Case management appears to be associated with fewer unmet needs and higher use of HIV medications in patients receiving HIV treatment.

The Bethesda guidelines were established to identify patients with colorectal cancer who should be tested for microsatellite instability. This study found that the Bethesda guidelines are useful for selecting patients for microsatellite instability testing. MLH1 and MSH2 testing should be recommended in all patients with colorectal cancer and microsatellite instability who meet at least one Bethesda criterion.

Screening patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer for hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer is cost-effective, especially if the benefits to their immediate relatives are considered.

Warfarin may contribute to the pathogenesis of cancer-associated venous limb gangrene by leading to severe depletion of protein C while at the same time failing to reduce thrombin generation.

This paper is the second of two articles about management of chronic stable angina. Both articles have been adapted from materials created by the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine. The adaptations in these articles are intended to make the information more useful for clinicians who do not specialize in the care of patients with heart disease.

Clinical trials yield convincing results only if they are in accord with principles that ensure elimination of bias and reduce the possibility that results occurred by chance. Trials must also use drug preparations with consistent pharmacologic properties. These principles apply to all drugs, whether they originate as traditional remedies or in precepts of molecular biology. Indeed, such principles have guided digitalis from medicinal plant to modern drug. We might ask, therefore, how these principles apply to the evaluation of today's herbal medicines.

Katz and colleagues' article in this issue provides strong evidence that now is not the time to slacken the forward momentum for federal support of impoverished citizens with HIV infection begun a decade ago with the Ryan White CARE Act.

The Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) project endeavored to develop a comprehensive set of quality assessment tools for ill older persons. These quality indicators are presented in the supplement accompanying this issue. The ACOVE project provides health care systems with an excellent place to start in their quest for measuring the impact of innovations in the systems of care for older adults.

Yes, I was a doctor, but I was a husband and a father. Maybe my professional record was not all that I might have wished, but, thank God, I had another résumé.

The articles discussed in this Update fall under the following general areas of endocrinology: diabetes mellitus and lipids, hypothyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism, subclinical hyperthyroidism, thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer, and bone and calcium metabolism.