5,008,125 papers found

Dietary guidelines and recommendations, usually developed by government bodies or large authoritative organizations, have major downstream effects on public policy. A growing body of evidence supports the notion that there are serious deficiencies in the methods used to develop dietary guidelines. Such deficiencies inc…

BACKGROUND: The process of systematically reviewing research evidence is useful for collecting, assessing and summarizing results from multiple studies planned to answer the same clinical question. The term "systematic" implies that the process, besides being organized and complete, is transparent and fully reported to…

Although various expert and consensus meetings have been held, there remains uncertainty about the definition of idiopathic short stature (ISS) and its subgroups. In this short review, the hypothetical pathophysiology, diagnosis and subcategorization of ISS are discussed. ISS in childhood may be the result of a combina…

With the abundant number of articles published in lung cancer, it has become very difficult to stay updated. After a search through variety of medical journal for articles published between March and June 2010, we selected the studies considered to have the greatest relevance for oncologists involved in the treatment o…

A review of the scientific evidence available on antibiotic prophylaxis in urinary tract infections in childhood is presented. The evidence supporting prolonged antibiotic use in the prevention of urinary tract infection and the development of renal scars is scarce and of low quality. Most studies have been performed i…

A review of the scientific evidence available on the validity of urinalysis in the diagnosis of urinary tract infection in childhood is presented. Numerous studies evaluating the validity of distinct urinalysis parameters have been published. Although many of these studies have methodological deficiencies, the indicato…

Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) aims to recruit residual function of the anorectal continence organ by electrostimulation of its peripheral nerve supply. Since its first application for the treatment of fecal incontinence in 1994, its acceptance has been broadened and it is today considered a valuable addition to the th…

A large number of patients present with fecal incontinence due to idiopathic pelvic neuropathy or lesions of pelvic nerves, iatrogenic or secondary to other pelvic diseases or dysfunctions, involving sacral nerves. On the other hand, in many patients, constipation could be related to a peripheral neuropathy impairing n…

OBJECTIVE: To find if a particular quality score was better than others at validly scoring the quality of randomized controlled trials, both by examining the consistency of dividing studies into high and low quality and using a large study as a reference standard. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational study of meta-…

On August 30, 2002, an international panel of neurologists who specialize in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) was convened in Paris (France) to discuss the issue of neutralizing antibodies (NAb) to interferon beta (IFN-beta) therapy in patients with MS. The goals of this meeting were to: (i) review the most rec…

There is now strong evidence from systematic reviews of randomised trials to support the use of magnesium sulphate for the prevention and treatment of eclampsia. Magnesium sulphate more than halves the risk of eclampsia for women with pre-eclampsia (relative risk (RR) 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.29-0.58; numbe…

Systematic literature reviews with meta-analysis of reported data in diagnostic research studies about the accuracy of tests assist clinicians in decision-making. However, there are limitations to this approach as the analysis of such data often does not allow reviewers to explore the diagnostic information gained from…

CONTEXT: Depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders, but antidepressant pharmacotherapy often fails to achieve remission, leading health care professionals and researchers to consider various augmentation strategies to improve clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety, tolerability…

The modern scientific study of children's eyewitness memory was initially motivated, in important part, by the sensational preschool investigations and prosecutions of the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., the McMartin case, the Kelly Michaels case, the Country Walk case). These cases form the centerpiece of Professor Cheit's sch…

Summary  Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are a frequent finding in cases of facial trauma or dental malpractice, and legal claims for TMD damage have been increased over the years. Temporomandibular disorders assessment in the medical legal setting is complicated by the peculiarities of these disorders, whose…

OBJECTIVE: Several systematic reviews (SRs) have assessed the effectiveness of acupuncture for rheumatic conditions, often with contradictory conclusions. Our aim is to provide a critical evaluation and summary of these data. METHODS: Electronic searches were conducted in 15 databases to locate all SRs on acupuncture…

OBJECTIVES: Three systematic reviews of echinacea for the prevention of colds have somewhat different conclusions. Our study objectives were to illustrate how selection criteria for trials in each of the reviews could lead to different conclusions, and to classify the ways in which webpage authors use the reviews to co…

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Searching the literature, a core requirement of evidence-based medicine has been impossibly oversold. The literature search is supposed to provide evidence independent from expert opinion, which has been deemed to be low on the evidence hierarchy. Yet freedom from expertise is not free.…

The Internet is increasingly used as a means of continuous education for healthcare practitioners. At the same time, a rapidly growing number of patients rely on the Internet for the search and acquisition of healthcare-related information and services. This fact has introduced new challenges for the oral healthcare pe…

BACKGROUND: Many decisions in health care aim to maximise health, requiring judgements about interventions that may have higher health effects but potentially incur additional costs (cost-effectiveness framework). The evidence used to establish cost-effectiveness is typically uncertain and it is important that this unc…