386,619 papers found

A meta-analysis was carried out on the studies of chemotherapy of non small cell bronchial cancer published over the last fifteen years and this has demonstrated that the initial extent of the tumour was a significant prognostic factor in the response to treatment. A total of 6,247 patients were eligible for analysis:…

Epidemiological and experimental papers on respiratory effects of air pollution published between 1980 and 1988 were reviewed, using a meta-analytical approach. Forty epidemiological papers dealing with sulfur dioxide (SO2) and total suspended particles (TSP) were used to scrutinize the interaction between the two poll…

We reviewed randomised clinical trials evaluating the effect of lymphoblastoid or recombinant alpha-interferon in non-A, non-B chronic hepatitis. The outcomes assessed were the rates of serum alanine aminotransferase normalization and relapse during and after stopping interferon. Data were pooled by meta-analysis and a…

Interpretation of the prognostic value of cranial ultrasound abnormalities in preterm infants has been hampered by the lack of a uniform approach to research, especially in the definition and classification of the abnormal appearances. Defining normality should be less controversial, but from a selected reading of the…

A structured review of existing literature was undertaken to provide an objective evaluation of the validity of cardiac output measurement by thoracic impedance. Relevant studies were obtained from journals, advertising literature, and N.A.S.A. contract publications, using MEDLINE retrieval and references from other st…

The present paper focuses on drug-evaluation research, and describes a method of meta-analysis for evaluating the methodological quality of a body of research focusing on the study of an acute treatment medication. An illustrative application of this procedure to research evaluating lithium treatment for acute mania re…

Many meta-analyses combine results from only a small number of studies, a situation in which the between-study variance is imprecisely estimated when standard methods are applied. Bayesian meta-analysis allows incorporation of external evidence on heterogeneity, providing the potential for more robust inference on the…

Several clinical studies have evaluated the efficacy and safety of LMWH in the prevention of postoperative thromboembolic complications. We subjected 42 studies to a statistical meta-analysis in order to evaluate the efficacy of different prophylactic regimens compared with LMWH prophylaxis. In general surgery LMWH was…

OBJECTIVE: To use meta-analysis to estimate the benefits of drug treatment to lower cholesterol levels in the primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) events. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE search from 1967 to 1990; bibliographies of review articles. STUDY SELECTION: Nine trials met the entry criteria:…

A series of 1153 fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB) of breast masses obtained during the period 1985 to 1988 in one institution was examined. The following diagnostic accuracy values were found: sensitivity, 93.0%; specificity, 92.4%; predictive positive value, 93.7%; and efficiency, 92.8%. These results were compa…

A meta-analysis of 10 randomized trials comparing steroid therapy with placebo or abstention was performed. Trials were pooled for severity of acute alcoholic hepatitis and time of analysis. Papers with survival analyses at one and three months were included. The robustness of this meta-analysis was analysed after excl…

BACKGROUND: Meta-analysis is intended as a tool for the objective synthesis of evidence across a literature, in order to obtain the best evidence as to whether or not an association or effect is robust. However, as the use of meta-analysis has proliferated it has become increasingly clear that the results of a meta-ana…

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate changes over time in summary estimates from meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy studies. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We included 48 meta-analyses from 35 MEDLINE-indexed systematic reviews published between September 2011 and January 2012 (743 diagnostic accuracy studies; 344,015 participants).…

BACKGROUND: This network meta-analysis comprehensively compared the accuracy of the currently commonly used venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessment scale for screening peripherally inserted central catheter-associated VTE. METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive literature search to obtain relevant studies on diagnostic…

Heparin treatment of venous thromboembolic disease has been validated since 1960. Nevertheless no study was sufficient to determine an optimal therapeutic schedule between sub-cutaneous (SC) unfractionated heparin (UFH), intravenous (IV) UFH and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). One meta-analysis showed a significan…

A meta-analysis of the original papers on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) published in Spain was performed to better know the characteristics of HIV infection in Spain. Between 1985 and 1989, 67 investigations fulfilled the inclusion criteria. They were evaluated by means of a quantified questionnaire. The mean qual…

Lyme borreliosis is currently suspected to be capable of mimicking nearly all known neurologic symptoms and disease entities. The goal of our study is to define the associated anamnestic, clinical and laboratory findings in aseptic meningitis and Lyme borreliosis in childhood by a meta-analysis of recent literature and…