Quantitative liver 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3T on a clinical scanner.

Purpose: The aims of this study were (i) to establish a robust and fast method to quantify hepatocellular phosphorus compounds in molar concentration on a 3T clinical scanner, (ii) to evaluate its reproducibility, and (iii) to test its feasibility for a use in large cohort studies.

Method: Proton-decoupled (31) P magnetic resonance spectroscopy of liver (31) P compounds were acquired on 85 healthy subjects employing image selected in-vivo spectroscopy localization in 13 min of acquisition at 3T. Absolute quantification was achieved using an external reference and double-matching phantoms (inorganic phosphates and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) solutions).

[Doubts about preimplantation diagnosis].

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) allows physicians engaged in reproductive medicine, in the course of complying with the desire of prospective parents for healthy offspring, to examine the embryo prior to its intra-uterine transfer for genetic defects, which might otherwise lead to grave afflictions, and according to the results of the examination to either implant the embryo in the mother's womb or to discard it. Rather than being sanctioned by the laws applying to the profession (Vow, section 14 MuBO) this procedure is subject to penalty (section 1 Section 1 Subsection 2, section 2 Section 1). Moreover, it violates the basic rights of the embryo.

[Medical confidentiality towards family, colleagues and the media from the legal point of view].

The more medical confidentiality is endangered in a society based on the exchange of information especially by the welfare system and a health care system relying on the division of labour, the more it must be protected by the law of professional rules and regulations, civil and criminal law. First of all, medical confidentiality refers to the patient who will only confide in his doctor if he can be sure that his secrets will be kept. The individual patients' interests lead directly to the interests of the public health care system which demands confidence and cannot exist without secrecy.

[Therapeutic freedom of the physician].

The therapeutic freedom of choice is one of the main elements of the medical profession. It is fought for by two competing powers: the patient's will on the one hand, and the reasons of welfare state on the other. A threatened fundamental maxim is at stake, which the characteristic of the medical profession depends on essentially.