BACKGROUND General anesthesia does not block central nervous processing of auditive information. Therefore, positive suggestions even given during surgery might have the potential to encourage well-being and recovery of patients. Aim of this review was to summarize the evidence on the efficacy of therapeutic suggestions under general anesthesia in adults undergoing surgery compared to an attent...

Background Recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs) support using physiotherapeutic scoliosis-specific exercises (PSSE) for adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). All RCTs reported statistically significant results favouring PSSE but none reported on clinical significance. The number needed to treat (NNT) helps determine if RCT results are clinically meaningful. The NNT is the number of...

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) enters cells through the chemokine receptors CCR5 (R5 virus) and/or CXCR4 (X4 virus). Loss of N-linked glycans and increased net charge of the third variable loop (V3) of the gp120 envelope glycoprotein have been observed to be important steps towards CXCR4 use. All reported sequences using CCR5 or CXCR4 exclusively, or using both, were gathered from ...

Evidence The largest multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled RCT of 4757 patients with AMD1 examined the effects of antioxidants (500 mg of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, and 15 mg of beta-carotene); zinc (80 mg of zinc oxide); and antioxidants in combination with zinc on AMD progression. • Mean age 69 years; 56% females; 6.3 years follow-up. • Baseline retinal photography classified pat...

BACKGROUND Evaluation of company clinical trial reports could provide information for meta-analysis at the commercial introduction of a new technology. METHODS Clinical trial reports of sildenafil for erectile dysfunction from September 1997 were used for meta-analysis of randomised trials (at least four weeks duration) and using fixed or dose optimisation regimens. The main outcome sought wa...

OBJECTIVE To define the evidence for doses of inhaled corticosteroids in asthma and describe this in clinically meaningful, evidence-based terms. DATA SOURCE Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION We identified systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials of dosing of inhaled corticosteroids in asthma. Data on efficacy and safety of different dose...

BACKGROUND The format or frame in which the results of randomized trials are presented has been shown to influence health professional's self-reported practice. We sought to investigate the effect of framing cardiovascular risk as two different formats in a randomized trial. METHODS We recruited 457 patients aged between 60 and 79 years with high blood pressure from 20 family practices in Avo...

INTRODUCTION Scientific evidence supports the synergy between biomedical and behavioral interventions aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV as a strategy to eradicate AIDS. OBJECTIVE To characterize comparatively the benefits from biomedical and behavioral interventions to prevent HIV transmission. METHODS Narrative review. We performed a comparative analysis of the benefits of studie...

Synonymous codon usage bias (SCUB) is a common event that a non-uniform usage of codons often occurs in nearly all organisms. We previously found that SCUB is correlated with both intron number and exon position in the plant nuclear genome but not in the plastid genome; SCUB in both nuclear and plastid genome can mirror the evolutionary specialization. However, how about the rules in the mitoch...

The 'Number Needed to Treat' (NNT) is a useful measure for estimating the number of patients that would need to receive a therapeutic intervention to avoid one of the adverse events that the treatment is designed to prevent. We explored the possibility of an adaption of NNT to estimate the 'Number Needed to $ave' (NN$) as a new, conceptual systems metric to estimate potential cost-savings to th...