An emerging consensus on grading recommendations?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Yngve Falck-Ytter.
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The Medline database from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) contains more than 12 million bibliographic citations from over 4,600 international biomedical journals. One of the interfaces for searching Medline is PubMed, provided by the NLM for free access via the Internet (www.pubmed.gov). Also searchable with the PubMed interface are non-Medline citations, i.e. articles supplied by publishers to the NLM. Direct access to an electronic full text version is also possible if the article is available from a publisher or institution participating in Linkout (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/linkout/). Some publishers provide free access to their journals. Other journals require an online license and are fee based. The following example demonstrates some of the most important search functions in PubMed. We will start out with a fast and simple approach without the use of specific searching techniques and then continue with a more sophisticated search that requires the knowledge of Medline search functions. This example will show how the application of Medline search tools and how the use of the controlled vocabulary of 'Medical Subject Headings' (MeSH) will influence the results in comparison with the fast and simple approach. Let's try to find the best evidence to answer the following question: Is a 30-year-old man with typical acid reflux symptoms for many years (gastroesophageal reflux disease, GERD) more likely to develop esophageal cancer than people without reflux symptoms? This question can be split into several components: -a patient with reflux symptoms (GERD), -esophageal cancer: etiology, risk, -study design for etiology studies: cohort studies, case-control studies.
Users of clinical practice guidelines and other recommendations need to know how much confidence they can place in the recommendations. Systematic and explicit methods of making judgments can reduce errors and improve communication. We have developed a system for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations that can be applied across a wide range of interventions and contexts. In this article we present a summary of our approach from the perspective of a guideline user. Judgments about the strength of a recommendation require consideration of the balance between benefits and harms, the quality of the evidence, translation of the evidence into specific circumstances, and the certainty of the baseline risk. It is also important to consider costs (resource utilisation) before making a recommendation. Inconsistencies among systems for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations reduce their potential to facilitate critical appraisal and improve communication of these judgments. Our system for guiding these complex judgments balances the need for simplicity with the need for full and transparent consideration of all important issues.
BACKGROUND: The effect and applicability of interferon-based antiviral therapies in the general population of persons with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the applicability and usefulness of anti-viral therapy in a metropolitan clinic population. DESIGN: Retrospective case series of consecutively referred patients. SETTING: A teaching county hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. PATIENTS: 327 patients referred to a liver clinic after a positive result for antibody against HCV on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). MEASUREMENTS: Treatment rates; reasons for nontreatment. RESULTS: 34 patients had no detectable HCV RNA. Of the remaining 293 patients, 72% were not treated for the following reasons: 37% did not adhere to evaluation procedures, 34% had medical or psychiatric contraindications, 13% had ongoing substance or alcohol abuse, 11% preferred no treatment, and 5% had normal liver enzyme levels. Only 83 patients (28%) were treated; 13% had a sustained viral response. CONCLUSION: Most patients with HCV infection are not candidates for interferon-based therapies; alternative interventions should be sought for these patients.
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