PLoS medicine and PLoS clinical trials
6 February 2009. Related: On the web.
Inflammatory and coagulation biomarkers and mortality in patients with HIV Infection
Kuller LH et al.
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050203#top
“IL-6 and D-dimer were strongly related to all-cause mortality. Interrupting ART may further increase the risk of death by raising IL-6 and D-dimer levels. Therapies that reduce the inflammatory response to HIV and decrease IL-6 and D-dimer levels may warrant investigation.”
Effectiveness of cellulose sulfate vaginal gel for the prevention of HIV infection: results of a Phase III trial in Nigeria
Vera Halpern et al.
http://clinicaltrials.ploshubs.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003784
“Cellulose sulfate gel appeared to be safe in the evaluated study population but we found insufficient evidence that it prevented male-to-female vaginal transmission of HIV, gonorrhea or chlamydial infection. The early closure of the trial compromised the ability to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of cellulose sulfate against HIV.”
Reporting bias in drug trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration: review of publication and presentation
Rising K et al.
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050217
This study concluded “Many trials were still not published 5 years after FDA approval. Discrepancies between the trial information reviewed by the FDA and information found in published trials tended to lead to more favorable presentations of the NDA drugs in the publications. Thus, the information that is readily available in the scientific literature to health care professionals is incomplete and potentially biased.
Conducting unlinked anonymous HIV surveillance in developing countries: ethical, epidemiological, and public health concerns
Rennie et al.
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000004
A comparison of international ethical guidelines on UAT with ethical and public health challenges encountered with HIV sentinel surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa, among populations usually targeted by UAT efforts, and proposals for practical approaches, informed by field research in southern Africa, to improve the quality of HIV surveillance data, strengthen the ethics of surveillance activities, and enhance the capacity of public health systems.