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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Tinnitus / October 2005How precise is medical science?
Various branches of sciences differ in the degree of preciseness. In my view, medical science is more of a precise science than social sciences such as economics or political science but in comparison to maths and physics medical science seems relatively imprecise. The question comes: how reliable are the studies done in the domain of medical science given its imprecise nature? FP > Various branches of sciences differ in the degree of preciseness. In > my view, medical science is more of a precise science than social [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > FP FP, There was thread related to this subject many months ago. I don't have the statistics in front of me but seem to recall that someone done some research on this subject and determined that over 50 per cent of the medical studies are later determined to be false. One of the posters that is a medical expert stated that he only has faith in a study if it agrees and is harmony with other studies done related to the same issue involved in a study. I should note that there are some great doctors and some really bad doctors. It's very easy to tell them apart. For example, one of the local doctors recently told a woman that had complained about a tumor in her breast that she had nothing to worry about. She went to another doctor to have it removed. Perhaps another poster can inform you related to the exact number of studies that are later determined to be false. Jason  SignatureNEWSGROUP SUBSCRIBERS MOTTO We respect those subscribers that ask for advice or provide advice. We do NOT respect the subscribers that enjoy criticizing people. On 10/21/05 8:33 AM, in article jason-2110050833220001@pm1-broad-103.snlo.dialup.fix.net, "Jason" <jason@nospam.com> wrote: > The question comes: how reliable are the studies done in the domain of >> medical science given its imprecise nature? Imprecise what? Kidney transplants Smallpox and other vaccines Hip replacements Cardiac catheterization MRI and CAT scans? What imprecise are you talking about ?? What do you think has been going on in the past 30 years? Any one of the above is like a miracle and I have named only a few. You call these products of an imprecise science?? > On 10/21/05 8:33 AM, in article > jason-2110050833220001@pm1-broad-103.snlo.dialup.fix.net, "Jason" [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > What imprecise are you talking about ?? The imprecision in knowing when to do all these fancy procedures, and what they'll get you for a particular patient (there's always some study, but how well does the patient in front of you match the patients who who were studied?) And what ARE you seeing in all these fancy tests? There is functional MRI data we didn't have 10 years ago. There are UBO (unexplained bright objects) in MRIs we could not even see 20 years ago. And 20 years ago there was stuff we couldn't see in the CTs of 10 years before that. What does it all mean? Bayes' theorem bites you in the butt all the time. What do bright spots along the VII and VIII cranial nerves mean on a highfield MRI of a patient with new-onset facial numbness, tics, vertigo, and tinnitus? Now, suppose this is a migraine patients and the symptoms disappear? Do you go digging through petrous bone? No, but you're glad the symptoms went away first or it could have been embarrasing. Now, what if the bright spots disappear, too? Wups. Could it be that sometimes doctors see what they expect to find? Suppose now your patient turns up with semi-Cushingoid symptoms which could be many other things. Standard cortisol levels and low dose dex tests are borderline. So his endo guy sends him to the fancy dynamic MRI pituitary scanner. And finds two masses 2 and 4 mm which are probably microadenomas. Now what do you do? You couldn't even see detail this fine not long ago. And you know 1 in 10 people has these with no Cushings. But only 1 person in 100,000 has Cushings. Hmmmm. Okay, time for a radiologist to do a CRH-stimulated invasive catheter inferior petrosal vein ACTH sampling! We're going to do it like Dr. House on TV, with no screwing up. Except there's no gold standard to check the results of this kind of thing, so you don't really know how specific and sensitive it is. And you wish you hadn't done the new MRI scan, because you don't know how to fit that into the other data. Not really. It's all way too new to have a database of a thousand patients with a thousand results of a particular chemical nature, who've had both tests and then been treated with surgery (or not) and followed. But meanwhile you have a patient who wants something done.... SBH > What do bright spots along the VII and VIII cranial nerves mean on a > highfield MRI of a patient with new-onset facial numbness, tics, > vertigo, and tinnitus? In most cases, it means infection by a tick. Just sayinzall. Susan On 10/22/05 2:06 PM, in article 1130015200.165752.77130@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, > What does it all mean? Bayes' theorem bites you in the butt all the > time. What does it all mean? Well for one thing we can pick up a brain tumor and treat it when its barely the size of a small pea. We can also treat a brain tumor without opening the skull And we can also restore hearing to a child born deaf or deaf from disease. Not bad for your "imprecise science". Its one thing to complain when the cup is 1/2 full. But complain when its 80% full because its not totally full --ugh. Jasons wrote:"someone done some research on this subject and determined that over 50 per cent of the medical studies are later determined to be false." Someday the American Medical Association will advise the tinnitus patients that *some* controlled studies done have indicated gingko and acupuncture to be useful for cutting down the intrusiveness of tinnitus and the cheer leaders in the ngs will begin to quote indiscriminately.
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