Cochrane

Background Accurately identifying people with dementia is an area of public and professional concern. Dementia is often not diagnosed until late in the disease, and this may limit timely access to appropriate health and social support. There is a growing interest in tests that detect dementia at an early stage, before symptoms have become problematic ...

Some children are born with an anatomic abnormality that allows backwards flow of urine from the bladder to the kidney. This is called vesicoureteral reflux or VUR. Children with VUR have more urinary tract infections and develop more renal scars than children without VUR. This is especially the case if VUR is severe. As such, clinicians are interested ...

Review question We reviewed the evidence about the accuracy of confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (commercially available as the Heidelberg Retinal Tomogram (HRT)), optical coherence tomography (OCT) and scanning laser polarimetry (as used by the GDx device) for diagnosing glaucoma in people who are at risk. These tests can measure the structure ...

Tuberculosis (TB) causes tremendous suffering worldwide, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. In 2012, 8.6 million people developed TB disease (active TB) for the first time and around 1.3 million people died. Most people with TB can be cured if the disease is diagnosed and properly treated. One of the problems in treating TB is that ...

This review describes the understanding of a common practice for checking for spinal injuries when patients come to a family practice doctor, back pain clinic or emergency room with new back pain.  Doctors usually ask a few questions and examine the back to check for the possibility of a spinal tumor.  The reason for this check for tumors is that the ...

Fever is common in malarial areas, and getting the diagnosis right (ie deciding if it is due to malaria or other causes) and treating correctly helps save lives, particularly in children. The World Health Organization (WHO) now recommends that all patients with fever suspected of being malaria are properly diagnosed before any treatment begins. This ...

Of all patients with back pain, less than 2% will undergo surgery for a herniated disc in the lumbar spine. In back pain patients who also have leg pain (sciatica), doctors and therapists use a physical examination to estimate the probability that the pain is caused by a disc herniation, and to assist the selection of patients for imaging and surgery. ...