November 27, 2013, Vol 310, No. 20, Pages 2121-2212

Baum and coauthors investigated the effectiveness and safety of micronutrient supplementation in delaying disease progression when implemented in the early stages of HIV disease in patients who are antiretroviral therapy naive. The study was conducted with daily supplements of multivitamins and selenium among 878 adults infected with HIV subtype C in Botswana.

In a randomized clinical trial of 56 Italian children with active Crohn disease, Lazzerini and coauthors evaluated the clinical response to thalidomide vs placebo, including measures of clinical remission and adverse events.

To test whether induced hypothermia improves outcome in severe bacterial meningitis, Mourvillier and coauthors assessed 130 patients in 49 intensive care units in France and 98 comatose adults (defined as having a Glasgow Coma Scale score of ≤8 for <12 hours) with community-acquired bacterial meningitis who received either cold saline or usual care.

Pasternak and coauthors investigate if oral fluoroquinolone use is associated with increased risk of retinal detachment among more than 6 million participants in Denmark. In an Editorial, Brett discusses how to glean important information from conflicting findings in observational research and apply them to practice.