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April 24, 2008  Vol. 358 No. 17

Audio Summary of this Issue

Perspective
1773-1777

In recent years, the FDA has faced serious challenges to its ability to ensure the safety of the country's medical devices and drugs. What can be done? Stuart Schweitzer writes that one approach is to attempt to boost the FDA's efficiency. Stuart ...

1774-1775

Kicking the FDA has become a popular sport for the press and legislators. Dr. Alastair Wood argues that it is time to demand that the critics assume their own share of responsibility for the recent problems.

1777-1779
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In the developing world, trachoma remains the leading infectious cause of blindness. Dr. Joseph Cook writes that the early results achieved with the use of the SAFE strategy and azithromycin mass treatment suggest that elimination of blinding trachoma by ...

Original Articles
1781-1792

A cohort of patients who underwent stent implantation for unprotected left main coronary artery disease was compared with a propensity-matched cohort of patients who underwent coronary-artery bypass grafting. The risk of death and the composite outcome of death, Q-wave myocardial infarction, or stroke did not differ significantly between the two groups. The risk of target-vessel revascularization was higher in the group that received stents.

1793-1804

A multicenter trial evaluated patients with previous anterior-wall myocardial infarction who were not candidates for an implantable cardioverter–defibrillator. Patients were randomly assigned either to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) at home for management of cardiac arrest or to receive standard treatment. At a median follow-up of 3 years, there was no significant difference between the two groups in mortality from any cause.

1805-1810

Erythrocytes from patients with pyruvate kinase deficiency are resistant to invasion by Plasmodium falciparum. Such erythrocytes that succumb to infection are more rapidly cleared by macrophages than are infected erythrocytes from control subjects. These data suggest that mutations in the gene encoding pyruvate kinase may confer resistance to malaria.

1811-1818

DEHAL1, the gene encoding iodotyrosine deiodinase in the thyroid, allows for the reuse of iodide for thyroid hormone synthesis. The authors identified four patients from three unrelated families with three unique mutations; all had a dramatic reduction of in vitro iodotyrosine deiodinase activity. Patients had severe goitrous hypothyroidism, evident in infancy and childhood. Infants with DEHAL1 defects may have normal thyroid function at birth and thus may be missed by neonatal screening programs.

Special Article
1819-1828
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Ezetimibe lowers low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, but no studies have documented a clinical benefit from the drug. Nevertheless, this study shows the growing use of ezetimibe in the United States, to a much greater extent than in Canada, where direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is prohibited.

Clinical Therapeutics
1829-1836

A 35-year-old man presents with a febrile illness after travel in West Africa, and severe malaria is diagnosed. Treatment with artesunate is recommended. Artesunate is a member of a class of antimalarial agents called artemisinins, and it is at least as effective against severe malaria as quinine, with fewer side effects. The drug is available in the United States only by special request from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Images in Clinical Medicine
1837
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An otherwise healthy 30-year-old man had been ill for 2 days when he presented with a temperature of 39°C and reported passing dark urine (his case was noted in Bhatt et al., East African Medical Journal 1994;71:755-7). He reported taking no medication ...

e19
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This 34-year-old man had fevers to 40°C, shaking chills, and hemolytic anemia. He had had a splenectomy and recently had traveled widely.

Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital
1838-1848

A 46-year-old man with rheumatoid arthritis was seen in the hematology–oncology clinic because of anorexia and generalized lymphadenopathy. One month earlier, diffuse lymphadenopathy developed in his neck, axillae, and groin, associated with sore throat and loss of appetite but not with weight loss. Serum protein electrophoresis disclosed a monoclonal spike in the gamma region. A diagnostic procedure was performed.

Editorials
1850-1851
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Clinical studies have become very expensive to conduct, and multiple sources of funding often support a single study. Biomedical journals routinely disclose all sources of funding of the research they publish; this has been standard practice at the ...

1851-1853

A recent meta-analysis, report, and editorial all agreed with the need for a randomized trial of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as compared with coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with left main coronary artery disease.13 The ...

1853-1855

Although it is difficult to study or even quantify, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest contributes greatly to total mortality in industrialized countries. Often such an event is the first manifestation of cardiovascular disease, and more than 90% of patients ...

1855-1856

Malaria, a tremendously successful pathogen that is responsible for more than 300 million cases and 1 million deaths annually,1 has had a large impact on the shape of the human genome. Malaria-selected mutations in human genes promote survival in areas ...

1856-1859

Thyroid hormones are essential for normal brain development, growth, and metabolism. Their synthesis is dependent on a normally developed thyroid gland, an adequate nutritional intake of iodide, and a series of biochemical steps to organify iodide.1 ...

Clinical Implications of Basic Research
1860-1861

Mast cells fuel the growth of islet-cell tumors in a mouse model.

Correspondence
1862

To the Editor: In our article1 published in the October 26, 2006, issue of the Journal, one of the disclosed sources of funding was the Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention and Treatment, which provided partial support for our ...

1862-1864

To the Editor: Barter et al. (Nov. 22 issue)1 report the findings in the Investigation of Lipid Level Management to Understand its Impact in Atherosclerotic Events (ILLUMINATE) trial of torcetrapib for the prevention of cardiovascular events. Was the ...

1865-1866

To the Editor: A QRS duration longer than 120 msec is the only validated selection criterion for cardiac-resynchronization therapy (CRT). However, observational studies have shown a high prevalence of mechanical dyssynchrony in patients with narrow QRS ...

1866-1868

To the Editor: The article by Nestler (Jan. 3 issue)1 on the use of metformin for the treatment of the polycystic ovary syndrome provides a very good review of the concerns about future diabetes and cardiovascular disease associated with this disorder ...

1868-1869

To the Editor: In their review article, Belmaker and Agam (Jan. 3 issue)1 examine several mechanisms involved in depressive disorders, but they do not mention evidence that androgen-deprivation therapy, which is frequently used in the management of ...

1869-1870

To the Editor: In the Case Record involving a 38-year-old man with multifocal motor neuropathy, discussed by Triggs and Cros (Dec. 27 issue),1 Triggs emphasizes that it is important to distinguish multifocal motor neuropathy from amyotrophic lateral ...

1870-1871

These authors found that one or two rounds of high-coverage mass treatment with azithromycin may be sufficient to eliminate ocular C. trachomatis in communities with moderate levels of infection. Had WHO recommendations on antibiotic use been followed, ...

Book Reviews
1872-1873

Perhaps in a tribute to the importance of stories to the aboriginal peoples of Australia, Hugh Taylor has organized his book as an interwoven storyscape, and a vivid one at that. Born in Melbourne, Taylor served as an ophthalmologist in the Australian ...

1873

Salivary glands seem to be an enigma to most practitioners despite the ease of examination and the frequency of salivary gland disorders. Patients most commonly seek medical attention when the parotid or submandibular glands become enlarged or painful. ...

1873-1874
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Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common inherited diseases in populations of European descent. The median life expectancy of patients with cystic fibrosis is on the rise and has changed dramatically, within a period of three decades, from approximately ...

1874-1875

We enjoyed reading this book because it contains much useful information and many interesting insights into liver immunology. The topic is of great interest because of continuing advances in our understanding of chronic viral infection of the liver, ...

Correction
1875

Survival of Patients with Stage I Lung Cancer Detected on CT Screening Original Article, N Engl J Med 2006:355;1763-1771.. The disclosure statement (page 1769) should have read as follows: “Drs. Henschke and Yankelevitz report receiving royalties from ...

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