Presenting randomised trial reports

Nearly half of dental randomized controlled trials published in German are not included in Medline

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the most reliable type of clinical intervention studies. However, not all reports of RCTs are accessible in Medline. This can impede the validity of the results of systematic reviews. Ten German-language dental journals were manually searched to locate reports of controlled clinical trials published between 1970 and 2000. The publication type was determined and compared with Medline. Of the 15 777 articles, 210 reports of RCTs and 410 articles of non-randomized controlled clinical trials (CCTs) were identified. Only 56% of the RCTs and 75% of the CCTs are available in Medline. Of the 118 reports of RCTs registered in Medline. 15 are indexed with the correct Publication Type term. Our data suggest that (a) hand-searching plays a valuable role in identifying reports of clinical dental trials, and (b) a literature search in Medline is likely to yield incomplete results.

A Hungarian example for handsearching specialized national healthcare journals of small countries for controlled trials. Is it worth the trouble?

The objective of this study was to determine whether a Hungarian language journal of clinical neuroscience, which is not indexed in MEDLINE, contains any reports of randomized or quasi-randomized clinical trials that are not also reported in MEDLINE-indexed publications. A cover-to-cover handsearch was performed of the journal Clinical Neuroscience/Ideggyógyászati Szemle, the official journal of Hungarian societies of neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and related clinical neurosciences, from its first volume in 1950 to the end of 1998; and a search of MEDLINE for other reports of the trials identified. Clinical trials in which patients were allocated to interventions by randomized, quasi-randomized or possibly randomized means were identified. Controlled trials were tabulated and coded as randomized controlled trials or controlled clinical trials according to the definitions of the Handsearch Manual of the Cochrane Collaboration. We identified three randomized and eight quasi-randomized trials. Six of the 11 trials were not reported in MEDLINE indexed publications. In conclusion, to obtain a comprehensive controlled trials register, specialized healthcare journals printed in small numbers in the national languages of small countries should be searched.