Smoke and mirrors: unanswered questions and misleading statements obscure the truth about organ sources in China.

This response refutes the claim made in a recent article that organs for transplantation in China will no longer be sourced from executed prisoners. We identify ongoing ethical problems due to the lack of transparent data on current numbers of transplants in China; implausible and conflicting claims about voluntary donations; and obfuscation about who counts as a voluntary donor. The big unanswered question in Chinese transplant ethics is the source of organs, and until there is an open and independently audited system in China, legitimate concerns remain about organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.

Transplant ethics under scrutiny - responsibilities of all medical professionals.

In this text, we present and elaborate ethical challenges in transplant medicine related to organ procurement and organ distribution, together with measures to solve such challenges. Based on internationally acknowledged ethical standards, we looked at cases of organ procurement and distribution practices that deviated from such ethical standards. One form of organ procurement is known as commercial organ trafficking, while in China the organ procurement is mostly based on executing prisoners, including killing of detained Falun Gong practitioners for their organs. Efforts from within the medical community as well as from governments have contributed to provide solutions to uphold ethical standards in medicine. The medical profession has the responsibility to actively promote ethical guidelines in medicine to prevent a decay of ethical standards and to ensure best medical practices.

Haemoglobin-related mortality in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions.

AIMS: It has recently been proposed that anaemia is an independent risk factor for development of cardiovascular disease in the general population. The impact of anaemia on long-term survival of patients with manifest coronary heart disease (CHD) has not been assessed so far. In this study, we examined the influence of haemoglobin concentrations on the outcome after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). METHODS AND RESULTS: In a retrospective cohort study, we analysed in-hospital and long-term mortality in all male patients admitted to our institution for elective PCI from 1998 to 1999. In 689 cases, complete follow-up information could be obtained (98.4%). Depending on their baseline haemoglobin, patients were divided in quintiles. In all subgroups, angiographic success after PCI (90-94%) was comparably high and in-hospital mortality was low (0-0.7%). During follow-up (median 697 days), patients in the lowest haemoglobin quintile (

Grade of chronic renal failure, and acute and long-term outcome after percutaneous coronary interventions.

BACKGROUND: Patients with moderate chronic renal failure have recently been identified to suffer from a markedly higher mortality after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We focused on the outcome of PCI patients with just mildly elevated creatinine levels of 1.1 to 1.5 mg/dL. METHODS: Data of all PCI patients of the years 1998 to 1999 were analyzed. Follow-up was performed by a questionnaire sent to all patients. RESULTS: During this period, PCI was performed in 1049 patients. Long-term follow-up (1184 +/- 10 days) was 99.6% complete. Total mortality increased continuously by each creatinine increment of 0.1 mg/dL above 1.0 mg/dL, with a significant difference at 1.3 mg/dL compared to patients with