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March 9, 2006  Vol. 354 No. 10

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Perspective
993-995

What role should physicians have in defining the purposes of their profession — the functions that medicine should and should not serve? Dr. Gregg Bloche writes that any observers hold that medicine's aims are for doctors and patients to decide, without ...

995-997

Many developing countries are facing a silent epidemic of chronic kidney disease — one facet of the health transition associated with industrialization. Dr. Tazeen Jafar writes that data from community-based studies reveal an alarmingly high burden of ...

997-999

Some 85 percent of the world's population lives in low-income or middle-income countries, where the clinical, epidemiologic, and socioeconomic effects of kidney disease are expected to be the greatest. Dr. Rashad Barsoum writes that the obvious task ahead ...

Original Articles
1001-1010

In this randomized trial involving patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B, entecavir was associated with better histologic, biochemical, and virologic responses than was lamivudine. Adverse events were similar between the groups, and viral resistance to entecavir did not develop in this 48-week study. Longer studies are needed to evaluate adverse effects and viral resistance to entecavir.

1011-1020

This randomized trial involving patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B had the same design and findings as the companion trial involving patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B. Histologic, biochemical, and virologic responses were better with entecavir than with lamivudine.

1021-1030

In this randomized trial of the treatment of multiple myeloma with intensive chemotherapy plus autologous hematopoietic stem-cell support, the addition of thalidomide improved the rates of complete response and event-free survival, but not overall survival.

Special Article
1031-1038
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The authors assessed changes in abortion and birth rates in Texas after enforcement of a law requiring parental notification for pregnancy termination in minors. Compared with changes over time among teens who were 18 years old at the time of conception, the law was associated with a decline in abortion rates in teens between the ages of 15 and 17 and increased birth rates and rates of second-trimester abortion among teens between the ages of 17.50 and 17.74 years at the time of conception.

Clinical Practice
1039-1051

A 28-year-old woman suddenly has rapid palpitations with dizziness while playing her cello. She is brought to an emergency department. She has a faint regular pulse of 190 beats per minute. Her blood pressure is 82/54 mm Hg. Cardiovascular examination reveals no signs of heart failure. An electrocardiogram shows a regular tachycardia with a narrow QRS complex and no apparent P waves. How should her case be managed?

Review Article
1052-1063

Acute renal failure after massive disasters such as earthquakes is one of the few life-threatening complications of crush injuries that can be reversed. This article considers lifesaving aspects of medical care that can be related to both global and local coordination of the treatment of such complications and that are based on the experiences of the authors during disasters such as the earthquakes in Marmara, Turkey, and Bam, Iran.

Images in Clinical Medicine
1064
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A 31-year-old woman, 33 weeks pregnant, presented with a fever (40°C) and chills 2 months after returning from a trip to Brazil. A mixed infection of Plasmodium malariae and P. falciparum was diagnosed and treated with quinine. She had a relapse one month ...

e9

This man presented with severe abdominal pain after use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Radiography revealed air around the right kidney.

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
1065-1072

A 47-year-old man was transferred to the emergency department because of altered mental status and acute renal failure. Approximately 13 hours earlier, lethargy had developed that progressed to unresponsiveness. The airway had been intubated and acidosis and an elevated creatinine level noted. A generalized tonic–clonic seizure occurred; the results of toxicologic screening of the serum and urine were negative, and a urine specimen contained numerous needle-shaped crystals.

Editorials
1074-1076

Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) accounts for an enormous burden of disease worldwide, including up to half of all cases of cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma.1 With the development of a safe and effective ...

1076-1078

The introduction of melphalan and prednisone for the treatment of multiple myeloma was followed by only minor advances in the management of the disease for almost 20 years.1 The failure of other agents, alone or in combination, to extend survival beyond ...

Legal Issues in Medicine
1079-1084

In January 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. attorney general does not have the authority to prohibit Oregon physicians from prescribing medications to assist terminally ill patients who wish to end their lives. In this article, George Annas reviews the Court's decision and discusses its implications.

Correspondence
1085-1086

To the Editor: In some parts of Africa, the hospital admission rate for the nephrotic syndrome is 100 times greater than that in the United Kingdom, Europe, or the United States.1 In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the nephrotic syndrome accounts for ...

1086-1089

To the Editor: Bradley and colleagues (Nov. 10 issue)1 report that treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in patients with heart failure and central sleep apnea did not affect morbidity and mortality, although several functional ...

1089-1091

To the Editor: In their recent study, Demedts et al. (Nov. 24 issue)1 report a significant difference in bone marrow toxic effects between the acetylcysteine treatment group (4 percent) and the placebo group (13 percent) (P=0.03). They postulate that ...

1091-1093

To the Editor: The Sildenafil Use in Pulmonary Hypertension (SUPER) trial (Nov. 17 issue)1 has led to the approval of sildenafil for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension by the Food and Drug Administration and its European counterpart, the ...

1093-1094

To the Editor: Häberle et al. (Nov. 3 issue)1 state that “the concentration of glutamate . . . was not elevated in either of the two patients, but this lack of elevation might be due to the various other pathways of glutamate catabolism.” We suggest that ...

1095-1096
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To the Editor: The review of renal-cell carcinoma by Cohen and McGovern (Dec. 8 issue)1 was extensive but did not discuss radiotherapy. As noted in the article, nearly half the patients with renal-cell carcinoma have metastatic disease on presentation or ...

1096

To the Editor: Baker and Cannon (Nov. 3 issue)1 describe a patient with left-sided ptosis and mydriasis after cranial trauma. The computed tomographic scan in Panel C of the image shows a bone fragment posteromedial to the dorsum sellae, suggesting a ...

1096-1097

To the Editor: In the discussion of the clinical syndromes of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (the MELAS syndrome), Dickerson et al. (Nov. 24 issue)1 do not mention l-arginine therapy. This option should be ...

Book Reviews
1098

For several reasons, type 1 diabetes mellitus is a most vexing disease for both the generalist and the specialist. First, as in other autoimmune conditions, the cause of the disease is unknown, and thus no specific cure is available. Second, the current ...

1099

Timing is often everything. Certainly, the second edition of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease could not have been published in a more timely fashion, given that the worldwide incidence and prevalence of diabetes are increasing at an alarming pace. And ...

1099-1100

I have worked all my professional life in a metabolic clinic. The referring doctors in the community know what we do there, but our patients are often confused. “Diabetes, and thyroid, you know,” make for a simpler explanation to give to patients than ...

1101-1102

With 64 percent of adults in the United States now considered overweight or obese, physicians can no longer choose to ignore the problem, which presumably more than half their patients have. However, physicians still face several barriers to treating ...

Corrections
1102

Calcium plus Vitamin D for Postmenopausal Women — Bone Appétit? Editorial, N Engl J Med 2006:354;750-752.. On page 750 in the left-hand column, lines 6 through 8 of the third paragraph should have read, “500 mg of elemental calcium as calcium carbonate ...

1102

Calcium plus Vitamin D3 Supplementation and Colorectal Cancer in Women Editorial, N Engl J Med 2006:354;752-754.. On page 752, in the left-hand column, lines 7 and 8 should have read, “1000 mg of elemental calcium as calcium carbonate,” rather than “1000 ...

1102

Calcium plus Vitamin D Supplementation and the Risk of Fractures Original Article, N Engl J Med 2006:354;669-683.. On page 669, line 3 under Methods should have read, “1000 mg of elemental calcium as calcium carbonate,” rather than “1000 mg of calcium ...

1102

Calcium plus Vitamin D Supplementation and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer Original Article, N Engl J Med 2006:354;684-696.. On page 684, lines 2 through 4 under Methods should have read, “18,176 women received 500 mg of elemental calcium as calcium ...