Randomized Trials are Deeply Offensive

Blindness in Randomized Controlled Trials

In combination with randomization, blinding or masking is an important factor in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), particularly in trials that assess therapeutic effects. Here an attempt is made to explain blindness and why it is important. In clinical trials, blinding is defined as the condition imposed on a study in which study participants, health care providers and assessors collecting o...

Not all randomized trials are equal.

he study by Beanlands et al. (1) in this issue of the Journal s a multicenter, randomized trial in 430 patients with oronary artery disease (CAD) and left ventricular ejection raction 35% to determine whether a management stratgy that included F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron mission tomography (PET) imaging to guide revascularzation improved clinical outcomes compared with standard are w...

How Drugs are Evaluated: Patients’ Guide to Randomized Clinical Trials

Sample size in orthodontic randomized controlled trials: are numbers justified?

Sample size calculations are advocated by the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) group to justify sample sizes in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This study aimed to analyse the reporting of sample size calculations in trials published as RCTs in orthodontic speciality journals. The performance of sample size calculations was assessed and calculations verified where possi...

Are distinctive ethical principles required for cluster randomized controlled trials?

Cluster randomized trials are increasingly used in research into health care and health services. Ethics of individual patient randomized trials have been elucidated in a number of different codes, but less attention has been given to the ethical issues raised by cluster randomized trials. I assess the challenges raised by cluster randomized controlled trials by considering three questions: Wha...