The only source on the subject to offer both an overview and a disease-based approach, this reference text spans the wide array of technical, methodological, regulatory, and ethical issues related to pharmacogenetics and stresses the impact of pharmacogenetic data on patient care and management. Providing expertly selected references, tables,...

Infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with neoplastic disease because of compromised host defenses. These defects result in an increased risk of infection and its complications. The nature of the underlying malignancy, the immunodeficiencies associated with it, and the treatments directed against it are all...

Society today, writes Stephen Post, is "hypercognitive": it places inordinate emphasis on people's powers of rational thinking and memory. Thus, Alzheimer disease and other dementias, which over an extended period incrementally rob patients of exactly those functions, raise many dilemmas. How are we to view―and...

Why do racial and ethnic controversies become attached, as they often do, to discussions of modern genetics? How do theories about genetic difference become entangled with political debates about cultural and group differences in America? Such issues are a conspicuous part of the histories of three hereditary diseases: Tay-Sachs, commonly...

A heart that once beat erratically has regained its natural rhythm. A woman paralyzed by an automobile accident is now able to resume her favorite hobby. Physicians using a robotic surgeon named da Vinci perform lifesaving operations. These are some of the feats of biomedical engineering, one of the fastest-moving areas in medicine. In this...

In The String Instrument Owner’s Guide, Michael Pagliaro surveys the complete “ownership life cycle” of bowed string instruments. A touchstone work for uninitiated and advanced players, The String Instrument Owner’s...