Journal of evidence-based medicine
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To investigate the baseline status of patients' awareness, knowledge, and attitudes to patient safety in China, and to determine the factors that influence patients' involvement in patient safety. ⋯ The majority of patients surveyed expressed willingness to contribute to patient safety, but their knowledge about patient safety practices was generally very limited.
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Postextubation problems such as laryngeal edema and reintubation are common complications after tracheal intubation. The cuff-leak test has been proposed as a method of identifying those patients at high risk in clinical practice, but its efficacy remains controversial. ⋯ Our results suggest the cuff-leak test accurately predicts which adult patients are at high risk of postextubation airway complications, but randomized controlled trials are needed to further assess this diagnostic strategy.
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The Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) was established as a primary registry on December 4 2008 and has registered over 1350 trials by June 2011. Many researchers are still unaware of the need for registration of trials before recruiting the first patient and the proportion of retrospectively registered trials is likely to grow until this awareness increases. We sought to investigate the timing of the registrations in IRCT and to explore strategies to overcome this. ⋯ The rapid increase in the number of registered trials is an indication of strong implementation of the registration policy. This comes partly at the expense of an increased proportion of retrospective registrations. While this may be understandable at the beginning, it is clearly not acceptable and measures should be adopted to increase the proportion of prospectively registered trials and to make trial registration an integral part of the research culture.
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To systematically assess the main clinical features of Houttuynia injection-associated adverse drug reactions (ADRs), as described in published reports, and to contribute to the post-marketing re-evaluation and clinical practices of Houttuynia injection. ⋯ The respiratory system was the most common system treated in Houttuynia injection ADR cases. It was also the most common site of ADR symptoms. The ADRs of Houttuynia injection were serious. The precautions should be taken to prevent the anaphylactic shock. Intravenous injection and the combination with with cephalosporins, penicillins, and macrolides increased the ADR risk of Houttuynia injection.
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Disaster research focuses on the impact disasters have on people and social structures. Planning for and responding to disasters require evidence to guide decision-makers. The need for such evidence provides an ethical mandate for the conduct of sound disaster research. ⋯ Using examples from specific studies, some of the distinctive features of disaster research ethics are discussed. These include cross-cultural collaboration and communication, vulnerability of participants arising from the degree of devastation, avoiding exploitation of disaster victims, and protecting researchers. The article concludes with some of the major challenges facing disaster research ethics and how they might be addressed.