Rheumatology
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To determine the reproducibility of frontal plane knee joint laxity measurement through the assessment of intra- and inter-rater reliability coefficients and intra- and inter-rater agreement coefficients. ⋯ Intra-rater reliability of knee joint laxity measurement is good. Adequate training of raters establishes the basis for good inter-rater reliability. In clinical trials, it is preferable for one trained rater to perform the laxity measurement. The measurement of knee joint laxity is limited due to its relatively high measurement error in individual subjects; therefore, this measurement should be restricted to group assessment rather than individual patient assessment.
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To determine the heritability of neck pain in a large population-based study of twins. ⋯ Genes play a significant role in neck pain, particularly in women. However, the genetic influence becomes gradually less important with increasing age, and environmental factors dominate almost completely in the older age groups.
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Review Meta Analysis
Preventing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced gastrointestinal toxicity: are older strategies more cost-effective in the general population?
To assess the relative cost-effectiveness of five gastroprotective strategies for patients in the general population not judged to be at high gastrointestinal (GI) risk requiring regular traditional (t) non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for over 3 weeks: tNSAID/H(2) receptor antagonists (H(2)RAs); tNSAID/proton pump inhibitors (PPIs); tNSAID/misoprostol; COX-2 preferential NSAIDs or COX-2-specific NSAIDs (COXIBs). ⋯ The economic analysis suggests that there may be a case for prescribing H(2)RAs in all patients requiring NSAIDs. Our recommendations are tentative due to the quality of the data available and the assumptions we have had to make in our model, and it is possible that other strategies may be preferred in patients with higher baseline GI risk.