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March 22, 2007  Vol. 356 No. 12

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Perspective
1197-1201
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On April 1, 2007, India will launch a new phase of its National AIDS Control Program (NACP). Its goals include reducing the number of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections — currently, an estimated 98.5 to 99.5% of India's 1.1 billion people ...

1198-1199
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Tuberculosis is the most common HIV-related opportunistic infection in India, and caring for patients with both diseases is a major public health challenge. India has about 1.8 million new cases of tuberculosis annually, accounting for a fifth of new ...

1201-1203

What garners attention when it comes to Medicare's payment rates for physicians is the annual drama over possible 11th-hour congressional intervention to prevent cuts under the sustainable growth rate formula. But behind the scenes, Medicare policymakers ...

1204-1205

More than 90 human enterovirus serotypes have now been identified in three distinct waves of discovery. The three poliovirus serotypes were first isolated from nonhuman primates in the course of painstaking experiments performed during the first half of ...

Original Articles
1207-1215
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National data on deaths among on-duty firefighters between 1994 and 2004 were assessed in relation to estimates of the proportions of time spent by firefighters in various duties. The rate of death from coronary heart disease during active fire suppression was approximately 10 to 100 times as high as the expected rate. This study suggests that firefighting is associated with an unusually high risk of death from cardiac causes.

1216-1225

A region on chromosome 17 has been associated with a range of epidemiologically associated autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, including vitiligo. Using two sets of genetic markers and two groups of patients, the authors have implicated variants of NALP1 in susceptibility to autoimmune disease.

1226-1234

Enterovirus 71 is a common cause of hand, foot, and mouth disease and encephalitis in Asia and elsewhere. Among 142 children who had enterovirus 71 infection with central nervous system involvement, assessment at 2.9 years after infection revealed poor neurodevelopment and cognitive outcomes for children who had severe central nervous system involvement with cardiopulmonary failure. In most children who had central nervous system involvement alone, neurodevelopment was normal.

1235-1240

Pulsed-dye–laser therapy is effective for port-wine stains, but the benefits may not be durable. This follow-up study of patients who had received an average of five laser treatments demonstrated redarkening of port-wine stains 10 years after treatment. Patients should be informed about the possibility of redarkening before beginning treatment.

Clinical Practice
1241-1250
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A 58-year-old, previously healthy mail carrier reports cramping pain in his right calf when he walks. The discomfort has progressively worsened over the past 6 months and is interfering with his ability to perform his job; he can now walk no farther than half a block without rest. He has a normal right femoral pulse and a diminished right popliteal pulse; right ankle and foot pulses are absent. How should this patient be evaluated and treated? Should he undergo revascularization?

Images in Clinical Medicine
1251
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An 84-year-old man with a history of gastric cancer and hypertension was admitted to the emergency department in shock after loss of consciousness. Ten years earlier he had been given a diagnosis of a thoracic aortic aneurysm, 56 mm in diameter, and had ...

e11
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This 57-year-old man with a history of diabetes mellitus and alcohol consumption had contractures of both hands, diagnosed as Dupuytren's contracture. He subsequently underwent bilateral fasciectomy.

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
1252-1259

A 27-year-old woman had the sudden onset of pain in the feet, more in the left foot than in the right, associated with edema of the lower legs and a rash over the feet and toes. Pain and paresthesia persisted and worsened; a neurologic examination revealed normal motor strength and reflexes but decreased sensation to pinprick in the toes. A diagnostic procedure was performed.

Editorials
1261-1263
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Among the approximately 1.1 million firefighters in the United States (of whom about 70% are volunteers and 30% are paid career personnel), about 100 die each year in the line of duty.1 With the exception of 2001, when 344 firefighters died as a result of ...

1263-1266

Autoimmunity is the reflection of a basic problem confronting all living organisms — how to defend against foreign invasion while maintaining control of the defending forces. The B-cell and T-cell branches of the immune system can exhibit remarkable ...

Correspondence
1267-1268

To the Editor: The report by Pronovost et al. (Dec. 28 issue)1 on an intervention to decrease catheter-related bloodstream infections in the intensive care unit (ICU) would have been more convincing had the authors substantiated that the decline in the ...

1268-1269

To the Editor: Poole et al. (Nov. 2 issue)1 conclude that patients with breast cancer benefit from the addition of four cycles of epirubicin to cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) in the adjuvant setting. In contrast to previously ...

1269-1271

To the Editor: In their review of peginterferon and ribavirin for the treatment of hepatitis C, Hoofnagle and Seeff (Dec. 7 issue)1 do not include data on the association between the consumption of alcohol and both treatment response and disease ...

1272-1274

To the Editor: Bowen's review of educational strategies that can be used to promote clinical diagnostic reasoning (Nov. 23 issue)1 does not sufficiently emphasize the concept of premature closure. Acceptance of a diagnosis before sufficient verification ...

1274-1276
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To the Editor: In Melmed's otherwise excellent review of acromegaly (Dec. 14 issue),1 the clinical myth that headache is due to a local tumor effect is perpetuated in Table 1. It has been established in a prospective study that the size of a pituitary ...

1276-1277

To the Editor: Hoffmann and colleagues (Dec. 21 issue)1 report on the use of statins and the outcome of immunotherapy with bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine in 84 patients with superficial bladder cancer. The authors report that over a median follow-...

1277

To the Editor: With regard to Mathura and Jampol's answer to the Medical Mystery about the visual-field defect (Dec. 7 issue),1 we would like to raise a small point about the path taken by the paradoxical embolism to a left retinal artery branch in the ...

1277-1278

To the Editor: A 23-year-old woman noticed “worms” (small, flat, ribbonlike material) in her stool. She self-medicated with a single 400-mg dose of albendazole. The next day, more parasitic material was eliminated in her feces. By noon she had malaise, ...

Book Reviews
1279-1280

A fair society promises equality in the pursuit of happiness. Yet society — often unwittingly — withholds that promise. Assessing Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Health is a study of how different nations have categorized their populations by race, ...

1280-1281

This book is a rich mix of just about everything you would want to know about the necessary and complex covering of your body. Nina Jablonski writes not only as an anthropologist but also as an ethologist, comparative biologist, and psychologist. She ...

1281

For decades, end-of-life decision making, and euthanasia in particular, has been a highly contested topic — not only in the fields of bioethics and medicine, but also in society in general. The debate involves various actors. It has its icons and symbols, ...

1282-1283

The importance of this book to all of us who are involved in the care of older patients with cancer is evident from the first page of the preface. Currently in the United States, more than 50% of all cancers occur in the 12% of people who are 65 years of ...

1283

Training in geriatric psychiatry is often lacking, and the clinical results are often disastrous. Principles and Practice of Geriatric Psychiatry is an outstanding book on the topic for all clinicians involved in geriatrics. It serves two important ...

Corrections
1283

Diagnosis of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Editorial, N Engl J Med 2006:355;2691-2693.. Dr. Kollef's disclosure statement should have read “Dr. Kollef reports receiving consulting fees or honoraria from Pfizer, Merck, Kimberly Clark, and Elan, and grant ...

1283

Live Attenuated versus Inactivated Influenza Vaccine in Infants and Young Children Original Article, N Engl J Med 2007:356;685-696.. The second to last sentence of the article (page 695) should have read “The high influenza attack rate among children in ...

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