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May 18, 2006  Vol. 354 No. 20

Audio Summary of this Issue

Perspective
2093-2095
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The number of uninsured Americans is approaching 50 million. Stuart Altman and Michael Doonan write that Massachusetts has now sent a new message to the rest of the country: providing health care to the uninsured is possible.

2095-2098

Starting in July 2007, all state residents must carry a minimum level of health insurance. The Massachusetts health care reforms are ambitious and complex. Dr. Robert Steinbrook reports.

2099-2101
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A surgical robot is a collection of wristed “servant” tools called manipulators, which receive digital instructions from an interfaced computer. As an otolaryngologist, Dr. Norman Berlinger used to perform microscopic middle-ear surgery in a space the ...

Original Articles
2103-2111

Women with breast cancer in which the HER2 gene was amplified had a better response to adjuvant treatment with an anthracycline-containing regimen than to a chemotherapy combination that did not contain an anthracycline. Among women with tumors without HER2 amplification, there was no benefit from an anthracycline-containing regimen.

2112-2121
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In infants with very low birth weight who have apnea of prematurity, caffeine therapy reduced the risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia assessed at 36 weeks of postmenstrual age. Caffeine temporarily reduced weight gain; it did not affect the rates of death, ultrasonographic signs of brain injury, or necrotizing enterocolitis. These short-term data demonstrate an important benefit of caffeine therapy in this population, but a definitive assessment of its benefits and risks awaits results of long-term follow-up of this cohort.

2122-2130
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Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is characterized by progressive enlargement of cyst-filled kidneys. A magnetic-resonance–based method was used to determine the rates of change in total kidney volume and cyst volume and iothalamate clearance over a three-year period in patients with ADPKD without azotemia. Higher rates of kidney enlargement were associated with more rapid decreases in renal function.

2131-2141

The authors evaluated outcomes of children with bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment according to the age at detection and confirmation. Children who had undergone universal newborn screening or whose hearing impairment was confirmed by nine months of age performed significantly better on tests of language ability than children who were not exposed to the screening or whose hearing impairment was confirmed after nine months of age, although speech scores were not significantly different. These data support the benefits of early detection and intervention for bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment.

Clinical Practice
2142-2150

    A 56-year-old woman presents with severe epigastric abdominal pain and vomiting of 14 hours' duration, symptoms that developed shortly after dinner the previous evening. She has no history of alcohol use, takes no medications, and has no family history of pancreatitis. On physical examination, she has a heart rate of 110 beats per minute and moderate epigastric abdominal tenderness without peritoneal signs. The white-cell count is 16,500 per cubic millimeter, and the hematocrit is 49 percent. Amylase, lipase, alanine aminotransferase, and lactate dehydrogenase levels are elevated. Calcium, albumin, triglyceride, and electrolyte values are normal. How should this patient be further evaluated and treated?

    Review Article
    2151-2164

    The implementation of universal screening programs to detect hearing defects in newborns has dramatically increased the identification of hearing loss in infants. Recent advances in understanding the nature and causes of prelingual hearing loss, combined with advances in technology, suggest that further improvement in these programs can readily be achieved.

    Images in Clinical Medicine
    2165
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    A mother brought her three-month-old infant to the clinic because of a persistent difference in temperature between the right and left hand. The child had had a total brachial-plexus palsy since delivery. On examination, the child had weakness of the left ...

    e21
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    This man presented with abdominal pain of eight months' duration. Physical examination showed a bluish discoloration of the gums. The patient had worked in a lead-smelting company for the past 30 years.

    Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
    2166-2175

      A 46-year-old woman had rapid onset of ascites, right upper abdominal discomfort, nausea, and vomiting. The serum–ascites albumin gradient was 1.2 g per deciliter. Venography demonstrated narrowing of the intrahepatic portion of the inferior vena cava; hepatic veins could not be visualized. Additional diagnostic procedures were performed.

      Editorials
      2177-2179

      Adjuvant chemotherapy and hormonal treatment have substantially reduced the risks of relapse and death that threaten a woman for many years after the diagnosis of breast cancer.1 Progress in breast-cancer treatment is due in part to the incorporation of ...

      2179-2181

      Caffeine is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs among premature infants. It is a potent respiratory stimulant indicated primarily to reduce the incidence of episodes of apnea associated with an immature central nervous system. It is also used ...

      2181-2183

      Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a condition characterized by massively enlarged kidneys containing fluid-filled cysts, profoundly affects those who inherit one of the known genes that cause the disease. Mutations in the polycystic ...

      Correspondence
      2184-2185

      To the Editor: The study by Clegg et al. (Feb. 23 issue)1 suggests that glucosamine and chondroitin are not better than placebo for knee osteoarthritis. The most remarkable aspect of their study is perhaps the huge placebo effect — 60 percent of the ...

      2186

      To the Editor: Joensuu and colleagues (Feb. 23 issue)1 report the provocative finding that a short treatment with trastuzumab (for nine weeks) combined with chemotherapy is effective in the adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. At a median ...

      2187

      To the Editor: The trial of cetuximab plus radiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer, as reported by Bonner et al. (Feb. 9 issue),1 showed that patients with oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma who received concomitant hyperfractionated ...

      2188-2190

      To the Editor: Several publications have recently reported an association between maternal treatment with selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) late in pregnancy and adverse outcomes in infants. These outcomes have included persistent pulmonary ...

      2190-2191

      To the Editor: The study by Christakis and Allison (Feb. 16 issue)1 has broad implications for our health care system but leaves important questions unanswered. The mortality rates in this study among the elderly persons (referred to as partners) whose ...

      2191-2193

      To the Editor: In the excellent review of drug-related hepatotoxicity by Navarro and Senior (Feb. 16 issue),1 antithyroid agents were not included in the authors' list of medications that cause injury to the liver. Both classes of antithyroid agents, ...

      2193-2194

      To the Editor: The sensitivity of lung cancer to gefitinib has been found to be associated with mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR),13 yet similar observations are not available for other solid tumors.4 We ...

      2194-2196

      To the Editor: A 65-year-old woman with diffuse scleroderma presented with increasing dyspnea on exertion, fatigue, and approximately a six-week history of palpitations. She had a history of scleroderma-related pulmonary fibrosis, which was clinically ...

      Book Reviews
      2197-2198

      Pediatric neurologist Mary Coleman has written or edited eight medical books, four of them about autism. This latest book, consisting of 10 chapters with contributions by international experts Catalina Betancur, G. Robert DeLong, Christopher Gillberg, ...

      2198

      Phil, stop acting like a worm,

      The table is no place to squirm . . .

      . . . He turns

      And churns

      He wiggles

      And jiggles

      Here and there on the chair

      Phil, these twists I cannot bear.

      The story of “Fidgety Phil” in this German poem by Heinrich Hoffmann from ...

      2198-2199

      Brown's book, written for adults and parents of children with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addresses controversies concerning the disorder and affirms the human experience of living with ADHD. The use of vignettes and of the words of ...

      2199-2200

      When was the last time you opened a book and realized that what you were reading could actually help you to improve the lives of persons to whom you owe special care? Norman Cantor, a professor of law at Rutgers University, has written such a book.

      ...

      Corrections
      2200

      A Predominantly Clonal Multi-Institutional Outbreak of Clostridium difficile–Associated Diarrhea with High Morbidity and Mortality Original Article, N Engl J Med 2005:353;2442-2449.. In Table 3 on page 2446, for the category “Any exposure to antibiotics,” ...

      2200

      Infliximab for Induction and Maintenance Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis Original Article, N Engl J Med 2005:353;2462-2476.. On page 2473 in Table 4, the percentage of patients in Active Ulcerative Colitis Trial (ACT) 2 receiving 10 mg of infliximab who ...

      2200

      A Comparison of Letrozole and Tamoxifen in Postmenopausal Women with Early Breast Cancer Original Article, N Engl J Med 2005:353;2747-2757.. On page 2747, in the list of members of the Writing Committee, the last name of Andrew Wardley was misspelled. We ...