No abstract available.
Research Report*

No abstract available.
Education, Medical ; Research Report

Quality of medical research reports should be evaluated before they are applied to clinical practice. Since 1990s, several guidelines on research reports were suggested. Most recently published Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement 2010 consists of 25 checklists and flow diagram for reporting an randomized controlled trial. Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology statement is a checklist of items that should be addressed in articles reporting on the observational studies in epidemiology. TREND statement for the reporting of nonrandomized designs consists of 22 checklists. The Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses checklist proposes to provide checklist and flow diagram for reporting of meta-analyses. The Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology statement proposes a checklist for compensating the study errors about observational studies in epidemiology. After development of reporting guidelines, improvements in the quality of reports are continuously reported, so using guidelines in the medical research will be expected to be more generalized.
Checklist ; Meta-Analysis as Topic ; Research Report

Apoptosis ; Autophagy ; Humans ; Lymphoma ; Research Report

This paper aims to highlight some of the common areas of concern in qualitative research proposals and manuscripts, gleaned from the authors’ first-hand experience as an external referee and peer-reviewer. The purpose is to provide broad guidance to researchers who are contemplating on writing a research proposal or journal manuscript using a qualitative approach. The three issues are (1) application of the generic label “qualitative” when proponents or authors describe the study design; (2) overreliance on, and even misuse of, interviews and focus groups for data collection; and (3) misconceptions on the process of qualitative data analysis. Practice points are offered on how researchers can avoid these missteps. Research has been characterized as a quest for knowledge, and it has been proposed that both qualitative and quantitative approaches uncover different dimensions of “truth”. The predominance of a positivist ontology in health research in the Philippines and elsewhere, coupled with intense methodological training in quantitative approaches, however, has relegated qualitative research to second-class status. Improving the quality of qualitative research work by addressing some of the issues outlined in this paper is one way of moving past this situation.
Qualitative Research ; Data Collection ; Data Analysis ; Research Report ; Journal Article

Concerns has been raised in improving the quality of adaptive design randomized trials reports. Based on the CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), The Adaptive designs CONSORT Extension (ACE) has developed items and reporting specifications for adaptive design trials. This paper presents a brief explanation of the extension and new items of ACE and introduces the applications of ACE checklist with examples.
Checklist ; Humans ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Research Design ; Research Report

As part of the clinical chemistry programs of the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service, we organized trials to conduct external quality assessment of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in 2016 and 2017. We delivered three commutable whole blood specimens for each trial. The overall response rates were 96.4% in 2016 and 98.4% and 99.6% in the first and second trials in 2017, respectively. Two types of reports were generated: a common report including the mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, median, minimum value, and maximum value according to manufacturer and instrument, as well as a summary report of the results from each participating laboratory, including a histogram for each specimen, Levey-Jennings chart for serial percent deviations, and table showing the target value, upper and lower limits, percent deviation, and grade. From 2016, the acceptance criterion was changed from ±8.0% to ±6.7%. The overall acceptable rates for the survey were 91.5%, 91.4%, 94.9%, and 89.0% for the first trial in 2016 through the second trial in 2017, respectively. The requisite continual improvement in the quality of HbA1c testing can be achieved through participation in similar accuracy-based proficiency testing programs.
Chemistry, Clinical ; Korea* ; Laboratory Proficiency Testing ; Research Report

Humans ; Lung ; ultrastructure ; Paraquat ; toxicity ; Pulmonary Edema ; pathology ; Research Report

Child, Preschool ; Humans ; Male ; Neonatology ; Research Report ; Sarcoma, Myeloid ; physiopathology

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of the existing studies and summarize evidence of important outcomes of meta-analyses/systematic reviews (MAs/SRs) of CFS. METHODS: Potentially eligible studies were searched in the following electronic databases from inception to 1 September, 2019: Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Database (WF), Web of Science, Embase, PubMed and Cochrane Library. Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. The methodological quality of the literature was evaluated by A Measure Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2) and the quality of the report was assessed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). The intra-class correlation coefficient was used to assess the consistency of the reviewers, with an overall intraclass correlation coefficient score of 0.967. RESULTS: Ten MAs/SRs were included. The overall conclusions were that acupuncture had good safety and efficacy in the treatment of CFS, but some of these results were contradictory. The GRADE indicated that out of the 17 outcomes, high-quality evidence was provided in 0 (0%), moderate in 3 (17.65%), low in 10 (58.82%), and very low in 4 (23.53%). The results of AMSTAR-2 showed that the methodological quality of all included studies was critically low. The PRISMA statement revealed that 8 articles (80%) were in line with 20 of the 27-item checklist, and 2 articles (20%) matched with 10-19 of the 27 items. CONCLUSION We found that acupuncture on treating CFS has the advantage for efficacy and safety, but the quality of SRs/MAs of acupuncture for CFS need to be improved.
Acupuncture Therapy ; China ; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic/therapy* ; Humans ; Research Report