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is technology oriented, you may wish to use it when searching for press releases covering diagnostic procedures or tests.

Search Engines

Medical news is also available in the news sections of commercial Internet search engines. See the health news page at Yahoo (http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/News_and_Media/), or you can use this Web site’s general news search page at http://news.yahoo.com/. Type in “diabetic retinopathy” (or synonyms). If you know the name of a company that is relevant to diabetic retinopathy, you can go to any stock trading Web site (such as http://www.etrade.com/) and search for the company name there. News items across various news sources are reported on indicated hyperlinks. Google offers a similar service at http://news.google.com/.

BBC

Covering news from a more European perspective, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) allows the public free access to their news archive located at http://www.bbc.co.uk/. Search by “diabetic retinopathy” (or synonyms).

Newsletter Articles

Use the Combined Health Information Database, and limit your search criteria to “newsletter articles.” Again, you will need to use the “Detailed Search” option. Go directly to the following hyperlink: http://chid.nih.gov/detail/detail.html. Go to the bottom of the search page where “You may refine your search by.” Select the dates and language that you prefer. For the format option, select “Newsletter Article.” Type “diabetic retinopathy” (or synonyms) into the “For these words:” box. You should check back periodically with this database as it is updated every three months. The following is a typical result when searching for newsletter articles on diabetic retinopathy:

•Nephropathy in NIDDM as Compared With IDDM

Source: Diabetes News. 16(2): 5-8. 1995.

Contact: Available from Excerpta Medica. P.O. Box 1126, 1000 BC Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Summary: In this article, the author reports on nephropathy in people with noninsulindependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). The author notes that renal disease in both NIDDM and IDDM is frequently associated with poor metabolic control as well as with elevated blood pressure. To date, these two risk factors appear to be the only ones that are clearly linked to the development of renal disease, though several other modifying factors are known. Topics covered include population-based studies of individuals without known diabetes; renal function at the clinical diagnosis of diabetes; normal albumin excretion and the transition to microalbuminuria; overt diabetic retinopathy; end-stage renal failure; epidemiological studies; and screening. 2 figures. 2 tables. 12 references. (AA-M).

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•American College of Physicians Home Medical Guide to Diabetes

Source: New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc. 2000. 96 p.

Contact: Available from Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc. 95 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. (212) 213-4800. Fax (212) 213-5240. E-mail: email@dk.com. Website: www.dk.com. PRICE: $6.95 plus shipping and handling. ISBN: 0789452006.

Summary: This illustrated guide provides people who have diabetes with expert advice on understanding and living with this chronic disease. The guide begins with a section that explains what diabetes is and what causes it. Known causes include heredity, infection, and environmental factors. The next section focuses on tests used to diagnosis diabetes, including the oral glucose tolerance test and urine tests. This is followed by sections that discuss the treatment of diabetes with diet and medications such as sulfonylureas, benzoic acid derivatives, biguanides, acarbose, thiazolidinediones, and insulin. The next section is devoted to monitoring blood glucose levels through blood and urine tests. Hypoglycemia is the focus of the next section. Topics include preventing and treating this acute complication. This is followed by a section that discusses exercising, socializing, traveling, coping with illness, and having a baby. The next section deals with issues related to children who have diabetes, including home monitoring, hypoglycemia, food difficulties, family reactions, and behavioral issues. The topic of the next section is complications of diabetes, including diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic neuropathy, erectile dysfunction, skin problems, cardiovascular problems, and foot problems. This is followed by a section that explains the medical procedures and information that a person who has diabetes should expect from his or her health care professional. The final section addresses the issues of preventing, curing, and treating diabetes in the future. In addition, the guide presents answers to some common questions about diabetes and provides information on useful resources and online sites. 12 figures.

Academic Periodicals covering Diabetic Retinopathy

Numerous periodicals are currently indexed within the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database that are known to publish articles relating to diabetic retinopathy. In addition to these sources, you can search for articles covering diabetic retinopathy that have been published by any of the periodicals listed in previous chapters. To find the latest studies published, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed, type the name of the periodical into the search box, and click “Go.”

If you want complete details about the historical contents of a journal, you can also visit the following Web site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/jrbrowser.cgi. Here, type in the name of the journal or its abbreviation, and you will receive an index of published articles. At http://locatorplus.gov/, you can retrieve more indexing information on medical periodicals (e.g. the name of the publisher). Select the button “Search LOCATORplus.” Then type in the name of the journal and select the advanced search option “Journal Title Search.”

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APPENDICES