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Although pregnant women with hypertension are usually given magnesium sulfate to prevent seizures, it is possible that other anticonvulsants, such as phenytoin, would also be effective. To investigate this further, a prospective, controlled study was carried out with 47 hypertensive patients who are at 36 weeks or more gestation (70 percent were only mildly hypertensive). The subjects were randomly assigned to receive either magnesium sulfate (24 patients) or phenytoin (23 patients) intravenously; blood levels of the drugs were monitored. After delivery, patients and nurses completed questionnaires concerning the side effects of the drugs. The neonatal outcome was also evaluated. Results showed that both drugs were safe and tolerated well by the women. No seizures occurred and no negative neonatal outcomes were noted. The blood levels of free phenytoin (not bound to albumin) were within the therapeutic range in 22 cases, while the total phenytoin levels (free plus bound) were higher than the usual levels in nonpregnant patients. The results show that both phenytoin and magnesium sulfate are safe and effective for seizure prophylaxis. Because less patient monitoring is needed with phenytoin than magnesium sulfate, patients with mild pregnancy-induced hypertension and low risk of seizures may be better suited for phenytoin treatment. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Objective. To assess the effects of payment methods on the costs of care in medical group practices. Data Sources. Eighty-six clinics providing services for a Blue Cross managed care program [...]

A heat‐stable, glycoprotein‐like material, osteopoietin, produced during bone marrow regeneration, has been shown to induce bone formation when implanted in the rat eye. The material was separated by ultrasonic treatment or by acid buffer (pH 3–5) from sponges implanted in the marrow. The extracted material free of bone or cell solids, induced bone formation in the anterior eye chamber of the rat, whereas the cell solids and control sponges similarly implanted did not.

The article presents an overview of the book "Below the Potomac: A Book About the New South," by Virginius Dabney. Virginius Dabney's book was written for those who seek current information about Southern progress, and it does a good job of providing just that. In short, "Below the Potomac" is the product of a native son who wants to see the South come abreast of the times and, in Maury Maverick's phrase, "join the United States." In the slow but inevitable disappearance of sectional animosities and in the economic advances of recent years Mr. Dabney sees grounds for believing that this will not be too long in coming, even though he instinctively distrusts the apparently simple and generally logical programs pushed by reformers who too frequently do not understand the nature of the backwardness out of which they earnestly wish to drag the South.

This article presents information on the book "A Thousand Small Fall," by Hans Habe. This is the first account of the Battle of France that people have had from a soldier who fought in the ranks of the French army. Hans Habe is a Hungarian journalist and novelist, an anti-fascist who was enlisted with the Twenty-first Foreign Volunteers at the outbreak of the war. Shortly before the armistice he was captured by the Germans and interned in a prison camp, from which he escaped after neatly two months. Taken simply as a story of personal adventure, "A Thousand Shall Fall" offers as much exciting reading as any book that has thus far come out of the war.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues, including "Rip-off Software You Must Never Use," a review of the Cubot X17 phone, and another on the demand by the British government for rural areas to request broadband.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles published in previous issues including "Rip-off software you must never use"; one relate to review of the Cubot X17 smartphone; and another related to extension of deadline for getting Windows 10 operating system.