title: "'Tis virtue not birth that makes us noble:" the role of noble metals in medical devices.
abstract: Gold, silver, platinum, and other noble metals are enigmatic with respect to their biological uses. On the one hand they are considered to be highly inert with excellent all-round biocompatibility and useful for electrodes and a variety of implanted and nonimplanted medical devices. On the other hand some noble-metal complexes are highly potent biologically. This column attempts to dispel some of the confusion.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Engineering Department, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004869:Equipment Safety; D004864:Equipment and Supplies; D006801:Humans; D008670:Metals / Q000145:classification* / Q000627:therapeutic use