392,037 papers found

BACKGROUND: So far, only one meta-analysis has estimated the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Africa. Out of 10 studies included in that meta-analysis, nine came from sub-Saharan African countries and had been published between 1968 and 1988. We will conduct a new systematic review and meta-analysis to update…

BACKGROUND: As abundant evidence shows the composition of gut flora in children born by caesarean section is different from that of vaginal delivery children, studies on whether caesarean section would increase the offspring's risk of developing allergic disease attract extensive attention. However, the results of diff…

Consumers of psychotherapy outcome literature consider meta-analysis the gold standard for assessing the efficacy of interventions across disparate studies. Many assume that findings are valid, especially when published in journals with research credentials. Uncritical acceptance, however, can result in real-world cons…

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the most common chronic diseases and an increasingly public-health challenge worldwide. Previous meta-analyses evaluated the effects of azilsartan medoxomil compared to placebo or other antihypertensive drugs in patients with hypertension. However, it is still unclear which dose of az…

BACKGROUND: Dislocation of shoulder joint is the most prone to occurrence in all joints of human body, which is common in young people and has a high recurrence rate. It is mainly treated by conservative treatment. External rotation and internal rotation fixation are 2 common conservative therapies in clinical practice…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a common disease of women of childbearing age. In recent years, the incidence of endometriosis has been on the rise. The main clinical manifestations are pelvic pain and infertility. In recent years, traditional Chinese patent medicine (TCMP) has played an important role in the treatment of…

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA), the most common type of osteoarthritis, is a chronic degenerative joint disease accompanied by pain and functional limitation for the elderly. The 2 nonpharmacologic approaches, electroacupuncture (EA) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), are considered benefici…

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated polygenic hereditary skin disease quality of the patients' life because of the great trouble it causes to patients. Whereas there is variability when we regard the selection of acupuncture treatments in practice and most choices are made based on personal experience or prefer…

BACKGROUND: Primary osteoporosis (POP) is one kind of global disease, as a serious threat to human health. Liuwei Dihuang Decoction (LWDHD) has been recommended to treat osteoporosis alone or combined with medicine in China; however, its efficacy is unclear. The object of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to…

BACKGROUND: The effects of aerobic exercise on fat loss and cardiometabolic health are well-documented, but it is unknown whether a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) elicit a greater health benefit in obese children and adolescents. METHODS: Relevant studies in Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Librar…

BACKGROUND: The clinical use of tirofiban remains controversial for patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS), we aimed to conduct a meta- analysis of cohort studies to assess the efficacy and safety of tirofiban for AIS patients. METHODS: All apparently unconfounded randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and case-contro…

INTRODUCTION: Traumatic brain injury is one of the leading causes of death and sources of heavy societal burden. Hypoxemia and hypercapnia are the 2 common complications of brain injury. Intubation seems to be an effective intervention for preventing the 2 complications in pre-hospital setting. But the results of the e…

BACKGROUND: The conduction and report of network meta-analysis (NMA), including the presentation of the network-plot, should be transparent. We aimed to propose metrics adapted from graph theory and social network-analysis literature to numerically describe NMA geometry. METHODS: A previous systematic review of NMAs o…

BACKGROUND: Delirium is common in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery and related to a high morbidity and mortality. Although a variety of pharmacologic interventions have been applied in delirium prevention, there is still uncertainty concerning which drug is optimal. Thus, we plan to conduct a systematic review…

BACKGROUND: More and more studies were performed to explore the prognostic role of tumor length in esophageal cancer (EC). However, the results remain controversial. Hence, the aim of the review was to evaluate the association between tumor length and oncologic outcome in EC patients through meta-analysis. METHODS: A…

BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) affects about 80% of the population at some time in their lives. Exercise therapy is the most widely used nonsurgical intervention for low back pain in practice. Thus, whole-body vibration (WBV) exercise is becoming increasingly popular in relieving musculoskeletal pain and in improving…

BACKGROUND: 'Pain rewarded' is a hypothesis wherein acute pain sufferers are exposed to reinforcers and punishers from their environment that shape their behaviour, i.e. pain responses. Such a point of view has been taken for granted by many clinicians and researchers although existing evidence has not yet been systema…

BACKGROUND: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a widespread complaint in the adult women. Electroacupuncture has been widely applied in the treatment of SUI. But its efficacy has not been evaluated scientifically and systematically. Therefore, we provide a protocol of systematic evaluation to assess the effectiveness…

Organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence require the synthesis of evidence from existing studies to inform their decisions—for example, about the best available treatments with respect to multiple efficacy and safety outcomes. However, relevant studies may not provide direct ev…

BACKGROUND: Meta-analysis is essential to the discovery of rare variants that influence complex diseases and traits. Four major software packages, namely MASS, MetaSKAT, RAREMETAL, and seqMeta, have been developed to perform meta-analysis of rare-variant associations. These packages first generate summary statistics fo…