Can unequal be more fair? Ethics,subject allocation,and randomised clinical trials.

Randomised clinical trials provide the most valid means of establishing the efficacy of clinical therapeutics. Ethical standards dictate that patients and clinicians should not consent to randomisation unless there is uncertainty about whether any of the treatment options is superior to the others ("equipoise"). However, true equipoise is rarely present; most randomised trials, therefore, present challenging ethical dilemmas. Minimising the tension between science and ethics is an obligation of investigators and clinicians. This article briefly reviews several techniques for addressing this issue and suggests that unbalanced randomisation, a technique rarely employed in current clinical trial practice, may be useful for enhancing the ethical design of human experimentation.     

Medical screening: to be or not to be?

WHAT IS MEDICAL SCREENING？
Worldwide chronic diseases have become a major cause of suffering, disability and mortality. When patients are diagnosed as a result of the appearance of symptoms, it is often too late and treatment options are limited. Hoping that early diagnosis and early treatment can retard or stop disease progression, medical screening is proposed as a secondary prevention method in which people without specific medical complaints are invited to undergo interventions to identify and modify risk factors, or to find disease early in its course so that early treatment prevents further severe complications.     

Can antibiotic use be both just and sustainable... or only more or less so?

Antibiotic resistance threatens the capacity to treat life-threatening infections. If it is accepted that it will be many years (if not decades) until the production of new antibiotics overcomes current concerns with antibiotic resistance then ways to conserve the effectiveness of current antibiotics will have to be found. For many bacterial agents of infection levels of antibiotic resistance are directly dependent on the quantity of antibiotic prescribed. Antibiotics are currently underutilised in many parts of the world. If a just distribution of access to antibiotics requires equal access for individuals with equal need irrespective of wealth then responding to this requirement of justice has the potential to shorten the effective life of currently available antibiotics. Increasing the range and numbers of individuals treated with antibiotics would seem to threaten sustainability and also potentially undermine the access of future generations to cost-effective treatments for bacterial infection. The control of antibiotic resistance requires that the determinants of infectious disease transmission are addressed, such as poor housing, education and nutrition as well as the provision of antibiotics. The apparent tension between intragenerational justice and sustainability diminishes when the account of distributive justice extends beyond access to antibiotics and includes plural entitlements. Controlling antibiotic resistance requires more than the redistribution or reduction (in the overall use) of antibiotics.     

Can transthoracic Doppler echocardiography be used to detect coronary slow flow phenomenon?

Background Coronary slow flow phenomenon （CSFP） is an important, angiographic clinical entity but is lacking non-invasive detecting techniques. This study aimed to elucidate the value of transthoracic Doppler echocardiography （TTDE） in the diagnosis and monitoring of coronary slow flow in left anterior descending （LAD） coronary artery.Methods We consecutively enrolled 27 patients with CSFP in LAD detected by coronary arteriography from August 2009 to April 2010. Thirty-eight patients with angiographically normal coronary flow served as control. Corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction （TIMI） frame count （CTFC） was used to document coronary flow velocities. All subjects underwent TTDE within 24 hours after coronary angiography. LAD flow was detected and the coronary diastolic peak velocities （DPV） and diastolic mean velocities （DMV） were calculated.Results Sixty of 65 （92.3%） subjects successfully underwent TTDE. Baseline clinical characteristics were similar between the two groups. Coronary DPV and DMV of LAD were significantly lower in the CSFP group than in the control group （（0.228±0.029） m/s vs. （0.302±0.065） m/s, P=0.000; （0.176±0.028） m/s vs. （0.226±0.052） m/s, P=0.000,respectively）. There was a high inverse correlation between CTFC and coronary DPV and DMV （r=-0.727, P=0.000;r=-0.671, P=0.000, respectively）. Receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve showed that the area under the curve （AUC） was less than one half for coronary DPV （AUC=0.104） and DMV （AUC=0.204）, respectively.Conclusions In patients with CSFP, there is a high inverse correlation between CTFC and coronary diastolic flow velocities in the LAD coronary artery, as measured by TTDE. The value of TTDE in the monitoring and evaluation of coronary flow in patients with CSFP deserves further investigation.     

Can the written information to research subjects be improved?--an empirical study.

OBJECTIVES: To study whether linguistic analysis and changes in information leaflets can improve readability and understanding. DESIGN: Randomised, controlled study. Two information leaflets concerned with trials of drugs for conditions/diseases which are commonly known were modified, and the original was tested against the revised version. SETTING: Denmark. PARTICIPANTS: 235 persons in the relevant age groups. MAIN MEASURES: Readability and understanding of contents. RESULTS: Both readability and understanding of contents was improved: readability with regard to both information leaflets and understanding with regard to one of the leaflets. CONCLUSION: The results show that both readability and understanding can be improved by increased attention to the linguistic features of the information.     

Can myasthenia gravis be diagnosed with the 'ice pack test'? A cautionary note

The ice pack test may be helpful in establishing that ptosis is due to ocular myasthenia gravis, since cold improves neuromuscular transmission. However, the role of the test in determining whether diplopia is of myasthenic origin has yet to be established.     

A ‘fair innings' for efficiency in health services?

This paper reviews the severe visual focus problems of health economists-they have developed a one-sided fixation with equity issues, neglecting the efficiency agenda. The problems of meeting need are not just about access--they will vary with cost and supply. Economists in fact developed a more balanced agenda in the 1970s but have failed to follow it up. The paper defines the triple nationalisation of the National Health Service (NHS), and presents evidence that pluralism, using the purchaser/provider split, has become more efficient in long term care, home care and services for people with learning difficulties. Health economics has failed to explore options for using the dynamic forces of choice and competition for improving health services. The paper makes the case for a decision rule that "we should seek the process of health care service supply and development which maximises the delivery of high quality, lower cost user relevant services".