Venous thromboembolism during air travel: does the existing evidence raise legal implications?

Venous thromboembolism associated with prolonged sitting during air travel has been reported in the medical literature. The aim of this article was to review whether the existing evidence can raise ethical concerns and grounds for legal implications. Review of the pertinent literature. Long duration air travel is linked with venous thromboembolism in susceptible individuals. However, the jurisdictions in countries that have adopted the Warsaw Convention 1929 and its amendment at Hague in 1955 have invariably based their approach on whether venous thromboembolism developed after air travel is an ''accident'' under the provision of article 17. Not only this has failed to be proven under various jurisdictions but also inaction, including not warning of the risk and not giving advice on the precautions that would minimise that risk have not been considered sufficient to rank venous thromboembolism as an ''accident''. While there is scientific evidence to support that long-haul flights may predispose to the development of venous thromboembolism in susceptible individuals, there is a clear trend in various jurisdictions that the airline carrier does not incur liability under the Warsaw convention. Nevertheless, the existing scientific evidence raises ethical concerns on the need for information and advice on prevention to those passengers at risk from the airline companies.

Medically assisted human reproduction: the Greek view.

Medically assisted human reproduction is a controversial issue that has attracted heated debate over the last two decades. In December 2002 the Greek Parliament passed a law with major social and scientific impact: the Medically Assisted Human Reproduction Act 3089/02. This law establishes the parameters of so-called surrogate motherhood, protects the anonymity of semen donors and sets the legal framework through which a woman's artificial fertilization after her husband's death is allowed. This article aims to discuss the legal ramifications of medically assisted human reproduction and especially the moral and social issues concerning the introduction of surrogate motherhood in Greece.

Types of neurovascular symptoms and carotid plaque ultrasonic textural characteristics.

The aim of this study was to identify the echo morphology and stenosis of carotid plaques that corresponded to ipsilateral asymptomatic status, amaurosis fugax, hemispheric transient ischemic attack, and stroke. One hundred ninety-two plaques (150 patients), producing stenosis in the range of 50% to 99% and associated with various neurovascular manifestations, were studied. These plaques were imaged on duplex scans, and a series of textural features was produced in a computer to distinguish quantitatively their various echo patterns. Amaurosis fugax corresponded to dark, severely stenosed atheromas (90%); hemispheric transient ischemic attack and stroke corresponded to plaques with intermediate echoic characteristics and intermediate stenosis (80%); and asymptomatic status corresponded to bright, moderately stenosed plaques (70%; P < .05). The significance of these findings is discussed.