Illustration of a bronchial infection.

Illustration of heart surgery, using the Medtronic Octopus instrument. The Octopus device has suction clamps that are placed on the surface of the heart and hold a small part of it in a stable position, allowing surgeons to operate on a beating heart, and thus bypassing the need to place the patient on a respirator.

Conceptual illustration of memory: EEG superimposed on the brain of a child. (c) Benedet

Conceptual illustration of memory: EEG superimposed on the brain and figure of an adult reading. (c) Benedet

Medical illustration of the heart, with an EKG superimposed on it. (c) Benedet

Illustration of a ribbon model of a prion, a symbol of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. (c) Joubert

Conceptual illustration of a potential heart attack victim: an overweight older Caucasian male with his heart visible.

Conceptual illustration of the question: Does your patient qualify for surgery? Patients are shown hovering above tables in a barren landscape, doubled over and clutching their abdomens in pain, such that their bodies form question marks.

Medical illustration of a surgical gloved hand grasping a pair of scissors.

Medical illustration of a broken wrist.

Medical illustration of the mechanism of action of Synercid, a new antibiotic, on gram-positive bacteria for nosocomial infections. Synercid is a combination of quinupristin and dalfopristin, and together these drugs interrupt normal protein synthesis within the bacterial cell nucleus and cytoplasm.

Medical illustration of adrenal hemorrhage and renal artery thrombosis. These occurrences are often associated with lupus patients who are suffering from antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. Physical stress in such patients can bring about the hemorrhage and thrombosis.

Conceptual illustration exploring the mechanisms of pollen-induced allergies and asthma.

Hypertensive crisis: marked papilledema, with a detail depicting hemorrhagic and swollen vessels of the optic disk.

Coronary laser angioplasty.

Balloon valvuloplasty for aortic stenosis: dilation of a stenotic aortic valve by inflation of a wire-guided balloon.

Illustration of apoptosis: the physiologic pathway to cell death (lymphocyte pyknosis, zeiosis, and phagocytosis). Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a process of shrinking, with the formation of ever more concentrated pyknotic nuclei.

Early and late alveolar injury in adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Early: diffuse injury to the alveolar capillary units, with associated pulmonary edema due to extravasation of protein-rich fluid. Late: infiltration by inflammatory cells, hyaline membrane formation, and alveolar and interstitial fibrosis.

Ultrastructure of lung alveoli: the cellular and spatial environment of the alveolar macrophage.

Coronary artery thrombolysis and myocardial reperfusion (acute myocardial infarction management).