Most recent randomized controlled clinical trials have not found a benefit in antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, and/or beta-carotene) for preventing cardiovascular disease, including stroke. These recent clinical studies have not confirmed earlier...

Children with suspected or culture-proven acute nonvenereal bacterial conjunctivitis should be treated with topical antibiotics, which hastens clinical and microbiological remission and may prevent potentially serious morbidity. In light of recent...

No single clinical finding can accurately diagnose DVT. [Strength of recommendation: A, based on a systematic review of homogeneous validating cohort studies with good reference standards.] However, when organized into clinical decision rules (CDRs...

on inadequate reference standards and an unclear clinical decision rule.)...

of congestive heart failure exacerbation.(Grade of recommendation: D.) Clinical trials of multifactorial, nondrug interventions have shown an association of sodium restriction with reduced morbidity and improved quality of life in some populations...

reviews and randomized clinical trials with inconsistent and inconclusive results)...

With adults, oral theophylline may help lower the dosage of inhaled steroids needed to control chronic asthma. It offers no benefit for acute asthma exacerbations. For children, intravenous aminophylline may improve the clinical course of severe...

slightly lower cure rates, but are considerably less expensive. (Grade of recommendation: A) The most effective treatment for tinea pedis is oral terbinafine 250 mg twice a day for 2 weeks (94% clinical cure rate). However, oral terbinafine is expensive...

Frequent coughing is a concern for approximately 35% of those with typical gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms of heartburn and acid regurgitation as compared with 11% in those who do not have these symptoms. Among pulmonary clinic...

-risk patients who have been hospitalized for 3 or more days) leads to a more rational use of stool cultures without missing cases of clinically significant disease. (Grade of recommendation: D, based on limited studies, reliance on expert opinion, and consensus.)...

effect (Grade of recommendation: A, based on systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials (RCTs); high quality RCTs)....

disorders of pregnancy; and identifying nocturnal hypertension. (Grade of recommendation: B, based on consistent cohort studies and trials, requiring extrapolation in certain clinical circumstances)...

Use of a nylon brush (Cytobrush and others) with spatula to obtain Papanicolaou (Pap) smears from pregnant women is more likely to obtain sufficient endocervical cells, without adverse consequence for the mother or for the ...

The thiazolidinediones pioglitazone (Actos) and rosiglitazone (Avandia) are effective at lowering fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycosylated hemoglobin (Hb A1c) in patients with type 2 diabetes when used either as ...

Exercise is more effective for chronic low back pain than treatment with medication plus return to usual activity and as effective as conventional physiotherapy. The evidence is less consistent in showing that any particular ...

Large published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) show that pravastatin and simvastatin are well-tolerated and reduce major coronary events such as death, myocardial infarction, and revascularization by about 25%. The ...

The levels of cholesterol that should be treated for primary prevention are based on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels of > 100 mg/dL to > 190 mg/dL and vary according to whether the patient's risk is ...

The proportion of patients who are pain free or completely recovered after an acute episode of low back pain within 2 weeks to 6 months ranges from 21% to 90%, depending on the population studied and the method of measuring ...

Podofilox (Condylox), imiquimod (Aldara), cryotherapy, and surgical options all seem reasonable alternatives that are superior to podophyllin. (Grade of recommendation: B, based on systematic review.) No studies of surgical ...

Docusate sodium given 15 minutes before irrigation is most effective for facilitating cerumen removal during a single office visit. (Grade of recommendation: B, based on head-to-head trials that lacked irrigationonly arms.) ...