The Physician as Leader: Navigating the Breadth of Opportunity and Finding Your Best Fit.

Leadership is important in all aspects of a physician's professional life. Leadership skills can be developed with experience, training, coaching, and mentorship. Physicians have an obligation to learn as much as possible about effective leadership so that when an opportunity to lead comes, they will make optimal use of it and feel empowered to contribute to solutions and improvements at all levels of health care.

The Evolving Role of Advanced Practice Providers in Otolaryngology: Improving Patient Access and Patient Satisfaction.

The aging US population requires an increasing volume of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery services, yet the otolaryngologist physician workforce remains static. Advanced practice providers (APPs), including physician assistants and nurse practitioners, improve access across the continuum of primary and subspecialty health care. The rapid growth of APP service is evidenced by a 51% increase in APP Medicare billing for otolaryngology procedures over 5 years.

Commentary: legal minimum tread depth for passenger car tires in the U.S.A.--a survey.

Available tire traction is a significant highway safety issue, particularly on wet roads. Tire-roadway friction on dry, clean roads is essentially independent of tread depth, and depends primarily on roadway surface texture. However, tire-wet-roadway friction, both for longitudinal braking and lateral cornering forces, depends on several variables, most importantly on water depth, speed and tire tread depth, and the roadway surface texture.

Tracheotomy and the intensive care unit patient.

Transportation of the intensive care unit (ICU) patient to the operating room for tracheotomy has been implicated as an unnecessary source of complications and has been cited as a relative indication for percutaneous tracheotomy. However, there is very little evidence in the literature to support this claim. We evaluated 100 consecutive patients who were transported from the ICU to the operating room for tracheotomy.

Fibromatosis colli: a common cause of neonatal torticollis.

In infants and children, cervical masses originate from a variety of pathologic, congenital and developmental conditions, and it is important to distinguish benign from serious lesions. Fibromatosis colli is a rare cervical lesion that typically presents in the neonatal period. It is the most common cause of neonatal torticollis and should be recognized by physicians caring for neonates and infants.

Outpatient uvuloplasty: an inexpensive, single-staged procedure for the relief of symptomatic snoring.

Outpatient uvulopalatoplasty is an inexpensive alternative to laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty for relief of symptomatic snoring. This single-stage procedure successfully reduced snoring in properly selected patients. Patients reported improvement in most cases, with 55% indicating great improvement or complete resolution.

Immunocytochemical localization of aspartate and glutamate in the peripheral vestibular system.

Controversy exists concerning the identity of the neurotransmitter in the mammalian peripheral vestibular system. Several candidates have been proposed, including the excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate and the inhibitory amino acid gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Previous studies have demonstrated vestibuloneural electrophysiological activity associated with glutamate and aspartate.

The Carolina Children's Communicative Disorders Program. An opportunity for North Carolina's children.

The CCCDP provides devices and services to underprivileged children with communication disorders. Since its organization, the program has helped 197 children, including 21 given cochlear implants, and has disbursed 258 hearing aids or devices. It is cost-efficient program that has potential to help many of our state's needful children.

Nitric oxide in the rat vestibular system.

Nitric oxide is known to function as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. It is also known to be involved in the central nervous system excitatory amino acid neurotransmission cascade. Activation of excitatory amino acid receptors causes an influx of calcium, which activates nitric oxide synthase.

Sex steroid hormone and vitellogenin levels in striped bass (Morone saxatilis) maturing under 6-, 9-, and 12-month photothermal cycles.

Adult striped bass (Morone saxatilis) were matured under compressed 6- and 9-month photothermal cycles or under a 12-month control cycle. The length of their reproductive cycle was proportional to the length of the photothermal cycle to which they were exposed. Maturational changes in circulating levels of the yolk precursor vitellogenin (VTG) and of sex steroid hormones were similar in all groups of fish.

Hypertension as a causative diagnosis of patients entering end-stage renal disease programs in the United States from 1980 to 1986.

Treatment of hypertension has decreased the incidence of stroke and congestive heart failure consequential to hypertension. To determine whether the incidence of hypertension as a causative diagnosis of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is also decreasing, we examined the records of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) from 1980 to 1986 regarding the causative diagnoses of patients entering ESRD programs. We found that the incidence of patients entering ESRD programs increased during the study period.

Analgesic use and chronic renal disease.

To examine the use of analgesics as a cause of chronic renal disease, we performed a multicenter case-control study of 554 adults with newly diagnosed kidney disease (serum creatinine, greater than or equal to 130 mumol per liter [1.5 mg per deciliter]) and 516 matched control subjects selected randomly from the same area of North Carolina. Histories of use of analgesics (phenacetin, acetaminophen, and aspirin) were obtained by telephone interview with the patients or their proxies.

Natural history of hypertension in renal parenchymal disease.

This paper discusses the author's version of the known and unknown in the natural history of hypertension in renal parenchymal disease. Discussed in particular are the prevalence of hypertension in various forms of renal parenchymal disease at various levels of renal function, pathogenesis of hypertension in renal parenchymal disease, and the course of hypertension in these diseases.