Multi-functional Biomaterials with Clinical Utility

A multi-dimensional model of clinical utility.

Clinical utility is an increasingly used concept in health care, but one that lacks an agreed formal definition or conceptualization. In this article, I show that the term is commonly used as a synonym for studies of clinical effectiveness and/or economic evaluations and argue that further factors relating to everyday working practice should be included under its auspices. I go on to develop a ...

Cytokines with possible clinical utility.

Biological response modifiers (BRM) are agents aimed at reducing tumor growth, not primarily by exerting direct cytotoxic effects but by modulation of tumor gene expression (e.g., induction of differentiation) or by enhancing host defense mechanisms directed against cancer cells. BRM as primary therapy or as adjuncts to cytotoxic agents in the treatment of cancers have attracted increasing inte...

Functional neuroimaging of traumatic brain injury: advances and clinical utility

Functional deficits due to traumatic brain injury (TBI) can have significant and enduring consequences upon patients' life quality and expectancy. Although functional neuroimaging is essential for understanding TBI pathophysiology, an insufficient amount of effort has been dedicated to the task of translating functional neuroimaging findings into information with clinical utility. The purpose o...

Clinical utility of balloon expulsion test for functional defecation disorders

PURPOSE I investigated the diagnostic accuracy of balloon expulsion test (BET) with various techniques to find out the most appropriate method, and tried to confirm its clinical utility in diagnosing functional defecation disorders (FDD) in constipated patients. METHODS Eighty-seven patients constituted the study population. FDD was defined when patients had at least two positive findings in ...

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