THE
MERCK MANUAL
OF
MEDICAL INFORMATION

HOME EDITION

Copyright© 1997 by Merck & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.



Robert Berkow, M.D., Editor
Mark H. Beers, M.D., Editor
Andrew J. Fletcher, M.B., B.Chir., Senior Assistant Editor

Keryn A.G. Lane, Executive Editor
William J. Kelly, Senior Staff Editor
Susan T. Schindler, Senior Staff Editor

Lynn Foulk, Design Director / Michael Reingold, Illustrator
Ann Cassar, Indexer / Debra G. Share, Production Editor
Diane C. Zenker, Textbook Production Coordinator
Dorothy A. Bailey, Medical Textbook Coordinator
Diane C. Bobrin, Executive Assistant / Louise Freer, Secretary

Gary Zelko, Publisher
Pamela J. Barnes, Advertising and Promotional Supervisor

Barbara Seely, Project Manager--Internet Edition
Barbara Amelia Nace, Designer and HTML Editor--Internet Edition



Merck & Co., Inc., is proud to introduce The Merck Manual of Medical Information--Home
Edition. This all-new publication is based on The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy,
commonly referred to as The Merck Manual, the textbook of medicine most widely used by
health care professionals in the U.S. and worldwide. The Home Edition transforms the language
of the professionals' version into commonly used English while retaining all of the vital information
about diseases, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Although this Web version is just a small piece of The Home Edition, it contains the entire section
on the heart, the entire section on infections, the entire section on the eye, and the entire section on
gynecology and obstetrics, along with the complete Table of Contents and list of contributors. For
the section on the heart only, we've provided a version that can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat
Reader, which approximates the way the book looks in print. We are working on a full-fledged
CD-Rom electronic version that will incorporate the power of multimedia. In the interim, we hope
that you find this portion of the book useful in a Web version.

The Merck Manual of Medical Information--Home Edition, like all the Merck manuals and
The Merck Index, is published by Merck & Co., Inc., on a not-for-profit basis.

A Special Note to Readers: The authors, reviewers, editors, and publisher have made
extensive efforts to ensure that treatment information is accurate and conforms to the
standards accepted at the time of publication. However, constant changes in information
resulting from continuing research and clinical experience, reasonable differences in
opinions among authorities, unique aspects of individual situations, and the possibility of
human error in preparing such an extensive text require that the reader exercise judgment
when making decisions and consult and compare information from other sources. In
particular, the reader is advised to discuss information obtained in this book with a doctor,
pharmacist, nurse, or other health care practitioner.