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Poster Controlled trials in systemic vasculitis

Dadoniené
The review of papers concerning systemic vasculitis (SV) was done from the Medline database, covering the period from 1991 till 1995. 1,543 abstracts were presented here. Only 473 from them could be reckon among primary SV nomenclature accepted in Chapel Hill consensus conference. No blind methods…

Oral Scientific presentation: Systematic reviews as basis for a treatment standard for tennis elbow in general practice

Assendelft, Zaat, Bouter, Hay
Introduction: The Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG) have already published over 50 treatment standards. At the start of the tennis elbow standard, no informative systematic reviews were available. Therefore, to synthesize the best evidence, the available RCTs were summarized in a…

Oral Scientific presentation: Who uses the Cochrane Pregnancy and Child-birth Database?

Hyde
Introduction: Successful dissemination of information requires identification of the barriers which may be impeding its application. A survey conducted in 1993 suggested that access to up-to-date systematic reviews of interventions in pregnancy and childbirth, as conveyed in the Oxford Database of…

Oral Scientific presentation: Benefits of meta-analysis using individual patient data

Clarke, Stewart, Parmar
Introduction: Systematic reviews using meta-analysis to combine the results of related randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are increasingly common. However, there is little empirical evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of the different techniques for these, which can include calculations…

Oral Scientific presentation: The role of the adequacy of effect model on the heterogeneity statistic in meta-analysis

Cucherat, Boissel
Introduction: Several methods can be used for the meta-analysis of data from clinical trials with binary endpoints. The most widely used methods are those of Mantel and Haenszel, Cochran, Peto, DerSimonian and Laird, rate difference and logarithm of the odds ratio. The methods are based on either…

Oral Scientific presentation: Blinding and exclusions after randomisation in controlled trials

Schulz
Introduction: While investigations have detailed the poor quality of the reporting of randomisation in recently published randomised controlled trials (RCTs), a paucity of information exists concerning the other methodological components. To address that deficiency, we assessed the level of…

Oral Scientific presentation: The development of a specialised trial database

Counsell
Introduction: A crucial requirement of any Cochrane Review Group is to identify as many relevant trials as possible. More information is required on what the best methods of trial identification are and what resources are needed. Objective: To determine the contribution of various search…

Oral Scientific presentation: The importance of prospectively registering trials: evidence of publication bias from a cohort study of research protocols

Simes, Stern, Ghersi
A cohort of 801 studies, submitted to an Australian Institutional Ethics Committee over a 10-year period (Sep 79 - Dec 88), was reviewed and followed to determine the outcome of each study in terms of study results and publication status. The principle aim was to address the question of whether…

Oral Scientific presentation: Assessing the quality of non-English language randomized controlled trials: implications for the conduct of meta-analysis

Moher, Fortin, Jadad, Juni, Klassen, LeLorier, Liberati, Linde
Investigations in which quality components influence intervention effects have already revealed that certain characteristics, such as the level of concealment in patient assignment and masking, play an important role. Such investigations will need to continue, particularly around other possible…

Oral Purchasers and cost-effectiveness of interventions: are secondary economic evaluations possible?

Jefferson, Mugford, Gray, Demichell
Introduction: Purchasers of health services need up to date information on cost-effectiveness of interventions, in order to choose between and prioritise spending. Economic evaluation has not yet developed a formal methodology for reviewing and summing up evidence from primary economic research.…

Oral The evaluation of treatment effectiveness in sub-fertility - an international collaboration

Hughes, Collins, Daya, Sagle, Lilford, Vanderkerckhove
Introduction: Groups from McMaster and Leeds Universities have been working together for almost five years to compile a database of randomized controlled trials of treatment of sub-fertility. This work forms the nucleus of an editorial module within the Cochrane Collaboration. Objective: a) To…

Oral Conservative management of mechanical neck disorders

Gross, Aker, Goldsmith, Peloso
Objective: The scientific literature on the conservative management of mechanical neck disorders is profiled using meta-analytic techniques. The efficacy of manual therapies (MT), physical medicine modalities (PMM), drug therapies (DT), and education (ED) was investigated. Methods: Data Sources:…

Oral A strategy to promote research-based nursing care: effects on childbirth outcomes

Hodnett, Kaufman, O'Brien-Pallas, Chipman
Introduction: Survey data, when compared to CCPC (Cochrane Collaboration Pregnancy and Childbirth) Overview results, showed many gaps between research evidence and intrapartum nursing practice. A strategy had successfully altered selected physician practices but had never been tested with nurses.…

Oral You can't save lives unless there are people dying: implications of heterogeneity of control rates in clinical trials and meta-analyses

Lau, Capplleri, Schmid, Chalmers
Introduction: A sufficiently high control group event rate is needed to detect clinically meaningful differences in randomized control trials. Including studies with low control rates in meta-analyses (M-As) may dilute the overall treatment effect and may occasionally mislabel a useful treatment as…

Oral Implementing the findings from systematic overviews: has information on the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of SSRIs changed practice?

Freemantle, Mason, Watt
Introduction/Objective: In 1993/4 all UK GPs received advice based on a systematic overview of all available evidence on the clinical and cost effectiveness of the new antidepressants, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIS). This study examines the impact of that information on SSRI…

Oral A systematic overview of the effectiveness of audit and feedback to improve health care provider performance

Thomson, Oxman, Haynes, Davis
Introduction: Various reports have described a gap between evidence generated through research and the adoption of research findings into individual practice. Audit and feedback has been identified as one intervention that has the potential to change health care provider performance. Objective: To…

Oral Manipulating the evidence? - A critical review of review articles on the effectiveness of spinal manipulation

Assendelft, Koes, Bouter
Introduction: The use of spinal manipulation is still under debate. The number of review articles on the effectiveness of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for back pain (N > 50) by far exceeds the number of original RCTs (N = 30). The conclusions of the available review articles seem to vary…

Oral RTMAS: a computerized system for the "real-time" construction of meta-analyses using pre-extracted data from randomized control trial databases

Lau, Cappelleri, Schmid, Chalmers
Introduction: Hundreds of meta-analyses (M-As) are published each year and thousands more await to be performed. In addition, updating of previously published M-As and subgroup analyses are seldom done. Methods need to be developed that will make the process more efficient and powerful. Objective…

Oral How to access RCTs in Japan through network access from abroad

Tsutani, Sakuma
Introduction: Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world and consumes 20% of the world's drugs. It therefore cannot be excluded in literature search of RCTs. Objective: A comparative analysis was made of the content and accessibility of three Japanese databases and on American, i.e…

Oral Accuracy of case-finding instruments for depression: a meta-analysis

Ramirez, Mulrow, Williams, Gerety, Kerber
Introduction: Although depressive disorders are common among patients of general practitioners, they are poorly recognized. Several case-finding instruments (CFIs) are available to identify patients with depression. Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of CFIs in general practice…