January 30, 2014
- Vol. 370 No. 5
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Audio Summary
- After the False Start — What Can We Expect from the New Health Insurance Marketplaces?
J. Kingsdale
Despite their troubled rollout, the health insurance exchanges should eventually promote enrollment and rational consumer choice, reduce the cost of distributing insurance, enhance competition, and improve cost and quality by helping to transform care delivery.393-396 - Assessing the Clinical Benefits of Lipid-Disorder Drugs
W.R. Hiatt and R.J. Smith
An FDA advisory committee voted against approval of a drug that reduces triglyceride levels, since several clinical trials revealed no cardiovascular benefit from other such drugs. This summary of panel deliberations highlights challenges in the development of lipid-disorder treatments.396-399 - History of Medicine: Still Delirious after All These Years
D.S. Jones
With the emergence of intensive care in the 1950s and 1960s, delirium became more prominent. Doctors quickly set out to understand and prevent it, but delirium results from so many sources that decisive understanding remains elusive.399-401 - Interactive Perspective: Health Care Spending by High-Income Countries, 1980–2011
M.B. Rosenthal and L.E. Smith
This interactive graphic shows the levels of health care spending, over time, by both the public and private sectors in the United States and in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.e7
- Incidence of Childhood Obesity in the United States
S.A. Cunningham, M.R. Kramer, and K.M.V. Narayan
According to this report, nearly half of children who became obese between the ages of 5 and 14 years had been overweight and 75% had been above the 70th percentile for BMI at the start of kindergarten. Focusing on early childhood obesity may be important in stemming the epidemic.403-411 - Romosozumab in Postmenopausal Women with Low Bone Mineral Density
M.R. McClung and Others
This study shows that in postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density, the monoclonal antibody romosozumab, which binds to sclerostin, an osteoblast-activity inhibitor, was associated with increased bone mineral density and bone formation and decreased bone resorption.412-420 - Genetic PTX3 Deficiency and Aspergillosis in Stem-Cell Transplantation
C. Cunha and Others
The authors of this study found that single-nucleotide polymorphisms in long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) were associated with the development of invasive aspergillosis after hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation.421-432 - Proteome-wide Analysis and CXCL4 as a Biomarker in Systemic Sclerosis
L. van Bon and Others
In this study, the level of the chemokine CXCL4, which is secreted by plasmacytoid dendritic cells, was elevated in patients with systemic sclerosis and correlated with the presence and progression of complications.433-443
- Albumin-Bound Paclitaxel plus Gemcitabine in Pancreatic Cancer
To the Editor: The article by Von Hoff et al. (Oct. 31 issue)1 is entitled “Increased Survival in Pancreatic Cancer with nab-Paclitaxel plus Gemcitabine.” This title strikes us as inappropriately rosy, given the modest benefits and substantial toxic ...478-480 - Tiotropium and the Risk of Death in COPD
To the Editor: We assessed the risk of myocardial infarction among patients in the Tiotropium Safety and Performance in Respimat (TIOSPIR) trial reported by Wise et al. (Oct. 17 issue),1 and we found a significant association between the use of a ...480-483 - Saxagliptin, Alogliptin, and Cardiovascular Outcomes
To the Editor: Besides showing futility in the use of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors to reduce cardiovascular outcomes, the studies by Scirica et al.1 and White et al.2 (Oct. 3 issue) have raised concerns regarding increased rates of heart ...483-484 - Preparing for Responsible Sharing of Clinical Trial Data
To the Editor: Mello et al. (Oct. 24 issue)1 identify ensuring the responsible use of data as a key aspect of any system for expanded access to participant-level data. In their careful framework for considering the legal, ethical, and policy implications ...484-485 - Access to Patient-Level Trial Data
To the Editor: The Chief Medical Officers Roundtable (CMOR), of which we are members, welcomes the Perspective article by Eichler et al. (Oct. 24 issue),1 who are representatives of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), on access to patient-level trial ...485-486 - Maraviroc and JC Virus–Associated Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome
The immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome can be a serious complication of immune reversal in the treatment of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. A new potential treatment for IRIS is described in this letter.486-488
- ERCP for Gallstone Pancreatitis
ERCP for Gallstone Pancreatitis Clinical Therapeutics, N Engl J Med 2014;370:150-157. In the second paragraph of the Clinical Use section (page 153), the third sentence should have begun, “An INR below 1.5 is preferred . . . ,” rather than “An INR above ...488 - A Randomized Trial of Prolonged Co-trimoxazole in HIV-Infected Children in Africa
A Randomized Trial of Prolonged Co-trimoxazole in HIV-Infected Children in Africa Original Article, N Engl J Med 2014;370:41-53. In the second paragraph of the introduction (page 42), the third sentence, beginning, “However,” should have ended, “. . . may ...488 - Calcium Supplements and Fracture Prevention
Calcium Supplements and Fracture Prevention Clinical Practice, N Engl J Med 2013;369:1537-1543. In the second paragraph of the Potential Harms of Calcium Intake subsection of Strategies and Evidence (page 1541), the number of trials mentioned in the ...488