Medicine: Death Takes Little Bites

A series of tiny blood clots forms in a man's brain while he sleeps. He is unaware that anything has happened, goes on living. But he is a victim of what Dr. Walter C. Alvarez calls "one of the commonest diseases ... a slow petering out toward the end of life."

Few doctors recognize it as a common and distinct disease. It is high time they did, writes Dr. Alvarez in the current issue of Geriatrics. And when Dr. Alvarez speaks, doctors listen respectfully, for the immensely popular Mayo man is one of the shrewdest diagnosticians in the U.S.

The brains of victims...

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