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Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

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PubMed2006

Potential of e-health in relation to depression: short survey of previous research.

E-health is developing at a high rate and represents an opportunity for the development and spreading of information and communication channels to interested parties. The aim of this study was to get an overview and comprehension of the e-health field, with special focus on depression. A survey of initiatives and studies regarding e-health and depression was carried out. Relevant articles were found through searches on databases, search engines and reference lists. This paper shows that many different initiators with differing goals and motives are active within the e-health field. In the field of e-health and depression, the following areas show interesting results: studies mapping users' profile and habits, the quality of health-related information and the effectiveness of online therapies and supportive communities. Numerous initiators have launched different kinds of e-health initiatives. The potential of the Internet to be used constructively by health-care professionals and health-care consumers for health-enhancing purposes still needs to be mapped, evaluated and developed.

Attitude to Computers↗

PubMed1998

Internet databases for clinical geneticists--an overview.

In this paper, we provide an overview of databases that are of importance to clinical geneticists. Some suggestions for the fruitful use for both research and diagnosis are given. For beginning 'web-surfers' we also list some well-known search engines and give a short overview of how to use these and other services. In addition, the URLs of some of the most important databases, gateways and tutorials are listed.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed2004

Antibiotic prophylaxis in dialysis patients undergoing invasive dental treatment.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The role of antibiotic prophylaxis for invasive dental procedures in patients on dialysis therapy is unclear. We examined current clinical practice in Australia and New Zealand and compared our findings to a systematic review of the current literature. METHODS: Australian and New Zealand nephrology units were surveyed with regard to their use of antibiotic prophylaxis for dental procedures. A systematic review of the literature was performed by using an online web-based search engine (PubMed) using the key words: renal patients, dental and antibiotic prophylaxis. RESULTS: Forty-one per cent of respondents do not routinely give antibiotic prophylaxis to haemodialysis patients prior to dental surgery, but a majority (53%) would consider antibiotic prophylaxis if the patient had a synthetic arteriovenous fistula. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of clinicians follow the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines with a single oral preoperative dose of 2 g amoxycillin or 600 mg clindamycin if patients are allergic to penicillin. From the literature and the data obtained by questionnaire, it would appear that renal patients receiving haemodialysis in Australia and New Zealand receive antibiotic prophylaxis prior to invasive dental procedures. The standard single dose of 2 g amoxycillin orally or 600 mg clindamycin orally 1 h preoperatively, as recommended by the AHA, is most frequently used. Peritoneal dialysis patients generally do not receive a prophylactic dose of antibiotics.

Antibiotic Prophylaxis↗

PubMed2004

Transurethral electrovaporization vs transurethral resection for symptomatic prostatic obstruction: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness and safety of transurethral electrovaporization (TUEVP) and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for symptomatic bladder outlet obstruction secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). METHODS: Publications comparing TUEVP and TURP were identified systematically using Medline, the Cochrane Controlled Trial Register and other database search engines. From a total of 25 randomized controlled trials, 20 studies met the predefined inclusion criteria and were subjected to a formal meta-analysis. Primary endpoints were symptom scores and peak urinary flow rates. Secondary endpoints included transfusion requirements, operative time, duration of catheterization, incidence of adverse events, hospital stay, re-operation rates and sexual dysfunction. RESULTS: After 1 year of follow-up there was no significant difference between TUEVP and TURP in urinary symptom scores and peak urinary flow rates. There was heterogeneity at baseline for both primary outcome measures. TUEVP was associated with significantly lower transfusion requirements, a shorter catheterization time, and a shorter length of stay. TURP was associated with a lower risk of urinary retention afterward and re-operation than was TUEVP. CONCLUSION: This formal meta-analysis suggests that both TUEVP and TURP in patients with symptomatic bladder outlet obstruction provide comparable improvements in maximum urinary flow rates and symptom scores. While comparative analysis is limited by the methodological shortcomings of the underlying studies and the short follow-up, both TURP and TUEVP may offer distinct advantages in terms of secondary outcomes. A future, well-designed, multicentre randomized clinical trial with extended follow-up may be needed to better define the role of vaporization techniques in treating patients with symptomatic BPH.

Electrocoagulation↗

PubMed2005

New directions for critical internet health studies: representing cancer experience on the web.

Studies of health representations on the internet have been preoccupied with the assessment of their (medically-defined) accuracy and quality. This contrasts with studies of health representations in 'old' media, where critical sociological analyses are common. Medical sociologists have been concerned to establish the potential of web information in transforming professional-client relations. A case study of breast and prostate cancer web sites provides evidence of the increasing convergence of the 'new' medium of the internet and old media such as newspapers and television. Large institutions are now consolidating their presence on the web so that users experience increasingly similar messages across media platforms. Search engines and links to the web from old media sources direct people to heavily resourced, mainstream health sites where, in the case of cancer, representations of gender are strikingly similar to those found in studies of old media sources. The media convergence thesis contrasts with earlier celebrations of the internet as a new medium that would promote a diversity of perspectives on health. Using existing methods for analysing media texts and developing new methods where appropriate, sociologists and media analysts interested in health need to develop more critical perspectives on this important new medium.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed2005

Annotation: what do we know about sensory dysfunction in autism? A critical review of the empirical evidence.

BACKGROUND: Unusual responses to sensory stimuli are seen in many children with autism. Their presence was highlighted both in early accounts of autism and in more recent first-person descriptions. There is a widespread belief that sensory symptoms characterize autism and differentiate it from other disorders. This paper examines the empirical evidence for this assumption. METHOD: All controlled experimental laboratory investigations published since 1960 were identified through systematic searches using Medline/PubMed and PsycInfo search engines. A total of 48 empirical papers and 27 theoretical or conceptual papers were reviewed. RESULTS: Sensory symptoms are more frequent and prominent in children with autism than in typically developing children, but there is not good evidence that these symptoms differentiate autism from other developmental disorders. Certain groups, including children with fragile X syndrome and those who are deaf-blind, appear to demonstrate higher rates of sensory symptoms than children with autism. In reviewing the evidence relevant to two theories of sensory dysfunction in autism, over- and under-arousal theory, we find that there is very little support for hyper-arousal and failure of habituation in autism. There is more evidence that children with autism, as a group, are hypo-responsive to sensory stimuli, but there are also multiple failures to replicate findings and studies that demonstrate lack of group differences. CONCLUSIONS: The use of different methods, the study of different sensory modalities, and the changing scientific standards across decades complicate interpretation of this body of work. We close with suggestions for future research in this area.

Arousal↗

PubMed2000

Quality of medical information about menorrhagia on the worldwide web.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of medical information on the management of menorrhagia on the worldwide web. DESIGN AND PROCEDURES: An on-line search of the Internet, locating relevant web sites by using key phrases 'heavy periods' and 'patient information' in seven search engines. Quality was defined as the extent to which the characteristics of a web page satisfied its stated and implied objectives. Assessment focused on credibility and content of each web page. Source, currency and editorial review process assessed credibility and hierarchy and accuracy of evidence assessed content of the web pages. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rate of compliance with preset criteria for quality of health information on the Internet. RESULTS: Nine relevant web pages were located, none of which complied with all of the criteria for quality. Seven of these pages displayed the source and five showed the currency of the information, while none described an editorial review process. Four web pages displayed a hierarchy of evidence and one web page depicted all the criteria for accuracy of its contents. CONCLUSION: None of the web pages provided complete information to women on heavy periods according to the quality criteria. This makes it difficult for the user without medical knowledge to determine which web page is credible and useable and which should be ignored or rejected. There is a need to be vigilant about the quality of information on the Internet.

Female↗

PubMed2004

Semantics and the medical web: a review of barriers and breakthroughs in effective healthcare query.

This paper provides an overview of the research into current medical vocabularies and their impact on searching the Web for health information. The Web provides growing opportunities for laypersons to gain knowledge about specific health conditions, though research to date has been incomplete. Many studies have examined aspects of controlled medical vocabularies. Other studies have examined aspects of medical Web searching vocabularies. In this context, there is a growing need to examine more closely laypersons' Web queries using controlled medical vocabularies that were designed to serve the needs of medical professionals. It may be the case that the average consumer of Web health services is not able to use correct medical terminology, and may not be able to choose analogous or synonymous terms from a search result list. Our review suggests a growing need for studies to examine the current applicability of controlled medical vocabularies as well as alternatives to semantic query by Web search engine users.

Humans↗

PubMed2004

Enhancing the MeSH thesaurus to retrieve French online health resources in a quality-controlled gateway.

The amount of health information available on the Internet is considerable. In this context, several health gateways have been developed. Among them, CISMeF (Catalogue and Index of Health Resources in French) was designed to catalogue and index health resources in French. The goal of this article is to describe the various enhancements to the MeSH thesaurus developed by the CISMeF team to adapt this terminology to the broader field of health Internet resources instead of scientific articles for the medline bibliographic database. CISMeF uses two standard tools for organizing information: the MeSH thesaurus and several metadata element sets, in particular the Dublin Core metadata format. The heterogeneity of Internet health resources led the CISMeF team to enhance the MeSH thesaurus with the introduction of two new concepts, respectively, resource types and metaterms. CISMeF resource types are a generalization of the publication types of medline. A resource type describes the nature of the resource and MeSH keyword/qualifier pairs describe the subject of the resource. A metaterm is generally a medical specialty or a biological science, which has semantic links with one or more MeSH keywords, qualifiers and resource types. The CISMeF terminology is exploited for several tasks: resource indexing performed manually, resource categorization performed automatically, visualization and navigation through the concept hierarchies and information retrieval using the Doc'CISMeF search engine. The CISMeF health gateway uses several MeSH thesaurus enhancements to optimize information retrieval, hierarchy navigation and automatic indexing.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

PubMed2002

Differential expression of proteins in renal cortex and medulla: a proteomic approach.

BACKGROUND: Western blotting has previously been used to identify changes in protein expression in renal tissue. However, only a few proteins can be studied in each experiment by Western blot. We have used proteomic tools to construct protein maps of rat kidney cortex and medulla. METHODS: Expression of proteins was determined by silver stain after two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE). Protein spots were excised and digested with trypsin. Peptide masses were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The Mascot search engine was used to analyze the peptide masses and identify the proteins. RESULTS: Seventy-two proteins were identified (54 unique proteins) out of approximately 1000 spots visualized on each gel. Most of the spots were expressed both in cortex and medulla. Of the identified proteins, three were expressed only in medulla and one only in cortex. Nine proteins were expressed in both regions but to a greater extent in cortex and three proteins were expressed more in medulla. Differential expression was confirmed for three proteins by Western blot. CONCLUSIONS: A large group of proteins and their relative expression levels from cortical and medullary portions of rat kidneys were found. Sixteen proteins are differentially expressed. Proteomics can be used to identify differential expression of proteins in the kidney on a large scale. Proteomics should be useful to detect changes in renal protein expression in response to a large range of physiological and pathophysiological stimuli.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Post-streptococcal uveitis.

PURPOSE: To describe the clinical features of post-streptococcal uveitis (PSU) and examine management strategies in the treatment of this under-recognized condition. METHODS: Patients were identified from the world literature using the Pubmed search engine. We examined two new cases of post-streptococcal intermediate uveitis. The epidemiology, immune mechanisms, clinical features, investigations, treatments and visual outcomes were examined and recorded. RESULTS: We reviewed 11 patients including our own two cases. There was a statistically significant seasonal difference in antistreptolysin-O titres (ASOT), and age-related ASOT was identified. Of the 11 patients, eight (72.7%) had anterior uveitis, two (18.2%) had intermediate uveitis and one (9.1%) had panuveitis. Their ages ranged from 5 to 56 years (mean 17 years). The majority of cases had significantly elevated ASOT; most patients were treated with topical steroids and oral antibiotics and four cases underwent adenotonsillectomy. The visual prognosis was good in most cases. CONCLUSIONS: Uveitis may be the sole presenting clinical feature, or it may occur in combination with other features of post-streptococcal infection. Ophthalmologists should be aware of the clinical features of PSU and maintain a high level of suspicion, particularly in childhood uveitis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Medical information on the internet

Caveat lector et viewor - Let the reader and viewer beware! Thus sayeth Silberg et al.1 in their brief account of the apparent incompatibility between freedom of the press and accuracy of medical information. They point out that the problem is too much, rather than too little information. The Internet, where every Tom, Dick and Harry can be their own author, editor and publisher, is widely available to both lay and professional browsers. This has brought about a situation where a multitude of information seekers equipped with one or other search engine, wallow through a morass of material that ranges from first class research data to profound garbage. Without a medical background it is well-nigh impossible for the average person-in-the-street to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Science-based recommendations to prevent or reduce potential exposure to biological, chemical, and physical agents in schools.

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) documented generally poor conditions of school facilities in the early 1990s. Previous papers examined, for time intervals ending before 2002, relationships between education facility indoor air and environmental quality (IEQ), including adequate ventilation, and occupant health and productivity. Research on IEQ related specifically to new or refurbished traditional school construction, or portable classrooms, is limited. A review of school IEQ literature through fall 2003 was conducted. Then, acknowledging the limited resources and competing priorities facing American schools, practical science-based, best practices recommendations to promote IEQ and hence prevent or reduce potential occupant exposure to biological, chemical, and physical agents of concern were proposed. Electronic search engines, conference proceedings, the Internet, and reference lists of peer-reviewed papers and reports were used. Eighteen best practices based on scientific references are presented.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗

PubMed2002

Analysis of signaling pathways using functional proteomics.

Advances in analytical methods for protein analysis by mass spectrometry provide new tools for global analysis of the expressed protein profile of cells (referred to as proteomics). Currently, available methodology samples only part of the proteome. This is sufficient for analysis of signal transduction, because signaling pathways contain enzymes, which modify high-abundance proteins other than those of the pathway. Thus, modulation of the signaling through a pathway will produce a "footprint" in the proteome that is characteristic of a specific cell phenotype. Comparison of different samples to identify these differences in posttranslational modification or protein expression is referred to as functional proteomics. This review surveys the methods in widest use in functional proteomics, as well as a few promising new ones. Although proteomic analyses were first conducted 26 years ago, a renewed interest is fueled by several recent advances. Most important are the availability of public genome and protein databases and the development of high-sensitivity, easy-to-use mass spectrometers and database search engines capable of exploiting these databases. Other important advances include improved two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE), computer programs for analysis of the 2D-PAGE gel images, protocols for proteolytic digestion of proteins in excised gel pieces, and low-flow chromatography methods. Despite the limitations of these methods, they can distinguish subtle changes in the phenotype of cells, providing the basis for future studies in regulation of the phenotype.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

[A collective review of Vibrio vulnificus infection in Japan].

Vibrio vulnificus is found globally in marine coastal waters. Infection with this organism, via ingestion of raw shellfish or exposure to marine water, can cause necrotizing fasciitis and sepsis, which have high mortality and short latency. In Japan, many cases have been reported since 1980, mainly from hospitals in western prefectures. However, because of the sporadic nature of infection outbreaks, a thorough epidemiologic survey has not been done. We studied the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Vibrio vulnificus infections reported in Japan from 1975 to 2005. We identified 185 cases using the medical article search engines Ichushi (Japan Medical Abstracts Society), CiNii (Citation Information by National Institute of Informatics), and PubMed over 30 years. The median age of patients was 59. The number of male patients was eight times the number of female patients; however, no significant difference in mortality was found between genders. In yearly distributions of patients, 20 cases were reported in 2001, a year in which we experienced more rainfall and a longer rainy season in Northern Kyushu. In monthly distribution, about 80% of cases were reported from July to September when sea water temperatures rise. About 40% of cases were reported in four prefectures around the Ariake Sea. The underlying disease indicated liver dysfunction in 90% of patients, but mortality was the same regardless of the infection pathway (oral ingestion or wound). Because of its rapid aggravation and high mortality rate, public education is important to prevent new cases. It is also highly recommended that patients with preexisting liver dysfunction avoid raw fish and limit exposure to marine water during the summer.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Anatomy-based three-dimensional dose optimization in brachytherapy using multiobjective genetic algorithms.

In conventional dose optimization algorithms, in brachytherapy, multiple objectives are expressed in terms of an aggregating function which combines individual objective values into a single utility value, making the problem single objective, prior to optimization. A multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA) was developed for dose optimization based on an a posteriori approach, leaving the decision-making process to a planner and offering a representative trade-off surface of the various objectives. The MOGA provides a flexible search engine which provides the maximum of information for a decision maker. Tests performed with various treatment plans in brachytherapy have shown that MOGA gives solutions which are superior to those of traditional dose optimization algorithms. Objectives were proposed in terms of the COIN distribution and differential volume histograms, taking into account patient anatomy in the optimization process.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1998

Searching the world wide Web

The coverage and recency of the major World Wide Web search engines was analyzed, yielding some surprising results. The coverage of any one engine is significantly limited: No single engine indexes more than about one-third of the "indexable Web," the coverage of the six engines investigated varies by an order of magnitude, and combining the results of the six engines yields about 3.5 times as many documents on average as compared with the results from only one engine. Analysis of the overlap between pairs of engines gives an estimated lower bound on the size of the indexable Web of 320 million pages.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Interoperability of biodiversity databases: biodiversity information on every desktop.

Data about biodiversity are either scattered in many databases or reside on paper or other media not amenable to interactive searching. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is a framework for facilitating the digitization of biodiversity data and for making interoperable an as-yet-unknown number of biodiversity databases that are distributed around the globe. In concert with other existing efforts, GBIF will catalyze the completion of a Catalog of the Names of Known Organisms and will develop search engines to mine the vast quantities of biodiversity data. It will be an outstanding tool for scientists, natural resource managers, and policy-makers.

Animals↗