BACKGROUND The Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials (CONSORT) are aimed to standardize clinical trial reporting. Our objective is to compare the quality of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) published in 2005-2009 and 2011-2012 according to the current CONSORT statements and Jadad scale. METHODS DATA SOURCES Reports on RCTs of TCM in the China Na...

BACKGROUND Phase III randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have become larger and are powered to detect small absolute benefits. Temporal changes in absolute benefits of experimental medical therapies reported in RCTs are unknown. METHODS We identified all RCTs with sample size > or =200 evaluating experimental medical therapies for breast and colorectal cancer published from 1975 to 2007. We ass...

With more vaccines becoming available worldwide, vaccine research is on the rise in developing countries. To gain a better understanding of safety reporting from vaccine clinical research in developing countries, we conducted a systematic review in Medline and Embase (1989-2011) of published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) reporting safety outcomes with ≥50% developing country participation (...

BACKGROUND The pragmatic-explanatory continuum indicator summary version 2 (PRECIS-2) tool has recently been developed to classify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) as pragmatic or explanatory based on their design characteristics. Given that treatment effects in explanatory trials may be greater than those obtained in pragmatic trials, conventional meta-analytic approaches may not accurately a...

BACKGROUND Intracoronary (IC) abciximab administration remains a promising approach aimed to increase a drug concentration in the target area and possibly improve clinical outcomes in the setting of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The goal of this literature review and meta-analysis is to update available knowledge comparing IC and intravenous (IV) abciximab administration i...

letter to the editor

charcot-marie-tooth (cmt) diseases represent a heterogeneous genetic disorder with more than 80 genes implicated, however sharing a similar phenotype. in recent years, advances in molecular genetics and molecular biology, and also the development of various animal models of cmt, have led to a better understanding. this knowledge represents a prerequisite for the development of future therapies ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of yoga as a treatment option for asthma. METHOD Seven databases were searched from their inception to October 2010. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and non-randomized clinical trials (NRCTs) were considered, if they investigated any type of yoga in patients with asthma. The selection of studies, data extracti...