We appraised the methodology, execution and quality of the five published meta-analyses that are based on the five randomized controlled trials which compared cardiotocography (CTG)+ST analysis to cardiotocography. The meta-analyses contained errors, either created de novo in handling of original data or from a failure to recognize essential differences among the randomized controlled trials, p...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of a mental practice intervention on recovery in stroke patients. DATA SOURCES A systematic literature search of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed/Medline, PsycINFO, Pedro, Rehadat, and RehabTrials was performed by 2 researchers independently. Eligible studies published through August 2005 were selected. STUDY SELECTION Four randomized contr...

BACKGROUND Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have long been considered the primary research study design capable of eliciting causal relationships between health interventions and consequent outcomes. However, with a prolonged duration from recruitment to publication, high-cost trial implementation, and a rigid trial protocol, RCTs are perceived as an impractical evaluation methodology for mo...

The objective of this review is to assess the clinical evidence for or against acupressure as a treatment for neurological disorders. We searched the literature from 12 databases from their inception to July 2010. We included any type of controlled clinical trial (CCT) in which patients with neurological disorders were treated with acupressure. The methodological quality of all clinical trials ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate data reporting related to external validity from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment for hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS All RCTs assessing pharmacologic treatments and nonpharmacologic treatments for hip and knee OA indexed between January 2002 and December 2006 were selected. A sample of 120 articles were...

introduction: most physicians consider abstracts to give a general idea about the full text of an article. abstracts, as summative and informative parts, contain main information of papers. they also point out the content of papers to readers. the importance of abstracts leads journals to be stricter about their structure and content. this study aimed to assess the abstracts of randomized contr...