Wong, John B.

ObjectiveBecause the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) practice guidelines affect the United States' and international treatment practice, we used the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument to characterize the quality of the guidelines and to identify potential areas for improvement.MethodsUsing the six quality domains in the AGREE II online tool, four reviewers assessed the practice guidelines available at the ACR website and the immediately previous version to summarize the domain scores for each guideline and examine trends over time.ResultsAs of April 2016, the ACR website listed nine guidelines, four with immediate previous versions. Based on AGREE II, the minimum and maximum for each domain (with higher being better) of the current guidelines were 78‐99 for Scope and Purpose, 57‐99 for Stakeholder Involvement, 87‐ 96 for Rigor of the Methodology, 83‐99 for Clarity of Presentation, 49‐78 for Applicability, 69‐85 for Editorial Independence, and 71‐96 overall. Over time, although the average domain quality of the guidelines improved for all, the Applicability and Editorial Independence domains had the least amount of improvement. For the four guidelines with previous versions, the mean (SD) absolute improvements for each domain were 18 (±11) for Scope and Purpose, 13 (±8) for Stakeholder Involvement, 38 (±22) for Rigor of the Methodology, 25 (±15) for Clarity of Presentation, 22 (±12) for Applicability, 24 (±17) for Editorial Independence, and 31 (±5) overall.ConclusionBased on the AGREE II instrument, the ACR guidelines have achieved high quality over the past 16 years. The Applicability and Editorial Independence domains have the greatest potential for future improvement.

Most individuals with chronic hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection acquired the infection around the time of birth or during early childhood. We aimed to synthesize evidence regarding the effectiveness of antiviral therapy in the management of chronic HBV infection in children. We conducted a comprehensive search of multiple databases from 1988 to December 2, 2014, for studies that enrolled children (<18 years) with chronic HBV infection treated with antiviral therapy. We included observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Two independent reviewers selected studies and extracted data. In the 14 included studies, two cohort studies showed no significant reduction in the already low risk of hepatocellular carcinoma or cirrhosis and 12 RCTs reported intermediate outcomes. In RCTs with posttreatment follow‐up <12 months, antiviral therapy compared to placebo improved alanine aminotransferase normalization (risk ratio [RR] = 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.7‐3.2), hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) clearance/loss (RR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.5‐3.1), HBV DNA suppression (RR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.8‐4.6), HBeAg seroconversion (RR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.4‐3.3), and hepatitis B surface antigen clearance (RR = 5.8, 95% CI 1.1‐31.5). In RCTs with posttreatment follow‐up ≥12 months, antiviral therapy improved cumulative HBeAg clearance/loss (RR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.7‐3.1), HBeAg seroconversion (RR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.3‐3.5), alanine aminotransferase normalization (RR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.1‐1.7), and HBV DNA suppression (RR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.1‐1.8) but not hepatitis B surface antigen clearance or seroconversion. Conclusion: In children with chronic HBV infection, antivirals compared to no antiviral therapy improve HBV DNA suppression and frequency of alanine aminotransferase normalization and HBeAg seroconversion. (Hepatology 2016;63:307–318)