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March 16, 2006  Vol. 354 No. 11

Audio Summary of this Issue

Perspective
1109-1112
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The anticipated licensure of a vaccine against HPV would represent a major public health advance. The acceptance of the HPV vaccine — by physicians, parents, pre-teens, and the public at large — is uncertain. Dr. Robert Steinbrook reports.

1110
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Millions of women have already been exposed to HPV. Drs. Ingrid Katz and Alexi Wright discuss cervical-cancer screening and the worry that the HPV vaccine could have a negative effect on Pap-smear screening.

1112-1113

Dr. Katherine Treadway writes about teaching the cardiac exam to medical students. She reminds us that there is always a patient and that we have not finished our work until we have taken care of the patient, not just the problem.

1114-1115

Rachel Sobel asks, how will we ever reconcile our inevitable — and necessary — human imperfections with our desire to abide by the highest standards of professional conduct?

Original Articles
1117-1129

Asthma is accompanied by inflammation of the airway. In this study, immunohistochemical analysis of the lymphocytes identified in asthmatic airways was consistent with a finding of natural killer T cells expressing an invariant T-cell receptor that produced type 2 helper (Th2) cytokines. These findings call into question the previous designation of these airway lymphocytes as Th2 T cells.

1130-1138
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In this randomized, controlled trial of elderly patients with major depression who had had a response to initial treatment with paroxetine and psychotherapy, two years of maintenance paroxetine prevented recurrent depression, but maintenance psychotherapy did not. Major depression recurred in 35 percent of patients receiving paroxetine plus psychotherapy, 37 percent of those receiving paroxetine plus clinical-management sessions, 68 percent of those receiving placebo plus psychotherapy, and 58 percent of those receiving placebo plus clinical-management sessions.

1139-1146

In this randomized trial in women under 36 years of age who were undergoing a first or second trial of in vitro fertilization, transfer of a single blastocyst-stage (day 5) embryo resulted in higher rates of pregnancy and delivery than transfer of a single cleavage-stage (day 3) embryo. Multiple gestation was rare.

Special Article
1147-1156

Previous research has found differences in health care access and quality among sociodemographic groups. In this study of patients who had made at least one visit to a health care provider during the previous two years, quality-of-care scores were suboptimal overall but were not lower for women than for men or for black or Hispanic patients than for whites. Poorer patients had a slightly lower quality of care: recommended care was received by 53 percent of those with annual family incomes below $15,000 and 57 percent of those with incomes above $50,000.

Review Articles
1157-1165

The prevalence of delirium increases sharply with age, and about 20 percent of older patients have delirium at the time of hospital admission for any reason. This review summarizes the clinical manifestations of and risk factors for delirium and the evaluation of patients with this condition. It includes an update on the current understanding of the pathogenesis of delirium and provides guidance regarding practical measures to prevent this common complication.

1166-1176

This review summarizes recent advances in the understanding of how the immune system averts autoimmunity while maintaining protective immunity.

Images in Clinical Medicine
1177
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A 15-year-old boy had the sudden onset of sharp, piercing, centralized chest pain while at rest. He had no important medical history. He also reported a sore throat and said there had been no history of trauma. The results of a physical examination, ...

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This 90-year-old woman presented with a rapidly enlarging cystic lesion on her left fifth finger.

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
1178-1184

A 71-year-old woman with Crohn's disease, who had been receiving treatment with mercaptopurine and infliximab, had fatigue, blurred vision, headache and mood changes, and an inguinal mass. She had a sudden onset of left-sided weakness; brain imaging disclosed a mass, and she was transferred to this hospital. Shortly after admission, she had a seizure and became unresponsive.

Editorials
1186-1188

Invariant natural killer T cells, originally characterized in mice and more recently defined in humans, are a unique, conserved T-cell sublineage possessing a rearrangement of the T-cell antigen receptor (Vα14Jα18 in mice and Vα24Jα18 in humans). Human ...

1189-1190

Many years ago I read an editorial, author and journal now forgotten, that included in its title the phrase, “Play it again, Sam” — words attributed to, but never actually spoken by, the character played by Humphrey Bogart in the film Casablanca. I can ...

1190-1193

Worldwide, the use of assisted reproductive technology is increasing.13 The technology, which includes such treatments for infertility as in vitro fertilization, accounts for 2 to 3 percent of births in many European countries1 and approximately 1 ...

1193
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On December 8, 2005, we published an expression of concern1 regarding an article by Bombardier et al. on the Vioxx Gastrointestinal Outcomes Research (VIGOR) study that was published in the Journal on November 23, 2000.2 Our expression of concern was ...

Clinical Implications of Basic Research
1194-1195

Studies have tested the therapeutic value of small inhibitory RNAs by introducing them to an animal model of disease. A new study takes the opposite tack: a specific endogenous inhibitory RNA is ablated in the mouse, resulting in a large decrease in serum cholesterol.

Correspondence
1196-1199

To the Editor: We, the non-Merck authors of the VIGOR study,1 welcome the opportunity to respond to your recent expression of concern2 regarding the VIGOR study. No Merck employee or representative was involved in the drafting of this response. Our ...

1199-1203

To the Editor: The two articles by McDonald et al.1 and Loo et al.2 (Dec. 8 issue) document the spread of NAP1 Clostridium difficile isolates of toxinotype III in North America. This emerging strain is thought to be more virulent than earlier strains, ...

1203-1204

To the Editor: As Petri et al. state (Dec. 15 issue),1 oral contraceptives are the most widely used form of reversible contraception. However, the most effective contraceptive is the intrauterine device (IUD). With a first-year failure rate of 0.1 ...

1204-1205

To the Editor: Calin et al. (April 21, 2005, issue)1 proposed that the truncating sequence change in ARLTS1, G446A (Trp149Stop), predisposes persons to a wide range of malignant conditions including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The assertion that ...

1205-1206
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To the Editor: Drs. Plaut and Valentine (Nov. 3 issue)1 did not mention the use of saline nasal irrigation for the patient with seasonal allergic rhinitis. The student described in the case vignette wanted to avoid drowsiness and dry mouth. Nasal ...

1206-1208

To the Editor: The recommendation in the Perspective article by Martinez (Dec. 22 issue)1 of adding leukotriene modifiers or theophylline to therapy for asthma that is not controlled with the use of inhaled corticosteroids is completely opposite to that ...

1208-1209

To the Editor: In his Perspective article on embryonic stem cells, Solter (Dec. 1 issue)1 comments on our experiments2 providing proof of principle for altered nuclear transfer in mice. Altered nuclear transfer was previously proposed by Hurlbut3 in an ...

1210-1211

To the Editor: A 42-year-old man who was in rehabilitation for intravenous substance abuse presented with a three-month history of seizures and incoordination. Other symptoms included dysarthria, a hesitant pattern of speech, myoclonic jerks, postural ...

Book Reviews
1212

Handbooks are generally small books that serve as guides for study. The Handbook of Atopic Eczema is not a small book. Its 613 generally well written pages are grouped into 66 chapters and represent a treatise in themselves; this is a good thing. I spent ...

1212-1213

Although they are uncommon, autoimmune diseases of the skin are important because they severely affect the quality of life. The spectrum of autoimmune diseases of the skin has traditionally included pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid, but it now ...

1213-1214

Is tardive dyskinesia disappearing with the use of second-generation neuroleptic agents? Is interest in studying this disorder declining? These and other thought-provoking questions are skillfully addressed in this second edition of Drug Induced Movement ...

1214-1215

Outcomes researchers strive to quantitate the end points of health care and to improve our understanding of the influences on these outcomes. There are many factors that point to important applications of outcomes research in oncology. Among them are the ...

Correction
1215

Echinocandins — An Advance in the Primary Treatment of Invasive Candidiasis Editorial, N Engl J Med 2002:347;2070-2072.. The disclosure on page 2072 should have included the fact that Dr. Walsh received an honorarium from Merck for participating in a ...