The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Efficacy of acupuncture on osteoarthritic pain. A controlled, double-blind study.
Forty patients, randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group, participated in a double-blind study to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in reducing chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis. The experimental group received treatment at standard acupuncture points, and the control group at placebo points. ⋯ Thus, both experimental and control groups showed a reduction in pain after the treatments. These results may reflect the natural course of illness, and various attitudinal and social factors.
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To evaluate the efficacy of transbronchial lung biopsy in the diagnosis of sarcoidosis, 26 consecutive patients with clinical features of sarcoidosis underwent this procedure during fiberoptic bronchoscopy. In 21, the biopsy revealed noncaseating granuloma and, in the remaining five, normal lung parenchyma. ⋯ The only complication was one 20 per cent pneumothorax, which resolved spontaneously. Because of its low morbidity rate, high diagnostic yield and specificity transbronchial lung biopsy is recommended as one of the initial procedures for obtaining histologic confirmation in patients with suspected sarcoidosis.
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Editorial: Low-dose heparin prophylaxis for postoperative venous thromboembolism.