Uterus Transplantation as a Surgical Innovation.

Uterus transplantation (UTx) research has been introduced in several countries, with trials in Sweden and the United States producing successful outcomes. The growing interest in developing UTx trials in other countries, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, and Australia, raises important questions regarding the ethics of surgical innovation research in the field of UTx. This paper examines the current state of UTx in the context of the surgical innovation paradigm and IDEAL framework and discusses the ethical challenges faced by those considering the introduction of new trials.

Breast density classification to reduce false positives in CADe systems.

This paper describes a novel weighted voting tree classification scheme for breast density classification. Breast parenchymal density is an important risk factor in breast cancer. Moreover, it is known that mammogram interpretation is more difficult when dense tissue is involved.

An artificial neural network improves the non-invasive diagnosis of significant fibrosis in HIV/HCV coinfected patients.

Objective: To develop an artificial neural network to predict significant fibrosis (F≥2) (ANN-SF) in HIV/Hepatitis C (HCV) coinfected patients using clinical data derived from peripheral blood.

Methods: Patients were randomly divided into an estimation group (217 cases) used to generate the ANN and a test group (145 cases) used to confirm its power to predict F≥2. Liver fibrosis was estimated according to the METAVIR score.

[Consent, biobanks and biomedical research law].

This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the ethical and legal debate on the use of previously collected human biobank samples. It reports how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Law on Biomedical Research as well as in the international bioethical discourse. By contrasting both approaches we identify and critically discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards models more favourable to research in a post-genomic context.

Alternative consent models for biobanks: the new Spanish law on biomedical research.

This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the debate on the ethical use of previously collected biobank samples, as well as a country report about how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Biomedical Research Act, enacted in the summer of 2007. By contrasting the Spanish legal situation with the wider discourse of international bioethics, we identify and discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards new models more favourable to research in a post-genomic context.