Effects of Fasting on Chemotherapy Treatment Response: A Systematic Review of Current Evidence and Suggestions for the Design of Future Clinical Trials

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Esther Heyde Selke Costa ◽  
Jenifer Faria Krüger ◽  
Carolina Q. Camargo ◽  
Vinícius Basso Preti ◽  
Elaine Hillesheim ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 679-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márcia Andréa Zanon ◽  
Rafael Leite Pacheco ◽  
Carolina de Oliveira Cruz Latorraca ◽  
Ana Luiza Cabrera Martimbianco ◽  
Daniela Vianna Pachito ◽  
...  

Aim: To assess the effects of neurodevelopmental treatment for children with cerebral palsy. Methods: We conducted a systematic review following the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and reported in accordance to PRISMA Statement. Through a comprehensive literature search we considered all randomized clinical trials that compared neurodevelopmental treatment with conventional physical therapy for children with cerebral palsy. We used the Cochrane Risk of Bias Table to assess the risk of bias of the included randomized clinical trial, and the GRADE approach to evaluate the certainty of the body of the evidence. Results: We found 3 randomized clinical trials (2 published and 1 ongoing) comprising 66 children. Published randomized clinical trials presented methodological and reporting limitations and only 1 provided data for outcomes of interest. No difference between neurodevelopmental treatment and conventional physical therapy was found for gross motor function (mean difference 1.40; 95% confidence interval –5.47 to 8.27, low certainty evidence). Conclusion: This review found that the effects of neurodevelopmental treatment for children with cerebral palsy are still uncertain. Further studies are required to assess the efficacy and safety of neurodevelopmental treatment for this purpose and until there, current evidence do not support its routinely use in practice. Number of protocol registration in PROSPERO database: CRD42017082817 (available from https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=82817 ).


2020 ◽  
Vol 5;23 (9;5) ◽  
pp. 461-475
Author(s):  
Nina Schulze

Background: Myofascial mobilization has been used as an intervention for patients with fibromyalgia (FM) for acting on ascending nociceptive pathways possibly involved in the central sensitization process, modulating the pain experience. However, there is still a gap in its efficacy compared with another hands-on approach because manual therapy has nonspecific effects, such as placebo. Objectives: This systematic review aims to review the scientific literature for an overview of the efficacy of manual therapy in pain, disease impact, and quality of life in patients with FM compared with control or other treatments through randomized clinical trials. Study Design: This study involved systematic review of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Setting: This study examined all RCTs evaluating the effect of manual therapy on pain, impact of disease, and quality of life for patients with FM. Methods: Systematic review. The research was performed in 9 databases: MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Lilacs, SciELO, PEDro, and Cochrane. Searches were carried out from the end of the project until September 2019, with no language and year restrictions. Randomized controlled clinical trials that used the following outcome measures were included: Visual Analog Scale, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, and SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire. The risk of bias and quality of studies was assessed using the PEDro scale; the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool; and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation System. Results: Seven studies were included (368 patients). The quantitative analysis was performed on 4 studies because of the lack of data in the others. Myofascial release was the most used modality. The level of evidence ranged from very low to moderate, mainly because of the inconsistency and inaccuracy of results. Limitations: The present systematic review presented limitations because of the heterogeneity of the included studies and only a short-term analysis of the intervention results. It was observed that other information, such as pressure, repetition, and/or sustaining manual therapy techniques, could be better described in future protocols, aiming at a better comparison between the techniques and their subsequent reproducibility. Conclusions: Current evidence of manual therapy in patients with FM, based on a very low to moderate quality of evidence, was inconclusive and insufficient to support and recommend the use of manual therapy in this population. To date, only general osteopathic treatment has achieved clinically relevant pain improvement when compared with control. Key words: Fibromyalgia, manual therapy, pain, quality of life, impact of disease, physiotherapy, manipulation techniques, mobilization


F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 453
Author(s):  
Christopher A Brennan ◽  
Peter Osei-Bonsu ◽  
Rachael Eimear McClenaghan ◽  
Ahmed Nassar ◽  
Patrice Forget ◽  
...  

Background: Acute mesenteric ischaemia (AMI) is a surgical emergency which has an associated high mortality.  The mainstay of active treatment includes early surgical intervention, with resection of non-viable bowel, and revascularisation of the ischaemic bowel where possible. Due to the physiological insult of AMI however, perioperative care often involves critical care and the use of vasoactive agents to optimise end organ perfusion. A number of these vasoactive agents are currently available with varied mechanism of action and effects on splanchnic blood flow. However, specific guidance on which is the optimal vasoactive drug to use in these settings is limited. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the current evidence comparing vasoactive drugs in AMI. Methods: A systematic search of Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Review was performed on the 5th of November 2020 to identify randomised clinical trials comparing different vasoactive agents in AMI on outcomes including mortality. The search was performed through the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSEng) search support library. Results were analysed using the Rayyan platform, and independently screened by four investigators. Results: 614 distinct papers were identified. After screening, there were no randomised clinical trials meeting the inclusion criteria. Conclusions: This review identifies a gap in literature, and therefore recommends an investigation into current practice and clinician preference in relation to vasoactive agents in AMI. Multicentre randomised controlled trials comparing these medications on clinical outcomes will therefore be required to address this question.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud A. Ebada ◽  
Souad Alkanj ◽  
Mohamed Ebada ◽  
Ahmed H. Abdelkarim ◽  
Ahmed Diab ◽  
...  

Background: Levetiracetam, a novel antiepileptic drug, has shown antidyskinetic effects in experimental animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD). The tolerability and efficacy of levetiracetam in reducing the levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) in PD patients have not been established. Therefore, this study aims to synthesize evidence from published prospective clinical trials about the efficacy of levetiracetam for the management of LID in PD patients. Methods: We followed the PRISMA statement guidelines during the preparation of this systematic review. A computer literature search of PubMed, EBSCO, Scopus, MEDLINE, and the web of science was carried out. We selected prospective clinical trials assessing the anti-dyskinetic efficacy of levetiracetam for treating LID in patients with PD. The Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS), Clinical Global Impression Score (GCI), UPDRS III, and UPDRS IV were considered as the primary outcome measures; their data were extracted and reviewed. Results: Our review included seven clinical trials with a total of 150 patients. Of them, three studies were randomized controlled trials, and the remaining were open-label single arm trials. Four studies reported poor tolerability of the levetiracetam with mild anti-dyskinetic effects. Levetiracetam slightly improved the UPDRS-IV and AIMS scores with small effect size. In the remaining three studies, levetiracetam failed to exhibit any anti-dyskinetic effects. Conclusion: Current evidence does not support the efficacy of the levetiracetam for treating LID in PD patients, however, due to the limited number of published randomized control trials (RCTs), further RCTs are required.


2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (12) ◽  
pp. 845-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Pla-Pagà ◽  
J Companys ◽  
L Calderón-Pérez ◽  
E Llauradó ◽  
R Solà ◽  
...  

Abstract Context The cardioprotective effects of the flavonoid hesperidin, which is present in citrus products, are controversial and unclear. This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2015 guidelines. Objective To evaluate the current evidence from animal and human clinical studies and thus determine whether the consumption of hesperidin exerts beneficial effects on cardiovascular risk factors. Data sources PICOS (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study Design) criteria defined the research question. Searches of the PubMed and Cochrane Plus databases were conducted and studies that met the inclusion criteria and were published in English in the last 15 years were included. Data extraction The first author, year of publication, study design, characteristics of animals and humans, intervention groups, dose of hesperidin, route of administration, duration of the intervention, cardiovascular risk biomarkers assessed, and results observed were extracted from the included articles. Results A total of 12 animal studies and 11 randomized clinical trials met the inclusion criteria. In the animal studies, the glucose, total and LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels decreased with chronic flavonoid consumption. In the human studies, endothelial function improved with flavonoid consumption, whereas no conclusive results were observed for the other biomarkers. Conclusions Animal studies have revealed that hesperidin and hesperetin consumption reduces glucose levels and various lipid profile parameters. However, a definitive conclusion cannot be drawn from the existing human clinical trials. Further research is needed to confirm whether the findings observed in animal models can also be observed in humans. Systematic Review Registration Prospero registration number CRD42018088942.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yomna M. Yacout ◽  
Mohamed G. Hassan ◽  
Nadia M. El-Harouni ◽  
Hanan A. Ismail ◽  
Abbas R. Zaher

The aim of this review was to evaluate the current evidence regarding post-treatment effects of tooth-bone-borne vs. bone-borne expanders. A search was conducted in MEDLINE via PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and Open Gray; in addition to a hand search in reference lists of selected articles and creating a search alert in electronic databases. Selection criteria included randomized and prospective clinical trials comparing post-expansion skeletal and/or dento-alveolar effects of tooth-bone-borne expanders to those of bone-borne expanders. Following study retrieval and selection, relevant data was extracted, and risk of bias was assessed using the revised RoB 2 tool for randomized clinical trials. After examining 10 full text articles, one randomized clinical trial was finally included. The study compared the dento-alveolar effects of tooth-bone-borne and bone-borne expanders, following expansion and after 6 months, using digital dental casts. Using the RoB 2 tool, the study was judged overall to show some concerns. A definitive conclusion could not be drawn from this systematic review due to the scarcity of clinical trials tackling the research question. A need for future well-conducted research was highlighted in this review.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Paulo Guida

Objective: to assess effectiveness and safety of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine on the treatment of COVID-19. Study desing: a systematic review of literature was performed in two databases; studies were included if they had as intervention use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine and reported outcomes on laboratorial or clinical findings or description of side effects. Results: 38 studies were included; of those, only one fulfilled inclusion criteria and were included in this review. This study has important methodological issues and only reported viral load, but any clinical outcomes. Conclusions: Many ongoing clinical trials will provide new evidences about the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to the treatment of COVID-19. Current evidence do not support its use on clinical practice.


Author(s):  
Maryam Abshirini ◽  
Jane Coad ◽  
Frances M. Wolber ◽  
Pamela von Hurst ◽  
Matthew R. Miller ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Intervention studies using New Zealand green-lipped or greenshell™ mussel (GSM) (Perna canaliculus) extract in osteoarthritis (OA) patients have shown effective pain relief. This systematic review summarises the efficacy of GSM extracts in the treatment of OA. Methods A literature search of the three databases EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Scopus was performed to identify relevant articles published up to March 2020. Inclusion criteria were clinical trials published in English measuring the effect of supplementation of whole or a lipid extract from GSM on pain and mobility outcomes in OA patients. Results A total of nine clinical trials were included in systematic review, from which five studies were considered appropriate for inclusion in a forest plot. Pooled results showed that GSM extracts (lipid extract or whole powder) provide moderate and clinically significant treatment effects on a visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score (effect size: − 0.46; 95% CI − 0.82 to − 0.10; p = 0.01). The whole GSM extract improved gastrointestinal symptoms in OA patients taking anti-inflammatory medications. The GSM extract was considered to be generally well tolerated in most of the studies. Conclusion The overall analysis showed that GSM provided moderate and clinically meaningful treatment effects on OA pain. However, the current evidence is limited by the number and quality of studies, and further larger and high-quality studies are needed to confirm the effectiveness and to identify the optimal GSM format. Nevertheless, it is worth considering using GSM extracts especially for patients seeking alternative pain relief treatments with fewer side effects compared to conventional treatment.


Cephalalgia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 964-970 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Posadzki ◽  
E Ernst

Aims: The objective of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of spinal manipulations as a treatment for migraine headaches. Method: Seven databases were searched from inception to November 2010. All randomized clinical trials (RCTs) investigating spinal manipulations performed by any type of healthcare professional for treating migraine headaches in human subjects were considered. The selection of studies, data extraction and validation were performed independently by two reviewers. Results: Three RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Their methodological quality was mostly poor and ranged between 1 and 3 on the Jadad scale. Two RCTs suggested no effect of spinal manipulations in terms of Headache Index or migraine duration and disability compared with drug therapy, spinal manipulation plus drug therapy, or mobilization. One RCT showed significant improvements in migraine frequency, intensity, duration and disability associated with migraine compared with detuned interferential therapy. The most rigorous RCT demonstrated no effect of chiropractic spinal manipulation compared with mobilization or spinal manipulation by medical practitioner or physiotherapist on migraine duration or disability. Conclusions: Current evidence does not support the use of spinal manipulations for the treatment for migraine headaches.


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