392,419 papers found

Meta-analysis is a technique for combining evidence from multiple trials. However, meta-analyses of studies with substantial heterogeneity among patients within trials-common in intensive care-can lead to incorrect conclusions if performed using aggregate data. Use of individual patient data (IPD) can avoid this concer…

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Erythropoietin (EPO) was explored regarding its suitability as a candidate stroke drug in animal experimental studies. We performed a meta-analysis to obtain an overall impression of the efficacy of EPO in published animal experimental stroke studies and for potential guidance of future clinical…

BACKGROUND: The hazard ratio (HR) is the most appropriate measure for time to event outcomes such as survival. In systematic reviews, HRs can be calculated either from the raw trial data obtained as part of an individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis or from the appropriate trial-level summary statistics. However, t…

Meta-analysis is a statistical method allowing an evaluation of the direction and quantitative importance of a treatment effect observed in randomized trials which have tested the treatment but have not provided a definitive conclusion. In the present review, we discuss the methodology and the contribution of meta-anal…

BACKGROUND: Calculation of numbers needed to treat (NNT) is more complex from meta-analysis than from single trials. Treating the data as if it all came from one trial may lead to misleading results when the trial arms are imbalanced. DISCUSSION: An example is shown from a published Cochrane review in which the benefi…

OBJECTIVE: To study on the association of the insertion(I)/deletion(D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme gene intron 16 (ACE/ID) and essential hypertension(EH) in Chinese population by the means of meta-analysis. METHODS: Odds ratios of ACE/ID genotype distributions in EH patients against healthy contr…

AIMS: To investigate the characteristics of published trials in order to establish the origin of the differing results obtained in trials of platelet inhibitors after peripheral bypass procedures. METHODS: Analysis of the information from 11 randomised, controlled trials of platelet inhibitors after peripheral bypass…

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of home visiting programmes on the uptake of childhood immunization. METHODS: A systematic review was carried out of the literature of controlled studies evaluating home visiting programmes involving at least one post-natal visit, which included tasks…

Meta-analysis is used to statistically pool the results from individual studies, usually randomised trials, to obtain an estimate of the summary effect size across studies. The summary measure from a meta-analysis is often used to derive the probability of treatment success in a cost-effectiveness analysis. Recently, L…

The investigation of heterogeneity is a crucial part of any meta-analysis. While it has been stated that the test for heterogeneity has low power, this has not been well quantified. Moreover the assumptions of normality implicit in the standard methods of meta-analysis are often not scrutinized in practice. Here we sim…

The validity of weighted mean results estimated in meta-analysis has been criticized. This paper presents a set of simple statistical and graphical techniques that can be used in meta-analysis to evaluate common points of criticism. The graphical techniques are based on funnel graph diagrams. Problems and techniques fo…

OBJECTIVE: To review the technique of meta-analysis and its uses and limitations in obstetrics and gynecology. DATA SOURCES: We reviewed four major journals in obstetrics and gynecology (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fertility and Sterility, Journal of Reproductive Medicine, and Obstetrics & Gynecolog…

We propose a process for evaluating quantities of clinical and statistical interest in cumulative meta-analysis. We use Monte Carlo simulation studies to assess the error variance of the time to significance in cumulative meta-analysis. For the specific cumulative meta-analyses that we simulated, the 95% confidence int…

In a meta-analysis of a set of clinical trials, a crucial but problematic component is providing an estimate and confidence interval for the overall treatment effect theta. Since in the presence of heterogeneity a fixed effect approach yields an artificially narrow confidence interval for theta, the random effects meth…

The current knowledge of the association between contraceptive methods and the risk of ectopic pregnancy was evaluated by means of a meta-analysis. Case-control and cohort studies published between 1978 and 1994 in English, French, German and Dutch were retrieved by a search in Medline, a hand-search on recent medical…

Penicillin has been first-line therapy for the treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis for more than 40 years. Since the 1980s, there have been a number of reports suggesting that bacteriologic failure rates with penicillin may be rising. A number of alternative therapies have been proposed, including oral cephalosporin…

ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Chen Y, Alhozgi AI, Almeida FR. Dentoskeletal changes of long-term oral appliance treatment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Prosthodont 2024 (In eng). DOI: 10.1111/jopr.13946. SOURCE OF FUNDING: No financial support was obt…

ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: da Trindade RQ, Vieira MG, Vieira RB, Vicentin-Junior CA, Damascena NP, Santiago BM, Martins-Filho PR, Machado CE. The role of paranasal sinus fluid in determining drowning as the cause of death: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J forensic Leg Med. 2023;12:102591. SOU…