Clinical Trials
Monday, November 5th, 2012
News-medical: October 26, 2012 A clinical trial indicates that using an investigational medical device to close a PFO, or “hole in the heart,” may be superior to medical management alone in the prevention of a repeated stroke. Results of the RESPECT trial were presented today at the 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium. Sponsored by […]
Clinical Trials
Monday, November 5th, 2012
JMA: October 24/31, 2012 Most medical interventions have modest effects, but occasionally some clinical trials may find very large effects for benefits or harms. Objective To evaluate the frequency and features of very large effects in medicine. Data Sources Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR, 2010, issue 7). Study Selection We separated all binary-outcome CDSR […]
Clinical Trials
Monday, November 5th, 2012
FDA: October 24, 2012 A new partnership between the FDA, the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path) was officially launched today at the CDISC International Interchange in Baltimore. This partnership, called the Coalition For Accelerating Standards and Therapies or CFAST, will bring together clinical data experts from the FDA, the pharmaceutical industry, […]
Clinical Trials
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Stroke AHA Journals: November 1, 2012 Recent analysis of National Get-with-the-Guidelines data has shown that less than one third of all patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) had door-to-needle times (DTN) within the ‘Golden Hour’ recommended by current guidelines. Accumulating evidence indicates that shorter DTN is associated with improved outcomes. In March 2011, […]
Clinical Trials
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM): October 25, 2012 There are limited data comparing radiofrequency catheter ablation with antiarrhythmic drug therapy as first-line treatment in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. METHODS We randomly assigned 294 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and no history of antiarrhythmic drug use to an initial treatment strategy of either radiofrequency catheter […]
Clinical Trials
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Wiley: OCT 23, 2012 The cluster-randomized controlled trial is a design increasingly used in prevention and health care evaluation studies and is highly relevant to stroke research. However, there are methodological issues that make it complex to implement. These are not always fully appreciated, with reviews continuing to reveal deficiencies. We searched PUBMED and CENTRAL databases […]
Clinical Trials
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Stroke AHA Journals: October 23, 2012 With Recent Transient Ischemic Attack or Stroke Elevated concentrations of homocysteine are associated with cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). B-vitamin supplementation with folate and vitamins B12and B6 reduces homocysteine concentrations. In a substudy of the VITAmins TO Prevent Stroke (VITATOPS) trial, we assessed the hypothesis that the addition of once-daily supplements […]
Clinical Trials
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
NIH: October 19, 2012 Intervention stopped early in NIH-funded study of weight loss in overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes after finding no harm, but no cardiovascular benefits An intensive diet and exercise program resulting in weight loss does not reduce cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke in people with longstanding […]
Clinical Trials
Monday, October 22nd, 2012
ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — On average, new treatments perform better in clinical trials only slightly more often than existing treatments, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The fact that experimental treatments are not more effective may seem disappointing, but the authors of the review say their findings satisfy an important ethical […]
Clinical Trials
Monday, October 22nd, 2012
Neurology: October 17, 2012 Randomized controlled trials are required to determine the effectiveness and safety of medical therapies for clinical use. However, observational studies are used frequently to evaluate treatment effects in a number of situations, such as postmarketing safety evaluations of medications or in situations where clinical trials are not feasible.1 Unlike randomized controlled trials, where […]
