Unlike most other body tissues, the brain requires a continuous supply of glucose. It has very limited endogenous glycogen stores, and does not produce glucose intrinsically.1 Although it accounts for 2% of body weight, the brain utilizes 25% of the body’s glucose due to its high metabolic rate.2, 3 Evidence for the brains sole reliance on glucose came from obtaining a respiratory quotient of o...

Coca leaves have been chewed by South American Indians for several centuries, and cocaine hydrochloride (HCl) has been used since it was isolated in the middle of the 19th century by Niemann (Grinspoon and Bakalar 1981; Holmstedt and Fredga 1981; Petersen 1977). However, untoward effects related to the chewing of the leaves or intranasal insufflation of cocaine HCl had been rare. When used for ...

This is the first article in a series describing the essentials of the pediatric neurologic examination. The series will address the neurologic examination at different developmental stages from the neonate to the teenage years. The goals of the article are to 1) describe the newborn examination and 2) briefly describe the most common neurologic problems seen in the newborn population. One of t...