391,881 papers found

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the usefulness of meta-analysis and regression analysis in evaluating technologies by applying these techniques to an evaluation of the enzyme immunosorbent assay (EIA) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody test. This meta-analysis synthesizes 26 studies which report on…

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent risk indicator of cardiovascular disease. Obtaining reversal of hypertension-induced cardiac hypertrophy seems to be a desirable objective of antihypertensive treatment. A total of 2,357 patients were included in a meta-analysis on the effect of antihypertensive phar…

This study used meta-analysis to examine cumulatively needle exchange program (NEP) change/comparison data from 47 studies between 1988 and 2001, based on data collected between 1986 and 1997. The research question posed was: Is NEP attendance associated with reductions in risky needle-related behaviors? Results indica…

OBJECTIVES: Several trial-level surrogate methods have been proposed in the literature. However, often only 1 method is presented in practice. By plotting trial-level associations between surrogate and final outcomes with prediction intervals and by presenting results from cross-validation procedures, this research dem…

We reviewed the literature on fetal pleural effusion to identify prognostic indicators related to outcome. Data on 124 cases from 38 reports were collected and analyzed using chi 2 statistical analysis and stepwise multiple logistic regression. Termination of pregnancy occurred in ten cases, spontaneous resolution occu…

Published intervention research to remediate problem behavior provides a major source of empirical evidence regarding standards of practice and the relative effectiveness of intervention strategies. A meta-analysis of the developmental disabilities literature for the years 1976 through 1987 was performed. Two measures…

To determine the relative merits of two quantitative methods used to estimate the summary effects of observational studies, the authors compared two methods of meta-analysis. Each quantified the relation between oral contraceptive use and the risk for ovarian cancer. One analysis consisted of a meta-analysis using summ…

A meta-analytic approach was used to summarize studies of cancer incidence among Native populations in the United States and Canada. Native males and females were found to have a significantly lower incidence of cancer for all sites combined. Among Native males, kidney cancer was found to exhibit significantly elevated…

Although radiotherapy is recognized as an established risk factor for second malignant neoplasms (SMNs), the dose response of SMNs following radiotherapy has not been well characterized. In our previous meta-analysis of the risks of SMNs occurring among children who have received radiotherapy, the small number of eligi…

A meta-analysis was conducted combining results from nine studies, using seventy-five outcome measures of 349 subjects. Only studies that contrasted group, individual, and control treatments with a pretest-posttest design were selected. Estimates of effect sizes were calculated for group, individual, and control treatm…

An extension to the genome screen meta-analysis (GSMA) method is proposed that allows results from candidate region studies to be included in a meta-analysis of genome-wide search results. Quantitative linkage analyses for susceptibility loci linked to total IgE were performed for data from three genome-wide searches a…

The value of antibiotic prophylaxis in abdominal hysterectomy was reviewed by meta-analysis. Two independent literature searches (1986-1988) yielded 150 relevant papers, however, only 17 (11.3%) papers met our inclusion criteria. The selected papers described prospective, randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled studies…

A meta-analysis was conducted on 73 studies of social skills training in four adult psychiatric populations: developmentally disabled, psychotic, nonpsychotic, and legal offenders. Findings from this analysis showed that patients participating in social skills training programs broadened their repertoire of skills, con…

The author examined those published studies of the consistency (homogeneity) of study outcomes of noninvasive tests that assess the degree of carotid artery disease. Noninvasive tests used to detect carotid artery disease include ocular pneumoplethysmography and duplex ultrasound pulsed Doppler spectral analysis with h…

The efficacy of fish oil in decreasing restenosis following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) remains controversial despite seven published reports of randomized trials involving 951 patients. We performed a meta-analysis to determine whether these trials, viewed in aggregate, demonstrate a signific…

For 39 controlled studies on the analgesic effect of antidepressants, a meta-analysis was conducted to get an estimation of the effect size, and to obtain a sight on the possible modes of action and the methodology used. The mean size of the analgesic effect was 0.64. It means that the average chronic pain patient who…

Meta-analysis was used to establish the efficacy of lithium in acute treatment and prophylaxis of depressive illness from existing published clinical trials. Effect sizes were measured by the odds ratio using the Mantel-Haenszel method and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Some benefit from lithium, c…

Although it is generally agreed that prophylactic antibiotics are necessary for the prevention of postoperative wound infection, the choice of antibiotic regimen is controversial. In an attempt to determine the most effective antibiotic regimen, a meta-analysis of published clinical trials of prophylactic antibiotics f…