Discussing options between patients and health care professionals in genetic diagnosis: ethical and legal criteria

The specific characteristics of genetic data lead to ethical-legal conflicts in the framework of genetic diagnosis. Several international organisations, including UNESCO and the Council of Europe, have enacted rules referring to the use of genetic information. This paper discusses possible legal and ethical criteria that could be used in genetic testing.     

Reengineering transfusion and cellular therapy processes hospitalwide: ensuring the safe utilization of blood products

Efforts to make blood transfusion as safe as possible have focused on making the blood in the bag as disease-free as possible. The results have been dramatic, and the costs have been correspondingly high. Although blood services will have to continue to deal with emerging pathogens, efforts to reduce the transfusion of infectious agents presently posing a risk will require high incremental costs and result in only improvements of a small magnitude.
The other aspect of safe blood transfusion, the actual transfusion process performed primarily in hospitals, has been accorded considerably less interest. We should turn our attention to enhancing overall blood safety by focusing on improving the process of blood transfusion. Errors involving patient, specimen, and blood product identification put transfused patients at risk, increasing the mortality risk for some. Solutions that could improve the transfusion process are discussed as a focus of this article.     

A Spanish version of the Family Assessment Device

Introduction  

This paper presents the results of a study on the psychometric properties of an authorized Spanish version of the McMaster Family Assessment Device, a self-report measure of family functioning.     

The genetic and epigenetic basis of ependymoma

Introduction  

Although ependymoma is the third most common pediatric brain tumor, we know little about the genetic/epigenetic basis of its initiation, maintenance, or progression. This is due in part to the heterogeneity of the disease, as well as the small sample size of the cohorts analyzed in most studies.     

Abnormal fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in benign esophageal leiomyoma

A benign esophageal leiomyoma with abnormally increased fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake on positron emission tomography (PET) was resected thoracoscopically. The tumor, of which the maximum standardized uptake value of the lesion was 4.7, was well defined and 38 mm in diameter. Neither mitotic activity nor degeneration was found histologically; and immunoreactivity for CD34, CD117, MIB-1, and glucose transporter-1 was negative immunohistochemically. A diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumor was ruled out by an oncogenic kinase gene mutation study. This case cautions against PET-dependent evaluation for malignant potential of esophageal submucosal tumors.