Current medical research and opinion
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To assess the impact of intraoperative dexmedetomidine infusion on postoperative analgesia in women undergoing major open and laparoscopic gynecologic surgery under general anesthesia. ⋯ Intraoperative dexmedetomidine infusion provided an opioid sparing effect intraoperatively and in PACU in women undergoing open gynecologic surgery but did not reduce the need for rescue antiemetics or the duration of PACU stay and did not provide any benefit beyond PACU discharge. For laparoscopic surgery, dexmedetomidine infusion did not provide any analgesic benefit. Limitations of the study include its retrospective non-randomized nature, absence of strict protocol for dexmedetomidine administration and lack of data beyond PACU discharge in patients having laparoscopic surgery.
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Abstract In January 2011 the American Diabetes Association (ADA) published the latest guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM)(1,2). Despite some controversies, glycated hemoglobin A(1c) (HbA(1c)), an established marker of long-term glycemia traditionally used to assess the quality of DM management, remained an independent criterion for the diagnosis of DM, and indeed now appears to be well established in the USA. This has far-reaching implications for clinical practice worldwide.
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To study patient preferences for diabetes-treatment related attributes among people with type 2 diabetes. ⋯ Patients with type 2 diabetes in Denmark were willing to pay for the health benefits associated with improved diabetes treatment, the most important of these being weight loss or avoidance of weight gain, and reduction of HbA(1c) and of hypoglycaemic events.
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Understanding of the damaging effects of significance testing has steadily grown. Reporting p values without dichotomizing the result to be significant or not, is not the solution. Confidence intervals are better, but are troubled by a non-intuitive interpretation, and are often misused just to see whether the null value lies within the interval. ⋯ The reluctance to abandon this practice might be both preference of clinging to old habits as well as the unfamiliarity with better methods. Authors might question if using less commonly exercised, though superior, techniques will be well received by the editors, reviewers and the readership. A joint effort will be needed to abandon significance testing in clinical research in the future.