392,164 papers found

Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a statistical technique for making direct and indirect comparisons between different treatment and control groups. Despite its many advantages, NMA may be misleading when evaluating networks that are disconnected, inconsistent or of low reliability and validity. We review how well the ana…

LINC00341 is a novel long intergenic non-protein coding RNA with unknown functions. In our report, we investigated LINC00341 expression and its prognostic value in cancer patients. DNA over-methylation triggered low expression of LINC00341 and that was associated with poor prognosis in cancers. A meta-analysis further…

OBJECTIVES: To highlight recent advances in knowledge synthesis methods and reporting guidelines. BACKGROUND: Knowledge synthesis is critical to advancing practice, research, and policy, but synthesizing knowledge from an often-heterogeneous body of literature is challenging. METHODS: A review of knowledge synthesis…

BACKGROUND: Traditional meta-analyses often assess the effectiveness of different doses of the same intervention separately or examine the overall differences between intervention and placebo groups. The present study aimed to model the effect sizes obtained from different doses in multiple studies using a two-stage do…

infections are responsible for tremendous morbidity and mortality worldwide, leading to efforts to eradicate the organism. However, the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy has been undermined by the progressive development of antimicrobial resistance. Treatments and treatment guidelines have been based on traditiona…

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has achieved great success in detecting loci underlying human diseases. Incorporating GWAS results from diverse ethnic populations for meta-analysis, however, remains challenging because of the possible heterogeneity across studies. Conventional fixed-effects (FE)…

This overview was to understand the impact of virtual reality (VR) on upper-extremity function in individuals with cerebral palsy (CP). A systematic literature search was conducted using electronic databases (e.g. PubMed, Web of Science) and a manual search of the reference lists of each article. The quality of meta-an…

ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Tian L. Effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on anxiety and depressive symptoms in advanced cancer patients: A meta-analysis. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2024 Jan 20;87:20-32. doi:10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2024.01.006. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38280276. SOURCE OF FUNDING: This r…

This article introduces contemporary ideas and standards for clinical research in rheumatology for randomized trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Examples of different randomized trials in rheumatic diseases are provided to understand the methods for trials and the rationale for outcomes within trials. Insig…

This paper compares the ordinary unweighted average, weighted average, and maximum likelihood methods for estimating a common bioactivity from multiple parallel line bioassays. Some of these or similar methods are also used in meta-analysis. Based on a simulation study, these methods are assessed by comparing coverage…

INTRODUCTION: Emerging studies have compared the analgesic effects of quadratus lumborum block versus caudal block in paediatric surgeries, but the results remain controversial. This protocol of a systematic review and meta-analysis aims to determine whether quadratus lumborum block is better than caudal block for post…

With great interest, we have read the recent article "The risk of malignancy in patients with IgG4-related disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis" by Yu et al. While we have a great appreciation for the work conducted by the authors there are some methodological issues need to be considered. First, the period o…

One of the key features of network meta-analysis is ranking of interventions according to outcomes of interest. Ranking metrics are prone to misinterpretation because of two limitations associated with the current ranking methods. First, differences in relative treatment effects might not be clinically important and th…

Mendelian randomization (MR) uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to infer whether a risk factor causally affects a health outcome. Meta-analysis has been used historically in MR to combine results from separate epidemiological studies, with each study using a small but select group of genetic variants. In r…

An aggregate data meta-analysis is a statistical method that pools the summary statistics of several selected studies to estimate the outcome of interest. When considering a continuous outcome, typically each study must report the same measure of the outcome variable and its spread (eg, the sample mean and its standard…

BACKGROUND: Network meta-analysis is an extension of the classical pairwise meta-analysis and allows to compare multiple interventions based on both head-to-head comparisons within trials and indirect comparisons across trials. Bayesian or frequentist models are applied to obtain effect estimates with credible or confi…

This paper proposes a new method to evaluate informative hypotheses for meta-analysis of Cronbach's coefficient alpha using a Bayesian approach. The coefficient alpha is one of the most widely used reliability indices. In meta-analyses of reliability, researchers typically form specific informative hypotheses beforehan…

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have long been fundamental tools for evidence-based clinical practice. Initially, meta-analyses were proposed as a technique that could improve the accuracy and the statistical power of previous research from individual studies with small sample size. However, one of its main limita…

Dose-response studies are performed to investigate the potency of a compound. EC50 is the concentration of the compound that gives half-maximal response. Dose-response data are typically evaluated by using a log-logistic model that includes EC50 as one of the model parameters. Often, more than one experiment is carried…

OBJECTIVES: To collect reasons for selecting the methods for meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy from authors of systematic reviews and improve guidance on recommended methods. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Online survey in authors of recently published meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: We identified 100 el…