OBJECTIVE To assess the long-term crossover (CO) rate in men undergoing watchful waiting (WW) as a primary treatment strategy for their asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic inguinal hernias. BACKGROUND With an average follow-up of 3.2 years, a randomized controlled trial comparing WW with routine repair for male patients with minimally symptomatic inguinal hernias led investigators to conclu...

Meiosis is a dynamic process during which chromosomes undergo condensation, pairing, crossing-over and disjunction. Stringent regulation of the distribution and quantity of meiotic crossovers is critical for proper chromosome segregation in many organisms. In humans, aberrant crossover placement and the failure to faithfully segregate meiotic chromosomes often results in severe genetic disorder...

BACKGROUND We aimed to evaluate empirically how crossover trial results are analysed in meta-analyses of randomized evidence and whether their results agree with parallel arm studies on the same questions. METHODS We used a systematic sample of Cochrane meta-analyses including crossover trials. We evaluated the methods of analysis for crossover results and compared the concordance of the esti...

Maintenance of the chromosomal copy number over generations and recombination between homologous chromosomes are hallmarks of meiotic cell division. This genetic exchange that take place during gamete formation leads to genetic diversity, the main driving force behind natural selection. Formation of chiasmata, the physical link between homologous chromosomes during meiosis, is a requisite for r...

OBJECTIVE Although crossover trials enjoy wide use, standards for analysis and reporting have not been established. We reviewed methodological aspects and quality of reporting in a representative sample of published crossover trials. METHODS We searched MEDLINE for December 2000 and identified all randomized crossover trials. We abstracted data independently, in duplicate, on 14 design criter...

BACKGROUND Efavirenz (EFV) causes neuropsychiatric side-effects and an unfavorable blood lipid profile. We investigated the effect of replacing EFV with raltegravir (RAL) on patient preference, daytime sleepiness, sleep quality, anxiety, and lipid levels. METHOD Switch-ER was a randomized, double-blind, cross-over study. Patients who tolerated EFV, with less than 50 copies/ml HIV-RNA, were ra...