[INFORMED CONSENT FOR SURGERY: WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON THERE?].

Introduction: The process of "informed consent" is currently being evaluated by the Ministry of Health, with the intent to recommend steps to improve patients' and doctors' satisfaction. Following the committee meetings, we decided to initiate an evaluation of the patient's perceptions regarding technical and logistic aspects of the process.

Aims: To learn about patients' perceptions on the informed consent process, by evaluating different aspects and variables.

Statin efficacy and safety for lipid modification in apparently healthy male military aircrew.

Introduction: Military aircrew men represent an elite group of relatively young, fit, and healthy people. The effectiveness of statin treatment in reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) according to the current National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines, its safety, and compliance in this group of people has not yet been determined.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated 84 military aircrew men (mean age 43 +/- 7 yr) with LDL-C above the current NCEP guidelines.