391,922 papers found

BACKGROUND: Despite surgically successful total knee arthroplasties, up to 20% of patients are dissatisfied postoperatively. A factor thought to influence dissatisfaction is the alignment strategy utilized. Inconsistencies in safe zone definitions between neutral and kinematic alignment strategies have limited previous…

BACKGROUND: Changes in vascular function are closely associated with the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a potential indicator of vascular dysfunction; it allows noninvasive assessment of arterial stiffness. Currently, evidence for the effects of different classes of antidiabet…

Multiple reviews have examined the impact of nutritional interventions in patients with burn injuries; however, discrepancies among results cast doubt about their validity. We implemented this review to assess the impact of various nutritional interventions in adult patients with burn injuries. We conducted a thorough…

An investigation of treatment results in tonsillar region carcinomas was conducted, with particular attention to local control and morbidity from current therapy. The purpose of the investigation was to identify problems that might be resolvable with a superior treatment modality. A search was made of the National Libr…

OBJECTIVES: To develop a systematic method for both summative and formative audit of practice audits, and to use the method to review Oxfordshire practice audits and to plan improvement. DESIGN: Development of a coding system for the audit cycle subsequently used prospectively to assess audits reported to medical audi…

During their life span, leukocytes adhere transiently to one another, to other cell types, such as vascular endothelial cells, and to extracellular matrix proteins. This adhesiveness is mediated by families of specific cell surface adhesion molecules, namely, integrins, immunoglobulin superfamily molecules, and selecti…

The activity of adenosine deaminase in the pleural fluid of 218 consecutive patients was studied. According to the etiology of exudative pleural effusions, the patients were divided into the following five groups: (1) tuberculosis; (2) lung cancer; (3) pneumonias; (4) miscellaneous; and (5) idiopathic. Patients with pl…

A variety of opinions have been expressed in the literature concerning asbestos and laryngeal cancer. This paper presents an analysis of epidemiological studies based on criteria that prioritized the most heavily exposed cohorts. Emphasis was given to the six cohorts or subcohorts with lung cancer relative risk estimat…

This paper examines a process for evaluating clinical effectiveness and developing recommendations in which systematic methods are used to review evidence from published clinical research and to reach sound conclusions about appropriate medical policy. The methodology addresses four important components of the analytic…

Applied Hedges and Olkin's (1985) statistical meta-analytic procedures to summary data from all published studies that compared behavioral weight-control programs that formally involved partners in treatment (couples programs) to similar programs in which subjects participated alone (subject-alone programs). Based on t…

The development of signature biomarkers has gained considerable attention in the past decade. Although the most well-known examples of biomarker panels stem from gene expression studies, proteomic panels are becoming more relevant, with the advent of targeted mass spectrometry-based methodologies. At the same time, the…

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the Qingrelishi-category Chinese medicine (for dispelling heat and resolving dampness) in the treatment of chronic prostatitis. METHODS: Randomized clinical trials or controlled clinical trials comparing Qingrelishi with plant america, other herbal medicine and Western…

BACKGROUND: ERCP is frequently complicated by pancreatitis. The aims of this study were to assess the efficacy of somatostatin and gabexate for prevention of post-ERCP pancreatitis in high-risk patients and to determine predisposing factors for post-ERCP pancreatitis. A meta-analysis was conducted of all published stud…

To determine if the signal-averaged (SA) electrocardiogram (ECG) predicts the occurrence of sustained ventricular arrhythmia and sudden death after acute myocardial infarction, 182 consecutive patients underwent systematic noninvasive testing, including the SAECG. Seventy-one patients (39%) had an abnormal SAECG. The p…

PURPOSE: To examine the differential effect of drugs used for stress ulcer prophylaxis on nosocomial pneumonia in critically ill patients. DATA IDENTIFICATION: Computerized bibliographic search of published and unpublished research. STUDY SELECTION: Independent review of 48 randomized controlled trials of prophylaxis…

BACKGROUND: Phase III clinical trials are designed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of drugs and their superiority over other treatment methods, but biologics for hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) have not been compared head-to-head in phase III studies. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relative efficacy and safety of biolog…

AIM: To assess the conclusiveness of the Cochrane Neonatal Reviews (CNRs). We tested the hypotheses that: 1) the majority of the reviews is inconclusive; 2) the majority of reviews recognizes the need for further studies; 3) the ability to reach a conclusion is dependent upon both the number of studies and the number o…

Essential hypertension, a widespread health problem, is commonly treated with palliative medications. Pessimism in the medical community about behavioral treatments including biofeedback derives from early evaluations of interventions using relatively weak interventions. Current relations-based interventions using self…

Electron microscopy offers a unique potentiality to visualize individual molecules. For the last 30 years it has been used to study the structure and the interactions of various biological macromolecules. The contribution of electron microscopy is important because of its capacity to demonstrate the existence of confor…

Although it is commonly assumed that chain ownership will result in lower costs due to economies of scale, the empirical evidence with respect to the effect of chain ownership on nursing home costs is mixed. Chain for-profit nursing homes will have a cost advantage over independent for-profit homes only if there are fi…