[Conscientious objection in medical practice].

Medical practice implies the controversial encounter of diverse circumstances in which eventual conflicts between physicians and patients values as well as between physicians values and legal or institutional rules arise. When dealing with these situations, physicians have the right to refuse acting against their moral conscience. This conscientious objection, accepted as a personal right and recognized by several legislations and medical ethics codes, is valid only if it has been reasonably justified and declared in advance.

VEGFA polymorphisms and cardiovascular anomalies in 22q11 microdeletion syndrome: a case-control and family-based study.

Microdeletion 22q11 in humans causes velocardiofacial and DiGeorge syndromes. Most patients share a common 3Mb deletion, but the clinical manifestations are very heterogeneous. Congenital heart disease is present in 50-80% of patients and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.

[Mutational analysis of the muscle segment homeobox gene 1 (MSX1) in Chilean patients with cleft lip/palate].

Background: Mutations of the MSX1 gene may contribute to non-syndromic forms of cleft lip and/or cleft palate.

Aim: To search for mutations of MSX1 coding regions, including one highly conserved non-coding region in the single intron, among Chilean patients with cleft lip/palate.

Patients And Methods: We studied 45 patients with cleft lip/palate and their parents.