Plos One
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Artificially sweetened beverage consumption has steadily increased in the last 40 years. Several reviews examining the effects of artificially sweetened beverages on weight outcomes have discrepancies in their results and conclusions. ⋯ Review sponsorship and authors' financial conflicts of interest introduced bias affecting the outcomes of reviews of artificially sweetened beverage effects on weight that could not be explained by other sources of bias.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Safety, Acceptability and Adherence of Dapivirine Vaginal Ring in a Microbicide Clinical Trial Conducted in Multiple Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This was the first microbicide trial conducted in Africa to evaluate an antiretroviral-containing vaginal ring as an HIV prevention technology for women. ⋯ The dapivirine vaginal ring has a favourable safety and acceptability profile. If proven safe and effective in large-scale trials, it will be an important component of combination HIV prevention approaches for women.
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The Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) was developed to timely recognise clinically deteriorating hospitalised patients. However, the ability of the MEWS in predicting serious adverse events (SAEs) in a general hospital population has not been examined prospectively. The aims were to (1) analyse protocol adherence to a MEWS protocol in a real-life setting and (2) to determine the predictive value of protocolised daily MEWS measurement on SAEs: death, cardiac arrests, ICU-admissions and readmissions. ⋯ Protocol adherence was high, even though one-third of the critical scores were calculated wrongly. Patients with a MEWS ≥ 3 experienced significantly more adverse events. The negative predictive value of early morning MEWS < 3 was 98.1%, indicating the reliability of this score as a screening tool.
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Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Brain Radiotherapy plus Concurrent Temozolomide versus Radiotherapy Alone for Patients with Brain Metastases: A Meta-Analysis.
We performed a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials to compare the efficacy of brain radiotherapy (RT) combined with temozolomide (TMZ) versus RT alone as first-line treatment for brain metastases (BM). ⋯ Concomitant RT and TMZ, compared to RT alone, significantly increases ORR in patients with BM, but yields increased toxicity and fails to demonstrate a survival advantage.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effect of Parecoxib as an Adjunct to Patient-Controlled Epidural Analgesia after Abdominal Hysterectomy: A Multicenter, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
This multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled study evaluated the efficacy and side effects of parecoxib during patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) after abdominal hysterectomy. ⋯ Our data suggest that adjunctive parecoxib during PCEA following abdominal hysterectomy is safe and efficacious in reducing pain, requirements of epidural analgesics, and side effects.