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March 23, 2006  Vol. 354 No. 12

Audio Summary of this Issue

Perspective
1221-1229

States have affirmed that physicians and nurses — including those who are prison employees — have a right to refuse to participate in any way in executions. Yet they have found physicians and nurses who are willing to participate. Who are these people? ...

Original Articles
1231-1242

Adult outpatients with a nonpsychotic major depressive disorder received sustained-release bupropion, sertraline, or extended-release venlafaxine after a lack of response to or an inability to tolerate the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram. Approximately one in four patients had a remission of symptoms after switching to another antidepressant. All these medications provided a reasonable second-step choice for depressed outpatients who did not have a remission with or could not tolerate the SSRI.

1243-1252

Although clinicians frequently add a second medication to an ineffective antidepressant, randomized trials comparing augmentation medications are lacking. In this study, adult outpatients with nonpsychotic major depressive disorder who had not had a remission during citalopram therapy were assigned to sustained-release bupropion or buspirone and had similar remission rates on the basis of clinician and self-reports. Several important secondary measures favored citalopram plus bupropion over citalopram plus buspirone.

1253-1263

The enzyme acyl–coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) esterifies cholesterol, and studies in animals suggest that inhibiting ACAT may reduce the progression of atherosclerosis. In this trial, the ACAT inhibitor pactimibe had no beneficial effect on the progression of coronary atherosclerosis and actually worsened some angioscopic measures of atherosclerosis. Contrary to expectations, ACAT inhibition may in fact promote atherogenesis.

1264-1272
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This study demonstrates a strong protective effect of three variants of PCSK9 against coronary heart disease. Two of the variants were found predominantly in black subjects, and one variant was found predominantly in white subjects.

Clinical Practice
1273-1280

    A 25-year-old woman presents with a one-week history of blurred vision in the left eye. One day before the onset of visual loss, she noted a dull ache in the left periorbital region and pain on eye movement. Her symptoms progressed for three days but have not worsened since. She has no history of other visual or neurologic symptoms. Examination reveals visual acuity of 20/40 in the left eye, reduced color perception, and a left afferent pupillary defect. There is no visible swelling of the optic disk or pallor of the optic nerve, and a neurologic examination is normal. How should she be evaluated and treated?

    Review Article
    1281-1293

    Pregnancy has become one of the expected benefits afforded to women with successful organ transplants. This article discusses the most recent data about the effects on the mother and child of pregnancy in the recipients of solid-organ transplants.

    Images in Clinical Medicine
    1294
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    A 72-year-old man presented with unstable angina. An urgent cardiac catheterization showed clinically significant disease in the right coronary artery, which was stented. Twelve hours after the procedure, livedo reticularis developed on his legs and there ...

    e11
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    This 37-year-old woman presented with blurred vision. She reported intravenous use of methylphenidate tablets crushed and dissolved in water.

    Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
    1295-1303

    A 35-year-old woman had recurrent abdominal pain in the right upper quadrant. Two similar episodes, one year earlier and one month earlier, had led to imaging studies that detected dilated intrahepatic bile ducts with numerous calculi; removal of stones and sphincterotomy led to the relief of symptoms. She had fever, abdominal tenderness, mildly elevated aminotransferase levels, dilated bile ducts with numerous stones, and possible external compression of the left intrahepatic duct.

    Editorials
    1305-1307

    My recent use of that august medical search engine, Google, revealed a publication that identified sin as the cause of depression. Initial amusement quickly gave way to the sobering recognition that this simplistic formulation conveyed a prevalent, if ...

    1307-1309

    Medical management of atherosclerosis is based on the control of its risk factors (dyslipidemia, hypertension, family history, and smoking) and predisposing conditions (e.g., the metabolic syndrome and diabetes), but no drugs specifically target the ...

    1310-1312

    Just when we thought we understood everything about low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and its relationship to cardiovascular risk, along comes a discovery that reveals a new control mechanism and suggests a strategy for the prevention of ...

    Sounding Board
    1313-1316

    In deciding whether to pursue pregnancy, transplant recipients need to know what they can expect for their own health and for that of their potential children. This article considers how physicians can ethically address fertility issues with female transplant recipients.

    Correspondence
    1317-1318

    To the Editor: Bhat et al. (Dec. 15 issue)1 report on influenza-related deaths among children during the 2003–2004 influenza season. Combining medical records, autopsy reports, and analyses of virus isolates, their timely study provides estimates of the ...

    1318-1320

    To the Editor: The report by Groszmann et al. (Nov. 24 issue)1 answers a question my colleagues and I first raised several years ago2 — namely, that of the potential value of nonselective beta-blockade in the treatment of unselected patients with ...

    1320-1321

    To the Editor: Casarett et al. (Dec. 15 issue)1 claim that artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) do not constitute “a basic intervention that can be administered by anyone. . . . ANH is a medical therapy administered for a medical indication.”

    There ...

    1322

    To the Editor: Imiquimod has recently been shown to be effective in the management of lentigo maligna, as demonstrated in Images in Clinical Medicine (Nov. 17 issue)1 and in other reports. The authors correctly suggest that imiquimod may be effective for ...

    1322-1323

    To the Editor: With regard to the letter by Dr. April (Oct. 6 issue),1 in reference to a Perspective article by Topol on the overuse of nesiritide for congestive heart failure (July 14 issue)2: Dr. April claims that the current president of the American ...

    1323-1324

    To the Editor: Peginterferons are widely used to treat chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, an important cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.14 We describe a patient who did not have a virologic response to peginterferon and had ...

    1325

    To the Editor: Streptococcus suis commonly causes meningitis in swine. Human infection is infrequent and is typically manifested as meningitis, frequently followed by permanent sensorineural hearing loss. Most cases have occurred in Southeast Asia. A ...

    Book Reviews
    1326-1327

    Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. The authors are long-time advocates of a single-payer health care system and long-time skeptics about competition in health care. Both are Harvard professors — one a physician, the other a medical economist. ...

    1327-1328

    More than 20 years ago, Henry Aaron and William Schwartz argued in The Painful Prescription: Rationing Hospital Care (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1984) that the explosive rise in the cost of health care would eventually force the United ...

    1328-1329

    Medical advances often focus on adjusting biology to cope with hostile environments — repairing damage from infectious agents, fast food, tobacco, violence, automobile accidents, and other adversities. Laboratories around the world search in our genes for ...

    1329

    In this thoughtful and provocative book, the social epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson uses the results of research on health differences to explore the effects of social and economic inequalities on individuals and societies. He contrasts the extraordinary ...

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