Chest
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Lung cancer screening, despite its proven mortality benefit, remains vastly underutilized. Previous studies examined knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs to better understand the reasons underlying the low screening rates. These investigations may have limited generalizability because of traditional participant recruitment strategies and examining only subpopulations eligible for screening. The current study used crowdsourcing to recruit a broader population to assess these factors in a potentially more general population. ⋯ Although a minority of individuals at high risk for lung cancer are aware of screening, the majority believe that early detection saves lives and would pursue screening if recommended by their primary care physician. Health systems may increase screening rates by improving patient and physician awareness of lung cancer screening.
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Whether hydrocortisone, vitamin C, and thiamine treatment can reduce the mortality of patients with sepsis is controversial. ⋯ Among patients with sepsis or septic shock, the combination of hydrocortisone, vitamin C, and thiamine did not reduce mortality compared with placebo.
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Isolated PE is associated with a higher burden of atherosclerotic disease than other manifestations of VTE. ⋯ NCT02156401.
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A higher incidence of Arnold nerve reflex (ANR) has been observed in patients with chronic cough. However, the different ANR response in various causes of chronic cough remains unclear. Furthermore, it is unknown whether ANR will change after effective treatment. ⋯ A positive ANR appears to be a sign of vagal hypersensitivity and can be reversed after effective treatment of chronic cough. However, although various causes of chronic cough share a similar feature of an elevated ANR response in a minority of patients, there appears to be limited usefulness in assessing ANR because it does not appear to be a valid predictor of etiology of chronic cough or outcome of treatment.
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Case-control studies are one of the major observational study designs for performing clinical research. The advantages of these study designs over other study designs are that they are relatively quick to perform, economical, and easy to design and implement. ⋯ Study design considerations are reviewed, including sample size, power, and measures associated with risk factors for clinical outcomes. Finally, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of case-control studies and provide a checklist for authors and a framework of considerations to guide reviewers' comments.