375,956 papers found

In a meta-analysis, we assemble a sample of independent, nonidentically distributed p-values. The Fisher's combination procedure provides a chi-squared test of whether the p-values were sampled from the null uniform distribution. After rejecting the null uniform hypothesis, we are faced with the problem of how to combi…

BACKGROUND: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) nonpharmacological interventions are gaining an increasing popularity for chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) treatment and rehabilitation, yet their comparative effectiveness and safety remains unclear. Therefore, this study will aim to compare their effectivenes…

INTRODUCTION: Chronic leg ulcers are known as a major and snowballing threat to public health and the global economy. In Africa, there is controversy on the dearth of studies reporting the epidemiology of chronic leg ulcers. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aim at synthesising the prevalence, incidence a…

BACKGROUND: Constipation is one of the most common diseases in children and it is also a significant healthcare burden, more than many other common childhood diseases. For some children, 1st-line treatment cannot relieve their constipation and their constipation symptoms maybe continue to adolescence. So, alternative t…

INTRODUCTION: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) occurs in approximately 30% to 40% of patients who receive chemotherapy; however, standardized treatment for CIPN has not yet been developed. Acupuncture is widely used to treat CIPN in Korea, but its efficacy has not been investigated. The purpose of this…

BACKGROUND: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is defined as pneumonia develops in intensive care unit (ICU) patients who have been mechanically ventilated for at least 48 hours. Implementing effective oral car could reduce the incidence of VAP. However, previous studies on scrubs in oral care have failed to…

BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a very critical threat to public health worldwide, and is the primary cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Yinchenhao decoction (YCHD) is a classic prescription of traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of jaundice. Despite the satis…

BACKGROUND: We aimed to perform a network meta-analysis (NMA) to quantify and rank the efficacy and safety of the pharmacologic interventions for prophylactic use for postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) in patients undergoing thyroidectomies. METHODS: A systematic and comprehensive search will be performed using…

Clinicians encounter an ever increasing and frequently overwhelming amount of information, even in a narrow scope or area of interest. Given this enormous amount of scientific information published every year, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have become indispensable methods for the evaluation of medical treatment…

BACKGROUND: Different antivascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) monotherapy regimens and photodynamic therapy (PDT) combined with anti-VEGF therapy are available for patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). However, the comparative efficacy and safety of different anti-VEGF monotherapy regimens and co…

BACKGROUND: Prediabetes is prevalent and significantly increases lifetime risk of progression to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Acupuncture has been increasingly used for prediabetes in China but its effect is unclear. We aim to assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in preventing or delaying incident diabetes…

INTRODUCTION: Breast feeding has been considered important due to its short-term and long-term benefits on infant and maternal health. Regarding the long-term benefits, the influence of exclusive breastfeeding on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) during childhood and adolescence has been studied, although with controvers…

In designing a randomized controlled trial, it has been argued that trialists should consider existing evidence about the likely intervention effect. One approach is to form a prior distribution for the intervention effect based on a meta-analysis of previous studies and then power the trial on its ability to affect th…

BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an important factor to not only cause employment obstacle, but also result in serious social economic load. Several randomized controlled trials investigated the efficacy of group- versus home-based exercise programs in patients with AS. This systematic review will collect and…

Multicentre studies are common in epidemiological research aiming at identifying disease risk factors. A major advantage of multicentre over single-centre studies is that, by including a larger number of participants, they allow consideration of rare outcomes and exposures. Their multicentric nature introduces some com…

BACKGROUND: Well-developed coronary collateral circulation usually results in fewer infarct size, improved cardiac function, and fewer mortality. Traditional coronary risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, and smoking) have some effects on coronary collateral circulation. However, the association between these risk fact…

BACKGROUND: Essential hypertension is one of the most common chronic diseases, as well as one of the leading risk factors for cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. Tianma Gouteng decoction has been commonly used in clinical practice for patients with essential hypertension. It is important to update the search and evaluatio…

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most clinically common cardiac arrhythmia. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been widely applied in the treatment of AF, However, to our knowledge, there has been no systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trails (RCTs) regarding the effectiveness of this…

INTRODUCTION: Inappropriate prescribing has a significant impact on older persons in primary care. Previous reviews on inappropriate prescribing included a heterogeneous range of populations and may not be generalisable to primary care. In this study we aim to conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis…

MOTIVATION: In the context of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), there is a variety of statistical techniques in order to conduct the analysis, but, in most cases, the underlying genetic model is usually unknown. Under these circumstances, the classical Cochran-Armitage trend test (CATT) is suboptimal. Robust proc…