Annals of internal medicine
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Multicenter Study
Utilization of surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma among hepatitis C virus-infected veterans in the United States.
Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is recommended for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and cirrhosis. However, whether surveillance is being done as recommended is unknown. ⋯ Houston Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence and the National Cancer Institute.
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Advance directive law may compromise the clinical effectiveness of advance directives. ⋯ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pfizer Foundation.
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The reliability and interpretability of results from clinical trials can be substantially reduced by missing data. Frequently used approaches to address these concerns, such as upward adjustments in sample sizes or simplistic methods for handling missing data, including last-observation-carried-forward, complete-case, or worst-case analyses, are usually inadequate. ⋯ Procedures should be in place to maximize the likelihood that outcome data will be obtained at scheduled times of evaluation for all surviving patients who have not withdrawn consent. To meaningfully reduce missing data, it is important to recognize and address many factors that commonly lead to higher levels of missingness.