Beyond intention-to-treat: The effect of brief counseling for tobacco cessation in secondary analyses of a cluster randomized controlled trial in Swedish dental clinics.

In experimental studies the assigned intervention measures the received intervention if full protocol adherence is achieved, but this is rarely the case in public health. The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of a brief counseling intervention delivered in Swedish dental clinics on tobacco use cessation, taking non-adherence into account. We conducted three secondary analyses.

Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation versus surgical radiofrequency-assisted nodulectomy in treatment of small single nodes of hepatocellular carcinoma: our experience.

Aim: Surgical resection usually represents the treatment of choice for solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients, with well preserved liver function; local ablative strategies are the best treatment option for patients with small tumors who are not candidates for surgical resection or liver transplantation. Several studies showed that percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has similar efficacy to surgical nodulectomy in the treatment of early-stage HCC, and is associated with lower complication rates and costs than resection. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of these treatments, in terms of morbidity, overall survival, tumor recurrence and causes of death.

Fluorescence in situ hybridisation in the cytological diagnosis of pancreatobiliary tumours.

Aims: To assess the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and conventional cytology in identifying bile duct stricture malignancies.

Methods: Brushing samples were collected from 64 patients by means of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and assessed cytologically and by means of a multi-probe FISH set. The cytological diagnoses were: positive, negative and suspicious, whereas criteria for FISH positivity were: more than five polysomic cells or more than 10 trisomic cells for chromosomes 3 or 7.