Exposure assessment for endocrine disruptors: some considerations in the design of studies.

In studies designed to evaluate exposure-response relationships in children's development from conception through puberty, multiple factors that affect the generation of meaningful exposure metrics must be considered. These factors include multiple routes of exposure; the timing, frequency, and duration of exposure; need for qualitative and quantitative data; sample collection and storage protocols; and the selection and documentation of analytic methods. The methods for exposure data collection and analysis must be sufficiently robust to accommodate the a priori hypotheses to be tested, as well as hypotheses generated from the data.

Bloodless medicine and surgery in the OR and beyond.

Ideas about bloodless surgery are changing. It now is more than transfusion-free surgery for Jehovah's Witnesses. Technological advances and concerns about the safety and availability of blood have led to interest in bloodless surgery among non-Witnesses.

The medical futility controversy: bioethical implications for the critical care nurse.

Medical futility is a recent, complex bioethical issue. There is disagreement about how futility should be defined and who should be involved in futility decisions when an impasse exists between the patient/family and the physician. Bioethical discussions about Quinlan and Cruzan of the past have been replaced with the Wanglie, Baby K, and Linares cases--all of which involved critical care settings.