Non-Chinese herbal medicines for functional dyspepsia.

Background: One-third of people with gastrointestinal disorders, including functional dyspepsia, use some form of complementary and alternative medicine, including herbal medicines.

Objectives: The primary objective is to assess the effects of non-Chinese herbal medicines for the treatment of people with functional dyspepsia.

Search Methods: We searched the following electronic databases on 22 December 2022: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, among other sources, without placing language restrictions.

[Immunosenescence, viral infections and nutrition: A narrative review of scientific available evidence].

Aging of the immune system, or immunosenescence, alters the viral immune response in the elderly, especially when frailty exists. Research findings have demonstrated an imbalance in pro- and anti-inflammatory mechanisms, reduced production and diversification of T lymphocytes, and an alteration in immunovigilance and antibody synthesis. In this context, nutrition has a role in combating sarcopenia and frailty.

Efficacy of methadone for the management of postoperative pain in laparoscopic cholecystectomy: A randomized clinical trial.

Background: Postoperative pain management contributes to reducing postoperative morbidity and unscheduled readmission. Compared to other opioids that manage postoperative pain like morphine, few randomized trials have tested the efficacy of intraoperatively administered methadone to provide evidence for its regular use or be included in clinical guidelines.

Methods: We conducted a randomized clinical trial comparing the use of intraoperative methadone to assess its impact on postoperative pain.

Stakeholders' perceptions of humanized birth practices and obstetric violence in Chile: A scoping review.

Introduction: Chile has an incipient policy regarding humanized birth practices. Obstetric violence is becoming an issue in the public discussion, as brought up by women. Despite this advancement, no initiatives were observed to overcome the conflict.

Guidelines in Low and Middle Income Countries Paper 2: Quality assessment of Chilean guidelines: need for improvement in rigor, applicability, updating, and patients' inclusion.

Objectives: The Chilean health system mandates providers to ensure assistance under a guaranteed system, the Explicit Guarantees in Healthcare (EGH) program. The Health Ministry has developed clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), but independent assessment of their quality is lacking.

Study Design And Setting: We assessed all CPGs of the EGH program using Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation II (AGREE II) tool for appraising quality, validity period, and last update.

General concepts in biostatistics and clinical epidemiology: Experimental studies with randomized clinical trial design.

In experimental studies, researchers apply an intervention to a group of study participants and analyze the effects over a future or prospective timeline. The prospective nature of these types of studies allows for the determination of causal relationships, but the interventions they are based on require rigorous bioethical evaluation, approval from an ethics committee, and registration of the study protocol prior to implementation. Experimental research includes clinical and preclinical testing of a novel intervention or therapy at different phases of development.

Gender, women and scientific research.

Gender is a psychosocial construct referring to the socially built roles, behaviors, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men and people with gender diversity, while sex is related to the biological attributes of a woman or a man. Even though the terms sex and gender are often used in a binary way, there is considerable diversity in the way individuals and groups understand, experiment and express them. This narrative review describes some relevant aspects of the subjective difference that exists and favors men over women in the fields of sciences and research, starting from a historical perspective in the light of feminist movements.

General concepts in biostatistics and clinical epidemiology: observational studies with cohort design.

Cohort studies evaluate the relationship between exposure to a specific event or phenomenon and the occurrence of an associated out-come of interest (or lack thereof). This methodological design has been widely used in certain areas of medicine, such as the study of cardiovascular risk factors and the effects of ionizing radiation in humans. It is a useful study design, especially for research involving low-occurrence exposures, because it can be easily adapted to various contexts.

General concepts in biostatistics and clinical epidemiology: observational studies with case-control design.

Case-control studies have been essential to the field of epidemiology and in public health research. In this design, data analysis is carried out from the outcome to the exposure, that is, retrospectively, as the association between exposure and outcome is studied between people who present a condition (cases) and those who do not (controls). They are thus very useful for studying infrequent conditions, or for those that involve a long latency period.

General concepts in biostatistics and clinical epidemiology: Observational studies with cross-sectional and ecological designs.

Observational studies evaluate variables of interest in a sample or a population, without intervening in them. They can be descriptive if they focus on the description of variables, or analytical when comparison between groups is made to establish associations through statistical inference. Cross-sectional studies and ecologicalalso called correlationalstudies are two observational methodological designs.

General concepts in biostatistics and clinical epidemiology: Random error and systematic error.

Biomedical research, particularly when it involves human beings, is always subjected to sources of error that must be recognized. Systematic error or bias is associated with problems in the methodological design or during the execu-tion phase of a research project. It affects its validity and is qualitatively ap-praised.

Predicting the need of tracheostomy amongst patients admitted to an intensive care unit: a multivariate model.

Background: Patients requiring prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation are prone to complications, such as infections, tracheal stenosis and death. It has been proposed that early tracheostomy could have a role in preventing these outcomes, but the proper identification of patients at risk can be difficult.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a multivariate model that allows the early detection of patients that will require prolonged ventilatory support.