5,004,547 papers found

IMPORTANCE: More than 1 billion people worldwide have vision impairment or blindness from potentially preventable or correctable causes. Quality of life, an important measure of physical, emotional, and social well-being, appears to be negatively associated with vision impairment, and increasingly, ophthalmic intervent…

Expert opinion on life expectancy must make reasonable factual assumptions, which entails finding a proper group to which the individual being assessed will be compared, as well as use of appropriate and reliable technical methods. Reasonable judgment should be exercised in the selection of the studies employed. A sche…

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are useful in integrating large amounts of data to inform medical practice, and it is likely that the already large number of published meta-analyses will increase further as the provisions in the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act and other forces result in dramatically in…

Today, at the beginning of the xenogeneic era of transplantation, only simple and single observations about comparative physiology and biochemistry, and even anatomy, are known. Very few data exist which in addition inform about mechanisms after successful xenotransplantation. Nothing is known about phenomena following…

BACKGROUND: Trial participants in placebo groups report experiencing adverse events (AEs). Existing systematic reviews have not been synthesized, leaving questions about why these events occur as well as their prevalence across different conditions unanswered. OBJECTIVES: (1) To synthesize the evidence of prevale…

This article is one of ten reviews selected from the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2019. Other selected articles can be found online at https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/annualupdate2019 . Further information about the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine is available…

The rising number of medical publications makes it difficult to keep up-to-date on scientific knowledge. In recent years, reviews in the form of narrative or systematic publications and meta-analyses have increased. These can only be interpreted and evaluated if the reader understands the techniques used. This review a…

The critically appraised topic (CAT) is a format in evidence-based practice for sharing information. A CAT is a standardized way of summarizing the most current research evidence focused on a pertinent clinical question. Its aim is to provide both a critique of the most up-to-date retrieved research and an indication o…

We analysed the scientific impact of systematic reviews and randomised trials published in the BMJ Christmas issues 1997-2006. The articles were mostly interpreted correctly as humorous, but the humorous dimension was overlooked with surprising ease. The result from one ironic-absurd trial on the effect of retroactive…

Haemophilia care is effective but therapy is expensive. Despite concentrates being available in some areas for more than 30 years, many scientific questions concerning the management of haemophilia, such as what doses and duration of factor are required for different bleeding episodes or for surgical procedures, remain…

To practice evidence-based radiology, knowledge of how to critically assess the literature is vital. This article outlines how to evaluate the radiology literature by asking these questions: Is it true?, Is it relevant?, and Is it sufficient? Clinical examples are used to explain several important causes of bias, as we…

An expert committee of the European Society of Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology has recently proposed new and more precise criteria for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction, entailing both relevant implications in clinical practice and scientific, epidemiological and organizational aspects. The Board…

Preterm birth is the greatest threat to the infants in a multiple pregnancy. This chapter focuses on strategies that aim to prevent preterm birth and concentrates on the evidence derived from randomized clinical trials and systematic review of randomized clinical trials. The options to avoid a multiple pregnancy are br…

OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors for seizure in pregnant women, and in the general population with epilepsy. STUDY DESIGN: Umbrella review of clinical practice guidelines and systematic reviews on risk factors or prediction models for seizure occurrence in pregnant women with epilepsy, adults with epilepsy, or all…

BACKGROUND: Digital health interventions are increasingly being used as a supplement or replacement for face-to-face services as a part of predictive prevention. They may be offered to those who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease and need to improve their diet, increase physical activity, stop smoking, or reduc…

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons. Recent meta-analyses and systematic reviews suggest that HFE gene polymorphisms and iron-associated biomarkers may play a key role in the risk and occurrence of ALS. This umbrella study aimed to ex…

BACKGROUND: Nutrition care in general practice is crucial for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and management, although comparison between dietary strategies is lacking. AIM: To compare the best available (most recent, relevant, and high-quality) evidence for six dietary strategies that are effective for primar…

BACKGROUND: To date, no consensus exists as to whether one exercise type is more effective than another in chronic neck pain. This systematic review and meta-analysis of systematic reviews aimed to summarize the literature on the effect of various exercise types used in chronic neck pain and to assess the certainty of…

AIMS: To provide a comprehensive overview of the current evidence on objectively measured neighbourhood built environment exposures in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in adults. METHODS AND RESULTS: We searched seven databases for systematic reviews on associations between objectively measured long-ter…