Bmc Med
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Infectious diseases continue to pose a significant public health burden despite the great progress achieved in their prevention and control over the last few decades. Our ability to disentangle the factors and mechanisms driving their propagation in space and time has dramatically advanced in recent years. ⋯ The burgeoning output of infectious disease spatial modeling suggests that we are close to a fully integrated approach for early epidemic detection and intervention. This special collection in BMC Medicine aims to bring together a broad range of quantitative investigations that improve our understanding of the spatiotemporal transmission dynamics of infectious diseases in order to mitigate their impact on the human population.
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In the REMoxTB study of 4-month treatment-shortening regimens containing moxifloxacin compared to the standard 6-month regimen for tuberculosis, the proportion of unfavourable outcomes for women was similar in all study arms, but men had more frequent unfavourable outcomes (bacteriologically or clinically defined failure or relapse within 18 months after randomisation) on the shortened moxifloxacin-containing regimens. The reason for this gender disparity in treatment outcome is poorly understood. ⋯ Gender differences in TB treatment responses for the shorter regimens in the REMoxTB study may be explained by poor outcomes in men with cavitation on the moxifloxacin-containing regimens. We observed that women with cavities, or without, on the 4-month moxifloxacin regimens had similar outcomes to all patients on the standard 6-month treatment. The biological reasons for this difference are poorly understood and require further exploration.
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Prospective trial registration is a powerful tool to prevent reporting bias. We aimed to determine the extent to which published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were registered and registered prospectively. ⋯ The prevalence of trial registration has increased over time, but only one in five published RCTs is prospectively registered, undermining the validity and integrity of biomedical research.
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We aimed to determine the best study designs for assessing interventions to improve the peer review process according to experts' opinions. Furthermore, for interventions previously evaluated, we determined whether the study designs actually used were rated as the best study designs. ⋯ The vignette-based survey allowed us to identify the best study designs for assessing different interventions to improve peer review according to experts' opinion. There is gap between the preferred study designs and the designs actually used.
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Clinical decision rules (CDRs) aid in the management of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Recently, the Scandinavian Neurotrauma Committee (SNC) has published practical, evidence-based guidelines for children with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores of 9-15. This study aims to validate these guidelines and to compare them with other CDRs. ⋯ The SNC guideline showed a high accuracy in a large external validation cohort and compares well with published CDRs for the management of paediatric TBI.