BACKGROUND Major international differences in heart failure treatment have been repeatedly described, but the reasons for these differences remain unclear. National guideline recommendations might be a relevant factor. This study, therefore, explored variation of heart failure guideline recommendations in Europe. METHODS Treatment recommendations of 14 national guidelines published after 1994...

Medical guidelines are hard to formalise because of their inherent fragmentary nature. Because of this, a formalism where details of guideline text are omitted is justified. In this paper, we describe medical histories and expectations and illustrate them with a number of examples from the Dutch breast cancer guideline. We applied our approach to an assumptionbased argumentation system for its ...

AIMS To develop and implement an evidence based guideline for the treatment of acute asthma using a metered dose inhaler and spacer combination. METHODS Defined strategies were used for the development and implementation of a guideline, assessed by a prospective, descriptive, study using notes review, and patient, nursing, and medical staff telephone contact. The setting was a tertiary referr...

BACKGROUND Studies investigating the impact of guideline implementation for inpatient management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) usually have methodological limitations. We present a controlled study that compared interventions before and after the implementation of a practice guideline. METHODS Clinical and demographic characteristics, as well as process-of-care and outcome indicators,...

The dosage regimen for artemether-lumefantrine which is the standard of care for malaria in most of Sub-Saharan countries requires use of treatment guidelines and instructions to enhance caregivers' performance in the treatment of malaria. As part of a larger study evaluating its effectiveness in a rural local government area in southwestern Nigeria, 552 caregivers whose children had fever two ...

Background The challenge of the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is to identify patients who would benefit from treatment with statins. Statins are currently prescribed to many patients, even those at a low 10-year risk of CVD. These latter patients may not be eligible for statins according to current guidelines. Design This study investigated the prescription of guideline-con...

Detection and Nonoperative Management of Pediatric Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip in Infants up to Six Months of Age: Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline is based on a systematic review of the current scientific and clinical research. This guideline has been endorsed by the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, the Society for Pediatric Radiology, American Academy of Pediatrics, ...