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January 6, 2005  Vol. 352 No. 1

Perspective
3-6

    Dr. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan Marks write of a troublesome picture revealed by their inquiry into medical involvement in military intelligence gathering in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. They describe the tensions for physicians between Hippocratic and national ...

    6-8

    Dr. Perri Klass describes a frigid January night when one of her regular patients, a three-month-old boy, was reported missing. At a performance of "L'Enfance du Christ," she thought about the gap between her own life and her patients' lives.

    Original Articles
    9-19
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    Among a cohort of children born at 25 weeks or fewer of gestation in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1995 and evaluated at a median age of six years and four months, cognitive and neurologic impairment was common. An earlier diagnosis of severe disability at 30 months of age was highly predictive of moderate-to-severe disability at early school age.

    20-28

    Statin therapy lowers not only low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, but also levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation. This study examined the independent effects of decreasing LDL cholesterol and CRP levels on subsequent coronary risk in patients with acute coronary syndromes who were receiving pravastatin or atorvastatin. Lowering CRP levels reduced coronary risk irrespective of the extent of LDL cholesterol lowering. Patients with the lowest risk had the lowest levels of both LDL cholesterol and CRP after 30 days of statin therapy.

    29-38

    Statins have pleiotropic effects, reducing not only low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, but also the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker. This study found that the effects of statin therapy on the progression or regression of coronary atherosclerosis are related to both their lipid-lowering effect and their CRP-lowering effect. These results provide additional support for the concept that part of the beneficial effect of statins is due to the lowering of CRP.

    39-47

    At a rural district hospital in Kenya, nearly 13 percent of infants were found to have bacteremia on admission, as were nearly 6 percent of all children who were 60 or more days of age. Of all the deaths in the hospital, 26 percent were among infants and children with community-acquired bacteremia.

    Review Article
    48-62

    Metabolic complications such as dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and altered fat distribution (loss of subcutaneous fat and relatively increased central fat) are common in adults infected with the human immunodeficiency virus who are receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy and may increase their risk of cardiovascular disease. This review discusses progress in understanding the pathogenetic mechanisms and treatment strategies for addressing cardiovascular risk in this population.

    Images in Clinical Medicine
    63
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    A 51-year-old man who was positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and had been treated with a conventional protease-inhibitor–based antiretroviral regimen for four years had wasting of the fat of the extremities and face (especially of Bichat'...

    e1
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    A 43-year-old woman with early breast cancer could not be intubated for the administration of anesthesia.

    Clinical Problem-Solving
    64-69

      An 18-year-old man presented with shortness of breath, a cough that was productive of clear sputum, and a two-week history of pleuritic chest pain. He also reported night sweats, fever, and fatigue, but no hemoptysis, weight loss, recent travel, or new environmental exposures.

      Editorials
      71-72

      The tremendous advances in perinatal and neonatal care that were made beginning in the 1970s and through the 1990s have contributed to the survival of infants as immature as 22 to 25 weeks of gestational age.14 According to current guidelines developed ...

      73-75

        If ever there were a perfect marriage of drug with disease it might be between statins and atherosclerosis. At first the relationship was simple: statins inhibited synthesis of the cholesterol that contributed to atheroma, and less cholesterol meant less ...

        75-77

        For the past 25 years, since the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has been publishing estimates of mortality among children worldwide, the international medical community has been aware of the appalling burden of early deaths among African ...

        Health Policy Report
        78-84

        This report discusses the heated controversy over the proliferation of physician-owned specialty hospitals, such as cardiac and orthopedic hospitals. The owners of general hospitals argue that specialty hospitals provide services for the most profitable cases and thus have an unfair competitive advantage. Late in 2003, Congress declared an 18-month moratorium on the opening of new specialty hospitals, and it will soon decide whether the moratorium should be lifted or made permanent.

        Clinical Implications of Basic Research
        85-86

        An acid-sensing ion channel is a key mediator of neuronal calcium influx in an animal model of stroke.

        Correspondence
        91-92

        To the Editor: Kreicbergs et al. (Sept. 16 issue)1 discovered that among the Swedish parents surveyed, those who had talked to their dying child about death reported no regrets about having had that discussion. Conversely, 27 percent of the parents who ...

        92-93

        To the Editor: The most surprising finding in the article by Pappone et al. (Sept. 16 issue)1 is not that prophylactic ablation results in a low risk of life-threatening arrhythmias. It is that their control group had an extraordinarily high rate of such ...

        93-95

        To the Editor: Whitcomb and Cohen1 and Fincher2 (Aug. 12 issue) call for changing the training settings for students and residents in primary care to reflect the types of environments in which high-quality primary care can best be provided, with use of “...

        95-97

        To the Editor: Zimmerli et al. (Oct. 14 issue),1 in their review article, include a table outlining the treatment of infections associated with prosthetic joints. I would like to comment on some of the choices of antibiotics suggested in the table. The ...

        97

        To the Editor: Regarding Dr. Lerner's history of the production of penicillin (Aug. 5 issue)1, rarely has the development of a medical therapy occasioned such dedication and excitement. Charles Fletcher commented that “it is difficult to convey the ...

        97-98
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        To the Editor: In the Clinical Problem-Solving article by Newman et al. (Aug. 5 issue),1 concerning a case of accidental foxglove poisoning, the discussant fails to comment on the short QT interval evident on the initial electrocardiogram obtained in the ...

        98-100

        To the Editor: Cardiac troponins are preferred markers of tissue injury in acute coronary syndromes. Their specificity and the fact that only very minute amounts or none are normally found in the circulation provide high clinical sensitivity and ...

        Book Reviews
        101-102

        The philatelist will be pleased to see that this beautifully illustrated work on the history of medical microbiology and infectious diseases is illustrated with mint stamps, canceled stamps, covers, first day covers, stamp booklets, cancellations, ...

        102-103

        Jane Schultz has written a well-researched book that tells a compelling story. First-person accounts interspersed throughout the book lend immediacy to the war that took place nearly 150 years ago. The author transports the reader through time so ...

        103
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        To write a history of burn care is a colossal task. Klasen has undertaken a review of the massive first stage — the development of acute care — and written a fascinating and deeply researched book. Anyone who has been severely burned, as I was back in the ...

        103-104

        Burn Unit is a well-written, ingenious book on the cause of burns and the pathophysiology and clinical course of patients who have sustained severe burn injury. The author describes the “burn disease” through the clinical care of two patients: one had a ...

        Correction
        104
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        Cancer of the Ovary Review Article, N Engl J Med 2004:351;2519-2529.. On page 2525, lines 1 and 2 of the legend for Figure 4 should have read, “In addition to patients with stage IA, grade 1 disease, those with stage IA, grade 2 disease or stage IB, grade ...