Join the 200th Anniversary Celebration

Issue IndexA searchable index of tables of contents

Find An Issue

By Volume and Issue
By Date

Table of contents for

June 28, 2007  Vol. 356 No. 26

Audio Summary of this Issue

Perspective
2665-2667

Four years after national limits on duty hours for medical residents took effect, conversations with residency directors, attending physicians, health care researchers, and sleep-medicine experts suggest that neither patient care nor medical education is ...

2668-2670

Dr. Harry Yoon discusses the ways in which residency programs have tried to revise a training system and culture characterized by notoriously long hours and relatively low compensation while managing an ever-increasing workload.

2671-2673

Drs. Dorothea Haas and Georg Hoffmann write that mevalonic aciduria and hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome are rare disorders, but they represent a unique link among inborn errors of metabolism, side effects of statin therapy, and inflammatory and ...

Original Articles
2675-2683
  • Free Full Text

In this large case–control study, the first-trimester use of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) overall was not associated with significantly increased risks of craniosynostosis, omphalocele, or heart defects. Analyses of individual SSRIs revealed some significant associations; however, the analyses involved multiple comparisons and small numbers of exposed subjects. These findings do not show significantly increased risks of major birth defects in association with SSRI use overall.

2684-2692
  • Free Full Text

Previous studies have suggested associations between maternal use of SSRIs and congenital heart defects. In this large case–control study, there were no significant associations between maternal SSRI use overall during early pregnancy and most categories or subcategories of birth defects. Associations were found between maternal SSRI use and anencephaly, craniosynostosis, and omphalocele, but they were based on small numbers of exposed infants.

2693-2699
  • Free Full Text

This report of survey data from surgeons at 17 U.S. medical centers indicates that the majority reported at least one needlestick injury during training and that half of the most recent injuries (including many sustained in the care of high-risk patients) were not reported to an employee health service. The observations that needlestick injuries are common among surgeons in training and are often not reported suggest the need for better strategies to improve occupational safety.

2700-2703

A 3-year-old boy with mevalonic aciduria was treated with a bone marrow transplant from his HLA-identical sister. Soon after transplantation, the recurrent febrile attacks, hepatosplenomegaly, and signs of inflammation that characterize the disease subsided.

Clinical Practice
2704-2712
  • Full Text Audio

A 51-year-old woman presents with a generalized tonic–clonic seizure. After a brief postictal period, she recovers and reports no headache or other neurologic symptoms. She takes no medications and her medical history is unremarkable. Computed tomography of the head suggests a right occipital arteriovenous malformation, without evidence of hemorrhage. Imaging studies show a right occipital arteriovenous malformation as well as a feeding-artery aneurysm.

Review Article
2713-2719

    Historically, fear of malpractice litigation made clinicians cautious about informing patients when they made mistakes in their care. This article reviews recent efforts by regulators, hospitals, accreditation organizations, and legislators to encourage and facilitate discussions between health care providers and patients when patients are harmed by medical errors.

    Videos in Clinical Medicine
    e26

      This video demonstrates how to perform a comprehensive pelvic examination, including an examination of the external genitalia, a Papanicolaou test to screen for cervical dysplasia, a bimanual examination, and a rectovaginal examination.

      Images in Clinical Medicine
      2720
      • Free Full Text

      A 44-year-old man presented with intermittent epistaxis, fever, and polyarthralgias of 2 months' duration. For the previous week, he had had puffiness of the face and reduced urinary output. On physical examination, the blood pressure was 180/100 mm Hg; ...

      e27
      • Free Full Text

      Thirty-five years ago, this 72-year-old woman noticed a painless, slowly enlarging anterior neck mass. For the past few years, she has had a sensation of suffocating after falling asleep.

      Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
      2721-2730

      An 11-year-old boy was seen because of a calcified mass in the ethmoid sinus and nose. He had a 5-year history of nasal congestion and headaches; 2 months before presentation, physical examination disclosed a mass in the right naris, and imaging studies showed a calcified mass that appeared to arise in the ethmoid sinus.

      Editorials
      2732-2733

      In the fall of 2005, GlaxoSmithKline called attention to recently collected safety data indicating an increased risk of major congenital malformations among infants exposed during organogenesis to GlaxoSmithKline's selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (...

      2734-2736

      In 2005, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) initiated a policy requiring investigators to deposit information about trial design into an accepted clinical trials registry before the onset of patient enrollment.1 This policy ...

      Health Law, Ethics, and Human Rights
      2737-2743

      Research subjects in a clinical trial sued Amgen because they were not provided with experimental treatment after the trial was stopped early because of lack of efficacy and concerns about safety. The informed consent form promised continued treatment after the trial ended, but a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Amgen, arguing that the consent form was a contract between the academic investigators and the subjects and was not binding on Amgen.

      Correspondence
      2744-2745

      To the Editor: The article by Cox et al. (March 29 issue)1 about bronchial thermoplasty as a treatment for asthma, as well as the accompanying editorial by Solway and Irvin,2 point up the crucial role played by airway smooth muscle in the pathophysiology ...

      2745-2746

      To the Editor: Huikeshoven et al. (March 22 issue)1 report redarkening of port-wine stains after pulsed-dye–laser therapy. The device and fixed variables used in this study were not optimal, thus minimizing the therapeutic outcome and most likely ...

      2746-2748

      To the Editor: In their trial of pulsed corticosteroid therapy for primary treatment of Kawasaki disease, Newburger et al. (Feb. 15 issue)1 report that, as compared with placebo, a single pulsed dose of corticosteroid resulted in a shorter initial period ...

      2749
      • Free Full Text

      To the Editor: In response to the review article by Hendeles et al. about the withdrawal of albuterol inhalers containing chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) propellants (March 29 issue),1 although we all agree that the eventual elimination of CFC use is an ...

      2750-2751
      • Free Full Text

      To the Editor: I disagree with the recommendation made by Donahue in his Clinical Practice article (March 8 issue)1 that children between the ages of 1 and 4 years with accommodative esotropia with near-distance disparity should be treated with bifocal ...

      2751-2752

      To the Editor: The treatment of patients with the steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) is challenging. Persistent proteinuria and hypoalbuminemia result in serious complications and progressive kidney disease. Intensive treatment regimens show ...

      2753

      To the Editor: Permanent makeup, used to enhance facial appearance (most commonly the eyebrows, eyelids, and lips), is administered by intradermally injecting inks containing various pigments and suspending agents. The number of people receiving ...

      2754-2755

      To the Editor: Although islet transplantation is an option for patients with type 1 diabetes, even those who become insulin-independent after engraftment have islet-graft function that is estimated to be less than 30% of that in a healthy person.1 In ...

      Book Reviews
      2756

      Usually, second opinions are requested by patients to gain a better understanding of their disease and how to manage it. In the case of Arnold Relman's book, the patient is the American public and the disease is the U.S. health care system. The public did ...

      2757-2758
      • Free Full Text

      The public image of the ideal physician has been based for some time on the television persona of Marcus Welby, M.D. Television doctors of late have largely been residents in training whose struggles to develop their own professional and personal ...

      2758-2759

      Much attention is being focused on the influence that new genetic knowledge will have on medicine, the development of new drugs and vaccines, the law, insurance, civil rights, and the workplace. It is no doubt true that knowing more about human, animal, ...

      2759-2760

      Stefan Timmermans, a sociologist who spent some years studying the ways of a medical examiner in a moderately large community, has a unique insight into forensic pathology and the modern-day medical examiner. His book is neither a textbook nor a novel but ...

      Trends: Most Viewed (Last Week)

      More Trends