis and management of this case.

      Editorials
      1250-1251

      Altruism and trust lie at the heart of research on human subjects. Altruistic individuals volunteer for research because they trust that their participation will contribute to improved health for others and that researchers will minimize risks to ...

      1251-1253

      In 1985, a reading of Patrick Irvine's essay in the Journal about his participation in the funerals of his patients1 eased concerns of my own about attending the funerals of my young patients who have succumbed to cancer. At these services, I have heard “...

      Clinical Implications of Basic Research
      1254-1256

      Several congenital forms of muscular dystrophy are caused by mutations of glycosyltransferase genes. A recent study shows that overexpression of a specific glycosyltransferase compensates for the deficits produced by other mutant glycosyltransferases, raising the hope that a single therapy could be used to treat different forms of the disorder.

      Correspondence
      1257-1259

      To the Editor: The study by Esteban and colleagues (June 10 issue)1 was stopped on the basis of an interim analysis after 43 deaths. A stopping rule based on a P value of 0.048 was invoked (stopping boundary, P=0.05). Suppose the study had continued, ...

      1259-1260

      To the Editor: Lange et al. (June 24 issue)1 report an increase in the relative risk of restenosis after bare-metal stenting in patients receiving B vitamins to lower homocysteine levels. This seems to be in contrast to a previous report of a dramatic ...

      1260-1261

      To the Editor: The important study by Dr. Lynch and colleagues (May 20 issue)1 suggests that specific mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) characterize a subgroup of non–small-cell lung cancers that may be highly responsive to ...

      1262-1263

      To the Editor: Thomas and Limper (June 10 issue)1 mention a decreased prevalence of AIDS in the Western Hemisphere associated with the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), resulting in decreased rates of pneumocystis pneumonia. However, ...

      1263-1264

      To the Editor: Dr. Pietrangelo (June 3 issue)1 proposes that a liver biopsy be performed for diagnosis of suspected adult-onset hereditary hemochromatosis when first-line genetic testing does not reveal typical mutations and serum ferritin is ...

      1264-1265

      To the Editor: Stereopsis is an important cue for depth perception, yet it can be a hindrance to an artist trying to depict a three-dimensional scene on a flat surface. Art teachers often instruct students to close one eye in order to flatten what they ...

      Book Reviews
      1266-1267

      The public health community began researching gun violence about two decades ago, a late entrant in a field traditionally occupied by criminologists. David Hemenway, an economist at the Harvard School of Public Health and the director of the Injury ...

      1267

      As the debate over whether the United States has too few or too many physicians is rekindled, we are graced with the wisdom of Eli Ginzberg, the renowned health economist who died in December 2002. Ginzberg, an academic and activist economist at Columbia ...

      1268

      This book contains 15 contributions that were prepared for a meeting that was held in October 2001 in Glen Cove, New York, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and attended by 45 invited persons. Revised versions of four of these papers were ...

      Corrections
      1268

      Hepatitis B Virus Infection — Natural History and Clinical Consequences Review Article, N Engl J Med 2004:350;1118-1129.. On page 1119, lines 7 through 9 of the first full paragraph should have read, “Initiation at the next upstream start codon,” rather ...

      1268

      Peginterferon Alfa-2b and Ribavirin for the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C in Blacks and Non-Hispanic Whites Original Article, N Engl J Med 2004:350;2265-2271.. On page 2266, in the right-hand column, lines 7 and 8 should have read “1000 mg of ribavirin ...