Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38953652›Full record

ArticleJournal of clinical microbiology2024

When less is more: the art of communicating clinical microbiology results.

Blake W Buchan

Abstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of clinical microbiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Blake W BuchanDepartment of Pathology, The Medical College of Wisconsin, and Children's Wisconsin, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4111-048X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The clinical microbiology laboratory is capable of identifying microorganisms in clinical specimens faster and more accurately than ever before. At face value, this should enable patient care providers to make better-informed decisions and target antimicrobial therapies to deliver individualized care. Ironically, more complete and specific reporting of microorganisms isolated from specimens may result in overtreatment based on the presence of a pathogen, even in the absence of clear signs of clinical infection. This conundrum calls into question the role of the laboratory in contributing to care through selective or "exception" reporting whereby some results are selectively withheld when there is a low probability that laboratory findings correlate with the clinical infection. In a recent article published in the

Indexed as

Microbiological TechniquesAnti-Bacterial AgentsAntimicrobial StewardshipHumansSoft Tissue InfectionsAnti-Bacterial Agents

Identifiers

PMID38953652
PMCPMC11323566

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.