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Publisher Donald E.L. Johnson lets his memories lead him back to Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago. He reviews its Web site, which fills the demands of concerned parents, who need not only reassurance but also complete information.

Most chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) studies are based on information about patients from primary or tertiary care settings. These patients might not be typical of patients in the general population. This investigation involved examinations of individuals with CFS from a community-based study. A random sample of 18,675 in Chicago was interviewed by telephone. Individuals with chronic fatigue and at least four minor symptoms associated with CFS were given medical and psychiatric examinations. A group of physicians then diagnosed individuals with CFS, who were then subclassified based on three sociodemographic categories--gender, ethnicity, and work status. Sociodemographic subgroups were analyzed in terms of symptom severity, functional disability, coping, optimism, perceived stress, and psychiatric comorbidity. Women, minorities, and nonworking individuals with CFS reported greater levels of functional disability, symptom severity, and poorer psychosocial functioning than men, Caucasians, and working individuals, suggesting sociodemographic characteristics may be associated with poorer outcomes in urban, community-based samples of CFS individuals.

Cd was measured in the feces, urine, blood, and hair of U.S. inhabitants without known high Cd exposure in Chicago, Illinois, and Dallas, Texas, and in autopsy tissues of accident victims in Dallas. The average intake of Cd in food was estimated to be 13-16 microgram/d and was higher for males than females. The average levels of Cd were 0.59-0.77 microgram/l in urine, 0.09-0.11 microgram per 100 ml in blood, 0.83-1.10 microgram/g in hair, 21 microgram/g in kidney cortex, 1.2 microgram/g in liver, 0.067 microgram/g in muscle, 0.58 microgram/g in pancreas, and 0.040 microgram/g in fat. Hair Cd was higher for males than females. Cd levels increased with age in urine and all tissues and were higher in cigarette smokers than nonsmokers in urine, blood, and all tissues.