PURPOSE To review the background, epidemiology and current management of trachoma in endemic areas and worldwide. METHODS Review of literature. RESULTS Trachoma is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in developing countries. It was reported as one of the seven most neglected tropical diseases that can be prevented via drug administration. Its infliction is primarily aimed at ...

A number of technical breakthroughs in electronics and photonics made since the early 1990s have started to bring terahertz (THz)-wave technologies from laboratory demonstrators to industrial applications such as non-destructive testing, security, medicine, communications, etc. This paper overviews the latest progress in THz-wave technologies in terms of components such as sources and detectors...

T he family tragedy in 1976 gave birth to the trauma legend known as ATLS. In that year a plane piloted by the orthopaedic surgeon J Styner crashed in Nebraska. His wife was killed and four children seriously injured. Unfortunately for Dr Styner he found that the subsequent care received in the local hospital was inferior to what he was able to provide for 10 hours at the scene of the accident....

Approved by the Consultive Council and accepted for publication on September 18, 2005. * Work done at Discipline of Telemedicine, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (USP) São Paulo (SP), Brazil. 1 Dermatologist. Discipline of Telemedicine, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, (SP); Ph.D. Substitute Professor, Department of Dermatology and Radiothe...

There is evidence that drugs altering food intake such as dexfenfluramine, sibutramine and orlistat have useful therapeutic effects, with an acceptable side effect profile. 'Thermogenic' drugs, such as ephedrine and caffeine, are also effective, but less well tolerated and may, in any case, work by producing anorexia. The state of drug treatment for obesity now is similar to the early days of a...

Welcome to a very special issue of Seminars in Thrombosis & Hemostasis. This issue, on the topic of “Anticoagulant therapy: present and future,” is guest edited by Job Harenberg, a longtime member of the editorial board and supporter of the journal. Indeed, Dr. Harenberg most recently wrote a historical sketch for the journal around the many meetings that he organized on the anticoagulant and n...

Imaging is one of the more recent medical disciplines arising out of Rontgens discovery of X-Rays in 1895. The acquisition of X-Ray equipment by the Medical Committee of the Belfast Royal Hospital in 1896 showed both foresight and a rapid decision making process that we might envy one hundred years later. The glass radiographs were taken and processed by two commercial photographic companies in...

Geostatistical analyses were first developed in the 1950's as a result of interest in areal or block averages for ore reserves in the mining industry. Today, variogram estimation and spatial prediction (kriging) span all sciences where data exhibit spatial correlation. Theoretical properties of the spatial process are addressed under the distribution-free and likelihood-based perspectives. Stre...

Antibiotics were initially viewed as "wonder drugs" primarily because they were introduced at a time when only surgical drainage or spontaneous cures were available to treat serious bacterial infections. During the five or six decades since their introduction, several classes of these drugs became available including sulfonamides and trimethoprim, penicillins, cephalosporins, chloramphenicol, t...