to evaluate the effect of adding neoadjuvant chemotherapy to surgery and radiation therapy for locally advanced resectable oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma, 24 patients with t3 or t4a oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma were randomly assigned to surgery alone or docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fu (tpf) induction chemotherapy followed by surgery. all patients were planned to receive chemoradiothe...

labor pain is a cause of stress and suffering; for which many women seek methods to relieve this pain. the aim of this study was to determine the effect of relaxation techniques on pain relief during labor. this study was carried out on 62 pregnant women referred to fatemieh hospital (hamadan, iran) during their labor. they were selected using convenience sampling and were divided randomly in t...

A clinical trial may be defined as a ‘‘planned experiment’’ that involves patients, and it is designed to elucidate the most appropriate treatment of future patients with a given medical condition. The first step in designing a clinical trial is to select the best study type. The major types are the case report, the case series, case control studies, cohort study, and the most rigorous of all s...

BACKGROUND Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurological disorder affecting 5 % of children worldwide. A prevalent problem for children with ADHD is initial insomnia. The gold standard treatment to manage ADHD symptoms is stimulant medications, which may exacerbate the severity of existing initial insomnia. Currently, no gold standard treatment option exists for initi...

PURPOSE To discuss the methodological considerations of a standard and applicable randomized clinical trial (RCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Using a predefined strategy, we conducted systematic computerized search of the MEDLINE (1966 to 2011) and EMBASE (1980 to 2011) databases to identify all English language educational articles discussing the RCT methodological aspects. Full text versions of ...

arterial blood gas (abg) sampling is a painful procedure with no perfect technique for quelling the discomfort. an ideal local anesthesia should be rapid, easy to learn, inexpensive, and noninvasive. this study was aimed to compare pain levels from abg sampling performed with vapocoolant spray in comparison to placebo. we hypothesized that pretreatment with the vapocoolant would reduce the pain...

results there were significant differences between the groups in subjective labor pain scores (except vas 4) (p < 0.001). the duration of the phase one (3 cm dilatation to full dilatation) and phase two (full dilatation to birth) in the acupressure group was shorter than the control group (phase one, 225 min and 320 min, respectively; phase two, 15 min and 20 min, respectively; both p < 0.001)....

The double blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) is considered the gold-standard in clinical research. Evidence for the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions should rely on well conducted RCTs. The importance of RCTs for clinical practice can be illustrated by its impact on the shift of practice in hormone replacement therapy (HRT). For decades HRT was considered the standard care for al...

There is a general agreement that before a therapy can be accepted into widespread clinical use, demonstration of efficacy in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is absolutely necessary. There are, however, a growing number of experts who believe that demonstration of RCT efficacy might not be a sufficient basis for widespread acceptance.1 RCTs may not enroll subjects representative of patients i...