Concordance Rates Between Resident-Performed Ultrasound Measurements and Certified Sonographer Measurements.

Objectives: To evaluate the accuracy of ultrasound (US) estimated fetal weight (EFW) measurement compared with neonatal birth weight when performed by residents versus certified sonographers. The hypothesis tested was that residents and certified sonographers would not differ significantly in EFW or in EFW compared with neonatal birth weight.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of 142 inpatients from July 2010 to May 2011 was conducted.

Analysis of clinical drug trials in children compared to clinical drug trials in adults, in Argentina.

Introduction: It is necessary to know the extent and subject matter of pediatric clinical drug research in Argentina and establish the differences with the adult population.

Objectives: To compare adult and pediatric clinical drug trials in terms of number, phase, design (placebo as control, proportion of blind/open-label trials), studied diseases. Specifically in pediatrics, to determine if studied diseases are consistent with the leading causes of infant and child mortality in Argentina.

Hepatic Elimination of Drugs in Gestational Diabetes.

Background: The liver is the major metabolic clearance organ for chemical agents from the human body. Pregnancy is associated with several physiological changes that may affect one or more of these factors, and also induces changes in the hepatic clearance of certain drugs. The aim of this paper was to review some of the currently available information in the field to provide some insights about the relevance of these changes on the clearance of some drugs.

[Pharmacoepidemiological study of the use of psychotropics in hospitalized patients].

Objective: To assess consumption and the exposition of patients admitted to the Universitary Hospital of the Interamerican Open University (UAI), between October and December of 2007-2009.

Methods: Descriptive observational study. The information was obtained of the Pharmacia Sector.

QT interval prolongation: preclinical and clinical testing arrhythmogenesis in drugs and regulatory implications.

The assessment about the proarrhythmic risk associated with a particular drug is a major requirement for drugs under development, since many drugs have been withdrawn from market or got under strict pharmacological vigilance because of such a risk. Predicting the development of a life-threatening arrhythmia is a hard task but, in the case of TdP ("Torsades de Pointes"), there are some useful markers. Among them, the prolongation of the QT interval and its heart rate correction (QTc) are the most remarkable.

[The paradigm of evidence].

This article is a critical review about the concept of evidence in statistics and their impact in the based evidence medicine. The basic types of hypothesis used in clinical trials are explored and their meanings in epistemology. This review is a practical introduction about key issues in statistics applied in clinical research.

[Drug research methodology: fundamentals].

The last few years have witnessed a veritable boom in the research and development of new drugs, as evidenced in the market by the introduction of sundry groups of medications against a wide variety of illnesses. Currently, between six and ten years of research are needed prior to the approval and sale of an investigational drug. During this time, the medication under study must go through different stages of investigation; the first of these is the preclinical assessment stage, followed by stages I, II and III of clinical assessment, and ending with stage IV of post commercialization clinical assessment.