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April 20, 2006  Vol. 354 No. 16

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Perspective
1661-1664
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Canada's government-funded universal health care system is under attack for inefficiency, insufficient funding, and failure to meet some patients' needs in a timely fashion. Dr. Robert Steinbrook reports.

1665-1667

We have recently entered another period of stagnant funding for the NIH. Dr. Joseph Loscalzo writes that it seems clear that new methods of support must be developed if biomedical research is to continue to thrive in the United States.

1667-1669

Subgroup analyses are an important part of the analysis of a comparative clinical trial. However, as Stephen Lagakos explains, they are commonly overinterpreted and can lead to further research that is misguided or, worse, to suboptimal patient care.

Original Articles
1671-1684
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The use of systemic corticosteroids in the treatment of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is controversial. In this study, 180 patients were treated with methylprednisolone sodium succinate or placebo within 7 to 28 days after the onset of ARDS. There was no significant difference in mortality at 60 or 180 days; thus, treatment of ARDS with systemic corticosteroids is not recommended.

1685-1697

Persons with prehypertension (formerly, “borderline hypertension”) were randomly assigned in a blinded fashion to receive two years of candesartan or placebo, followed by two years of placebo for all. Over four years, therapy with candesartan reduced the risk of the development of hypertension by 15.6 percent (P<0.007). Further research is needed to evaluate the clinical usefulness and ultimate safety of antihypertensive treatment for prehypertension.

1698-1705
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In this randomized, controlled trial in children who presented to an emergency department with vomiting and dehydration due to gastroenteritis, a single dose of oral ondansetron reduced vomiting, facilitated oral rehydration, and decreased the use of intravenous rehydration. The rate of hospitalization was low (4 percent) and was not significantly reduced by treatment with ondansetron.

1706-1717

The Clopidogrel for High Atherothrombotic Risk and Ischemic Stabilization, Management, and Avoidance (CHARISMA) trial compared clopidogrel plus aspirin with aspirin alone for reducing the rate of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes in patients with stable cardiovascular disease or multiple cardiovascular risk factors. There was no difference between the treatment groups in this outcome.

Clinical Practice
1718-1727
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A 30-year-old man notes diffuse, intense itching. He reports that his girlfriend has the same itchiness. Examination of the skin reveals interdigital lesions, with small papules, vesicles, and excoriations on the hands and indurated nodules on the genitalia, all of which are suggestive of classic scabies. How should this case be managed?

Images in Clinical Medicine
1728
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A 46-year-old woman and her husband had their sleep disturbed by pruritus, waking up to find similar, itchy papular lesions over their finger webs (Panel A), axillae, groins, and buttocks. They found small (less than 1 mm) mites (Panel B) moving across ...

e15

This 23-year-old woman was admitted at 29 weeks because of preterm premature rupture of the membranes. Doppler ultrasonography showed the cord prolapsing through the cervix.

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
1729-1737

A 37-year-old physician was seen in the pulmonary clinic because of night sweats, hemoptysis, and a mass-like infiltrate visible in the lower lobe of the right lung on computed tomography (CT). He was otherwise in good health; a recent tuberculin skin test was negative, and the results of a physical examination and routine laboratory tests were normal. Antibiotics were prescribed, and the infiltrate resolved, but night sweats continued. CT repeated three months later disclosed new lesions in the same lobe. A diagnostic procedure was performed.

Editorials
1739-1742

There is good reason that treatment of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with corticosteroids has been a much-studied subject. In response to a number of serious underlying events, such as sepsis, inhalation of gastric contents, and multiple ...

1742-1744

Prehypertension, defined as the blood-pressure range of 120 to 139 mm Hg systolic or 80 to 89 mm Hg diastolic, is present in about 70 million Americans.1,2 The condition heralds arterial hypertension and thus may be considered a starting point in the ...

1744-1746

Antiplatelet therapy with aspirin, an irreversible inhibitor of platelet cyclooxygenase, has earned its rightful place as a cornerstone of treatment for reducing cardiovascular events in patients with established vascular disease.1,2 This statement is ...

Correspondence
1747-1751
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To the Editor: The rotavirus vaccines in the clinical trials reported on by Ruiz-Palacios and colleagues and Vesikari and colleagues (Jan. 5 issue)1,2 may reduce mortality from rotavirus less efficaciously in Third World regions where rotavirus expresses ...

1751-1752

To the Editor: The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) study research group (Dec. 22 issue)1 reports that intensive therapy for diabetes reduced the risk of cardiovascular events ...

1752-1753

To the Editor: The report by Iacono and colleagues (Jan. 12 issue)1 on the effect of inhaled cyclosporine in lung-transplant recipients raises important questions that need further clarification. Although the authors found that inhaled cyclosporine ...

1753-1755

To the Editor: Although Kizer and Devereux (Dec. 1 issue)1 have elaborated on the association between patent foramen ovale and cryptogenic stroke, the importance of cryptogenic stroke occurring during surgery was not mentioned. Paradoxical thrombi, and ...

1755-1757

To the Editor: The article by Dr. Suarez and colleagues (Jan. 26 issue)1 includes the statement that “a good-quality head CT [computed tomographic] scan will reveal subarachnoid hemorrhage in 100 percent of cases within 12 hours after the onset of ...

1757

To the Editor: Cox and Pesola (Dec. 29 online issue)1 describe lead-shot accumulation in the cecal appendix of an Alaskan native, which was probably caused by the ingestion of shotgun-culled waterfowl. Their description did not mention the potential for ...

1758-1759

To the Editor: Asymptomatic carriers of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) are considered acceptable as donors in allogeneic stem-cell transplantation for patients with adult T-cell leukemia–lymphoma (ATL).1 However, the infusion of HTLV-I–...

1759-1760

To the Editor: The Clinical Problem-Solving article by Hegland et al. (Dec. 1 issue)1 concerned a case of platypnea–orthodeoxia, in which a positionally dependent intracardiac right-to-left shunt led to arterial desaturation when the patient was in the ...

Book Reviews
1761-1762

The little good I have done is that which cost me the greatest trouble and has encountered the most numerous obstacles.

— William Hunter (1718–1783)

At first glance, The Medical Malpractice Myth will invoke either relief or fury, depending on the reader's ...

1762-1763

The relationship of families to the health and health care of an individual family member is a topic whose clarity diminishes as its study intensifies. Families have many structures and a variety of functional styles, and the confusion between association ...

1763-1764

The stated intentions of this book are to promote the systematic study of urban health and to serve as a bridge between urban health research and public health practice. For the most part, the book succeeds in reaching both aims. With its reasonably ...

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