pilot study

(Ohio State University) Researchers have designed a urine test that can simultaneously measure the extent of a potential carcinogenic process and a marker of garlic consumption in humans.

In a small pilot study, the test suggested that the more garlic people consumed, the lower the levels of the potential carcinogenic process were.

I occasionally elevate comments and replies to the level of full posts if I feel they better illustrate and clarify significant points I raise.

In my Jan. 9, 2010 post "Does the CEO of Google Use Google?

- And: Platform, Platform, Who's Got The Platform?" I lamented the intrusion of ill-informed, reductionistic, "database platform"-centric views of non-clinical IT personnel into healthcare.

I received the following feedback from an anonymous commenter:

For Tara Campbell, the onset of her fibromyalgia began slowly with repeated sore throats, fevers and fatigue.

By the time she was diagnosed, a year later, she had become so debilitated by flulike symptoms and exhaustion that she often couldn't get off the couch all day.

"Fall, a year ago, I hit my very, very worst," said Campbell, 39, of Walnut Creek, Calif. "I felt overall pain to the point that even when my children or husband just touched me it hurt.

BOSTON (MedPage Today) -- A ventilator strategy using esophageal pressures to estimate transpulmonary pressure significantly improved oxygenation and respiratory-system compliance among critically ill patients, a pilot study found.

NEW YORK (MedPage Today) -- Patients undergoing robotic radical prostatectomy had virtually none of the pain associated with a conventional urethral catheter when surgeons used an investigational bladder drain, a small pilot study showed.

Overall, in a pilot study of a ginkgo biloba extract for delaying the onset of dementia in the elderly, researchers did not find a reduction in progression to dementia in those using ginkgo versus those using placebo.

However, when the researchers took into account participants' adherence to taking the compound, the group that took ginkgo did appear to have a reduced risk of progression and a smaller decline in memory.