eLetters

61 e-Letters

published between 2015 and 2018

  • Maternal pertussis vaccination
    Elyse O Kharbanda

    Dear Editor,

    We were pleased to read the commentary by Millar and Sanz(1) regarding our publication on Tdap safety in pregnancy from the Vaccine Safety Datalink.(2) We agree that policies regarding routine vaccination should be made after careful review of the risks and benefits of vaccination. For maternal vaccination, evaluations of risk-benefit profiles are complex, as both maternal and infant outcomes must be...

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  • Judging evidence in postoperative analgesia
    Andrew Moore

    Dear Editor,

    First, thank you for highlighting our paper. However, I do want to take issue with this commentary.

    Systematic reviews in postop analgesia have been done now for over 20 years, and there is considerable methodological research to substantiate what is done. The results are robust and trustworthy.

    Single trials, however well done, are not trustworthy because while they may be powered t...

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  • Editors' Reply to eLetter from JC Platt
    EBM Editors

    Dear Mr Platt

    Many thanks for your eLetter regarding an abstract appearing in both EBM[1] and EBN[2] with different commentaries. In answer to your queries:
    First, when we have the same abstract appearing in both journals we do sometimes use the same commentary as well, however, if we think it doesn't fit our target audience we can require a fresh commentary. The risk is that, like all opinion, diff...

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  • Response to: A home-based, nurse-delivered exercise programme
    John C Platt

    Dear Editors

    The study:
    A home-based, nurse-delivered exercise programme reduced falls and serious injuries in people ³ 80 years of age. Robertson et al. Effectiveness and economic evaluation of a nurse delivered home exercise programme to prevent falls. 1: randomised controlled trial. [1]
    appeared in both Evidence-Based Medicine [2] and in Evidence-Based Nursing.[3]...

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  • Are chest X-rays needed to diagnose pneumonia?
    Santabhanu Chakrabarti

    Dear Editor

    The question asked in a recent article[1] was “In children with acute respiratory infection, is tachypnoea accurate for detecting pneumonia?” The answer obtained was “in children with acute respiratory infection, tachypnoea had a sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 67%”. Please note that radiographic determination of pneumonia was the reference standard to which the finding of tachypnoea was compar...

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  • Apparently ventilation tubes give immediate hearing
    Moghira Iqbal Siddiqui

    Dear Editor

    Regarding the article by Michael B Aldous,[1] I was little concerned about the impression I got from the randomized control trial. I ask them to consider the proven fact that immediate hearing improvement that takes place following placement of ventilatory tubes. Is it not a fact that fluid accumaulation in middle ear results in profound hearing loss? Does the modern formulas calculating significance and po...

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  • Wearing elasticated stockings on long haul flights
    Dawn McDonald

    Dear Editor

    I found this article interesting on the debate whether the benfit of wearing elasticated stockings on long haul flights were useful in prevention of DVT's in passengers. As you questioned the small amount used in the study were not significant therefore inconclusive on recommendations.

    I was wondering how the staff, namely the pilots cope who make more regular long haul flights than the passeng...

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  • Conclusion not supported by underlying data
    Brian S. Alper

    Dear Editors

    This Cochrane review concluded that antibiotics reduce short to medium-term persistence in children with persistent nasal discharge or older children with radiographically confirmed sinusitis.

    The EBM synopsis concluded that antibiotics are more effective than placebo in children with persistent nasal discharge.

    The 6 RCTs reviewed in the Cochrane review include four RCTs of older ch...

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  • Pragmatic Criteria for excluding diabetes in borderline patients
    David Bossano

    Dear Editor

    In our primary care practice we are grappling with the diagnostic criteria for (type II) DM.

    We use FPG as our main investigation with the WHO criteria of FPG <7.0 on two occasions defining diabetes.

    In the event of repeated FPGs between 6 and 7 (& presumably a previous RPG 7-11.1) we have previously referred patients for an OGTT. However, we have found that this often does not lead to...

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  • This article is not about the real cervicogenic headache
    Celio Levyman MD MSc

    Dear Editor

    The paper in question has a strange problem: the definition of cervicogenic headache. Reading the text, one must look to all headaches that origins itself in cervical region, and there we have a conflict with International Classification of Headaches: first described by Ottar Sjaastad in late 1970s, the most correct assumption of cervicogenic headache is a particular syndrome who origins the pain in C...

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