Circulation has retracted four articles by a pediatric cardiologist in Japan who failed to obtain ethics approval for the studies in question but evidently lied about it to the journal.
The researcher, Hideaki Senzaki, of Saitama Medical University, is a highly-published investigator who trained for a time with at Johns Hopkins.
According to the Circulation notice:
The four articles listed below have been retracted due to ethical violations. The corresponding author’s institution, Saitama Medical University, reported to the editors of Circulation, that Dr. Hideaki Senzaki did not receive approval for these studies from the institutional internal ethics committee. Furthermore, in each of the articles referenced below, it was determined that Dr. Senzaki misinformed the editors and readers of Circulation by stating that the studies had received the necessary approval from his institutional review board.
Ventricular–Vascular Stiffening in Patients With Repaired Coarctation of Aorta: Integrated Pathophysiology of Hypertension. Circulation. 2008;118:S191–S198, doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.757096
Arterial Hemodynamics in Patients After Kawasaki Disease. Circulation. 2005;111:2119–2125, doi:10.1161/01.CIR.0000162483.51132.25
Ventricular Afterload and Ventricular Work in Fontan Circulation: Comparison With Normal Two-Ventricle Circulation and Single-Ventricle Circulation With Blalock-Taussig Shunts. Circulation. 2002;105:2885–2892, doi:10.1161/01.CIR.0000018621.96210.72
Circulating Matrix Metalloproteinases and Their Inhibitors in Patients With Kawasaki Disease. Circulation. 2001;104:860–863, doi:10.1161/hc3301.095286
The four papers have been cited ranging from 9 to 67 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
Tagni McRae, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, which publishes Circulation, told us that
We were contacted in April by the institution and we published a retraction at their request.
We tried to reach Senzaki for comment but have yet to hear back. We also left word with Kass and with the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which has published papers by Senzaki, to find out whether it, too had been contacted by Saitama officials. We’ll update this post when we learn more.
Meanwhile, we’re glad to see that the institution and the journal are taking lack of IRB approval seriously. That, after all, among other things is what got Joachim Boldt and Yoshitaka Fujii — two anesthesiologists going mano e mano for the Most Retractions title — in trouble.
this is in Circulation – one of the top journals in the field. if the authors declare that they have IRB approval – difficult to validate…too bad for science.
At least it wasn’t a western blot…
But seriously, if the problem was lack of ethical approval, is the data still good? (Even if it was obtained by placing it in a carrier on the roof of his car and driving to Canada.)
We weighed in on that question here: http://www.retractionwatch.com/2011/09/22/should-authors-have-to-retract-papers-based-on-data-obtained-unethically/
Another retraction in the same issue of circulation:
Retraction of Rioufol, et al., “Multiple Atherosclerotic Plaque Rupture in Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Three-Vessel Intravascular Ultrasound Study,” Circulation. 2002;106:804–808,
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/125/23/e1019.extract
As Ressci Integrity June 13, 2012 at 10:39 am wrote “one of the top journals in the field”.
Regarding Senzaki et al.’s J Am Coll Cardiol papers, have you yet heard back from the Journal?
Have you ever heard from Dr. Kass, who appears to have been the P.I. for lots of Dr. Senzaki’s publications?