Plos One
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Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is used for treating children with severe disorders of speech-language production and/or comprehension. Various strategies are used, but research and debate on their efficacy have remained limited to a specific area and have rarely reached the general medical community. ⋯ Solid evidence of the positive effects of AAC interventions in children with severe communication disorders must be generated, and different methods are needed besides RCTs. Moreover, it is important that knowledge, research, and debate extend to the medical community in order to ensure clinically effective AAC provision for these children (and their parents).
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High quality clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) can provide clinicians with explicit recommendations on how to manage health conditions and bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. Unfortunately, the quality of CPGs for multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been evaluated. ⋯ The methodological quality of CPGs for MS was acceptable for scope, purpose and clarity of presentation. The developers of CPGs need to pay more attention to editorial independence, applicability, rigor of development and stakeholder involvement during the development process. The AGREE II instrument should be adopted by guideline developers.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A comparison of functional outcome in patients sustaining major trauma: a multicentre, prospective, international study.
To compare 6 month and 12 month health status and functional outcomes between regional major trauma registries in Hong Kong and Victoria, Australia. ⋯ The unadjusted analyses showed better outcomes for Victorian cases compared to Hong Kong but after adjusting for key confounders, there was no difference in 6-month or 12-month functional outcomes between the jurisdictions.
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Meta Analysis
Meta-analysis of the association between COX-2 polymorphisms and risk of colorectal cancer based on case-control studies.
Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an inducible enzyme converting arachidonic acid to prostaglandins and playing important roles in inflammatory diseases as well as tumor development. Previous studies investigating the association between COX-2 polymorphisms and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk reported conflicting results. We performed a meta-analysis of all available studies to explore this association. ⋯ The present meta-analysis suggests that the COX-2 -765G>C polymorphism may be a risk factor for CRC in Asians and rectum cancer patients. Further large and well-designed studies are needed to confirm this association.
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The association between polymorphisms rs6265 and rs2030324 in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been widely reported, but the results remain controversial. ⋯ This meta-analysis suggested A allele of rs6265 might increase the risk of AD in Caucasian females and female LOAD patients. In addition, no evidence indicated an association between rs2030324 with AD. Further studies are needed to confirm these results.