Several new papers made our top ten this month including Mainous et al.’s study on the prevalence of prediabetes in England, and McDonald et al.’s paper on postural tachycardia syndrome predominantly affecting young women. Other popular papers were the recently published paper from Krüsi et al., which explores the effects of criminalisation and policing of […]
Latest articles
Premature newborn survival 30% higher in high volume neonatal centres
The survival of premature newborns in England is 30% higher in specialist units treating large numbers of neonates, reveals an analysis of national data published in BMJ Open. The advantage is particularly evident for very premature babies born after less than 27 weeks of pregnancy, where the figure rises to 50%, prompting the authors to […]
Poorly understood postural syndrome blights lives of young well educated women
A debilitating syndrome that causes an excessively rapid heartbeat on standing up, predominantly affects young well educated women, and blights their lives, because it is so poorly understood and inconsistently treated, reveals a small study published in the online journal BMJ Open. Postural tachycardia syndrome, or PoTS for short, is a by-product of orthostatic intolerance […]
HIV, prostate cancer and food insecurity: most read articles in May
This month’s most read article was Dahlen et al.’s study on the rates of obstetric intervention and associated perinatal mortality among women who give birth in private and public hospitals. Newly-published papers in the top ten most read include O’Brien et al.’s paper on evidence-informed recommendations for rehabilitation with older adults living with HIV. Also proving popular for another month, was He et […]
Use of cement in partial hip replacement linked to risk of death
The use of cement in partial hip replacement surgery may be linked to a risk of death – often occurring within minutes – finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open. The risk is relatively rare. But the alarm was first sounded in 2009, and most of the cases that have come to light […]
Rates of pre-diabetes have tripled over past decade in England
The prevalence of pre-diabetes – higher than normal blood glucose levels – has tripled within the space of 8 years in England, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open. More than a third of adults in England now have pre-diabetes, the findings suggest, with those who are disadvantaged and of black and minority […]
Divorce may be linked to higher risk of overweight/obesity among kids involved
Divorce may be linked to a higher risk of overweight and obesity among children affected by the marital split, suggests research published in the on-line journal BMJ Open. Boys may be especially prone to excess weight gain, the findings indicate. The researchers base their findings on a nationally representative sample of more than 3000 pupils […]
Bringing old trials to light in BMJ Open
Today we have published the first trial prompted by the Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials (RIAT) initiative. Dr Tom Treasure from UCL, with colleagues from University of Sussex and Imperial College, have brought back from obscurity the results of the ‘CEA Second-Look’ trial. The study asked the question: in patients who have undergone a […]
The CEA Second-Look Trial: a randomised controlled trial of carcinoembryonic antigen prompted reoperation for recurrent colorectal cancer
A trial that remained unpublished for 20 years casts doubt on the survival benefit of repeat (“second look”) surgery for bowel cancer. The trial is published in BMJ Open today. It is the first to be restored under the restoring invisible and abandoned trials (RIAT) initiative that allows third parties to publish previously abandoned studies […]
Comparing the results from two surveys of BMJ Open authors
BMJ Open authors were among those surveyed by Professor David J Solomon of Michigan State University for a study recently published in the journal PeerJ. Needless to say we read this with great interest (we were unaware of the survey until the results were published). The survey reported a generally positive response to BMJ Open […]