linkurl:Ethical lapses;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/54226/ and procedural breakdowns plagued an Austrian clinical trial of a linkurl:stem cell therapy;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53610/ that used patients' own cells to treat urinary incontinence, according to a report recently released by the country's Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). The AGES report says that urologists involved in the study engaged in a series of questionable activities: They designed the trial poorly, inadequately randomized patients, conducted the trial without the appropriate ethics approval, and failed to properly inform trial participants about the nature of the study. The study was published last year in linkurl:__The Lancet__.;http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607610149/abstract linkurl:Hannes Strasser,;http://www.uro-innsbruck.at/inkontinenz/englisch/website_en/mitarbeiter.htm a Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, urologist and the study's lead author, is mentioned throughout the AGES report. According to linkurl:__Nature__,;http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080814/full/454922a.html Medical University of Innsbruck administrators have barred Strasser from seeing patients in the university's hospital. Strasser has denied any wrongdoing in a letter to the university. The stem cell treatment involved harvesting...
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