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Comment & Response
February 2017

Arteriography for Lower Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage: Clarity Needed in Defining Evidence Supporting Algorithm and Preceding Tests

Author Affiliations
  • 1Departments of Radiology and Medicine, Penn State Milson S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
JAMA Surg. 2017;152(2):209. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2016.4250

To the Editor Jacovides et al1 describe an “evidence-based” algorithm for the management of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage (LGIH) and compare computed tomographic angiograms (CTAs) with nuclear bleeding scans (NBSs). In an Invited Commentary, Lightner and Russell write that “Jacovides and colleagues sought to evaluate the implementation of a new evidence-based protocol.”2(p657) However, the article1 and the supplemental material failed to reveal support for labeling the algorithm “evidence-based.” In a peer-reviewed scientific article, readers should not have to take the authors’ word for it. The authors should provide a description of the actual evidence (including the literature search keywords, criteria for references selection, and methods used to analyze and grade the evidence) collected at the conception of this algorithm.

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