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May 3, 2007  Vol. 356 No. 18

Audio Summary of this Issue

Perspective
1801-1805
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Chinese and international health officials express optimism about controlling the HIV–AIDS epidemic but emphasize the need to move quickly. Bates Gill and Dr. Susan Okie explain that, given China's enormous population, even a small increase in prevalence ...

1806-1807

In 1978, the Department of Health and Human Services passed regulations that limited federally funded research involving prisoners in several ways. Dr. Barron Lerner discusses a recent report by the Institute of Medicine that has opened the closed door, ...

e18

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) discusses his support for expanding federal funding of stem-cell research, the opposition by President Bush and other Republicans, and the future of U.S. research in this field.

Original Articles
1809-1822

In this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, women with postmenopausal osteoporosis received an infusion of either zoledronic acid (5 mg) or placebo at baseline and at 1 and 2 years and were followed for 3 years. Zoledronic acid significantly reduced the risk of vertebral, hip, and other fractures. Adverse events were similar in the two study groups, except for serious atrial fibrillation, which was more frequent in the zoledronic acid group. This drug may provide a promising approach to reducing fracture risk.

1823-1834

In this pilot trial, patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention were randomly assigned to receive a low dose of intracoronary streptokinase after reperfusion or no additional therapy. At 2 days, microvascular function was significantly improved in the streptokinase group. There was no significant difference in left ventricular size or function at 6 months, although the findings suggest that a larger trial might show such a benefit.

1835-1841
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In a study of almost 17,000 men who were surgically treated for undescended testis, with data culled from Swedish national registries, the risk of testicular cancer among men who underwent orchiopexy at 13 years of age or older was twice that among men who had surgery before the age of 13. Surgical treatment for undescended testis at an early age can prevent testicular cancer.

1842-1852
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Improved glycemic control reduces complications in type 1 diabetes, but tight control of glucose is associated with more hypoglycemic episodes. The long-term effect of recurrent hypoglycemic events on cognitive function is not known. In this 18-year follow-up of patients enrolled in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, relatively high rates of severe hypoglycemic events were not associated with worse cognitive outcomes.

Special Article
1853-1861
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In 1992, Medicare introduced the resource-based relative-value scale, which sets physicians' payments on the basis of relative costs and assigns a number of relative-value units (RVUs) to each service. The use of physicians' services (RVUs per Medicare beneficiary) grew by 45% between 1992 and 2002. Growth varied according to the type of service and specialty, with high rates of growth in cardiology and gastroenterology.

Clinical Practice
1862-1869
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A 58-year-old man presents with a 2-week history of progressive dyspnea on exertion, neck swelling, decreased appetite, and fatigue. There is no history of syncope or dysphagia. He smoked cigarettes until 5 years ago. The physical examination reveals a heart rate of 105 beats per minute, a respiratory rate of 20 breaths per minute, and superficial vascular distention over the neck, chest, and upper abdomen. Stridor is not present. How should his case be evaluated and managed?

Images in Clinical Medicine
1870
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A 67-year-old man receiving hemodialysis because of kidney failure resulting from renovascular disease was admitted to the hospital for revision of dialysis access. Six months earlier, a dual-chamber, permanent pacemaker had been implanted in the right ...

e17
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In this 68-year-old man, a CT scan showed a mass consistent with a renal-cell carcinoma in the upper pole of the left kidney and a duplication of the inferior vena cava.

Clinical Problem-Solving
1871-1876

    A 55-year-old male physician was seen in August because of a 1-week history of fever and night sweats. The sweats required at least one nightly change of his pajamas and pillowcase. The patient also noted a worsening cough, which had previously been ascribed to esophageal reflux. There was no sputum production, photophobia, rash, arthralgia, dysuria, or change in bowel function.

    Editorials
    1878-1880

    Bisphosphonates are an important option for the prevention of fractures in postmenopausal women. However, the complex instructions for the administration of oral bisphosphonates are inconvenient or unsuitable for many patients, and adherence to long-term ...

    1880-1882

    The pathogenesis of an acute myocardial infarction consists of the rupture of atherosclerotic plaque, followed by a sudden thrombotic coronary occlusion. Pioneering studies performed more than 40 years ago, even before there was full recognition of the ...

    1883-1884

    Medicare's method of payment to physicians has been a thorny problem since the program began more than 40 years ago. Medicare's initial method for setting fees mimicked the typical system used by the Blue Shield plans of the 1960s: payment for the lowest ...

    Correspondence
    1885-1887

    To the Editor: Boyd and colleagues (Jan. 18 issue)1 report a case–control study, nested within data derived from previous cohort studies, that strongly supports breast density as a risk factor for breast cancer. However, using only 1 matched control for ...

    1887-1888

    To the Editor: Liu et al. (Jan. 18 issue)1 report on a 186-gene “invasiveness” gene signature (IGS) that discriminates between normal breast epithelium and tumorigenic breast-cancer cells that are characterized by CD44 expression and low or undetectable ...

    1888-1889

    To the Editor: Seven different studies so far have shown controversial correlations (ranging from highly significant to not significant at all) regarding the predictive value of antimyelin antibodies in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome ...

    1889-1892

    To the Editor: The policy of the American Medical Association states, “The patient has the right to receive information from physicians and to discuss the benefits, risks, and costs of appropriate treatment alternatives.”1 In their study of controversial ...

    1892-1893
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    To the Editor: In the Clinical Problem-Solving case presented by Calfee et al. (Feb. 1 issue),1 the discussant identifies a common heuristic error inherent in clinical problem-solving. In this case, the clinician's reasoning became erroneously anchored ...

    1893-1895

    To the Editor: In the Case Record of a patient with anemia and a low level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, presented by Murali and colleagues (Dec. 28 issue),1 the discussant states that on rare occasions the presence of a paraprotein ...

    1895-1896

    To the Editor: In this issue of the Journal, Black et al.1 report on a significant increase in the risk of serious atrial-fibrillation adverse events (defined as events resulting in hospitalization or disability or judged to be life-threatening) ...

    Book Reviews
    1897-1898

    Esophageal cancer is the seventh leading cause of all deaths from cancer worldwide, with an estimated 14,000 deaths from this cancer in the United States alone in 2006. Since the 1970s, esophageal adenocarcinoma has been the neoplasm with the fastest-...

    1898-1899

    It was not the intention of the editors and authors of Challenges in Inflammatory Bowel Disease to produce yet another comprehensive book on inflammatory bowel disease, but instead to consider specific issues. The book's chapters are divided into five ...

    1899-1900

    The rapid growth of sleep-disorder medicine as a subspecialty, and with it the growing number of patients in all medical settings who have received diagnoses of sleep disorders, has created the need for reference works accessible to the clinician seeking ...

    Corrections
    1900
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    Anchors Away Clinical Problem-Solving, N Engl J Med 2007:356;504-509.. The legend for Figure 5 (page 508) should have read “Panel B is a higher-power view showing nuclear staining of abnormal lymphocytes (arrow) for Epstein–Barr virus–encoded RNA (Epstein–...

    1900

    Improving Global Health — Margaret Chan at the WHO Perspective, N Engl J Med 2007:356;653-656.. The fourth reference (page 656) should have read “Arrow KJ, Panosian C, Gelband H, eds. Saving lives, buying time: economics of malaria drugs in an age of ...

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