BACKGROUND: The quality of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) is defined as the likelihood of a planned study to generate unbiased results and approach the therapeutic reality. OBJECTIVE: To determine the quality of the RCT published as original articles in the Jornal Vascular Brasileiro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study based on electronic search of original articles published in Jornal Vascular Brasileiro between December 2004 and September 2009, which had characteristics of RCT. Primary variable: Quality of RCT; secondary variables: submission to the Ethics in Research Committee (ERC), use of the informed consent form (IC), description of the research funding source, sample size calculation, statistical test, significance level in research, descriptive statistics, description of the confidence interval (CI) and allocation concealment. Additional data: number of authors, place and type of study. Descriptive statistics were used, as well as sample size calculation and the 95% CI. RESULTS: Out of the 114 original articles, 1 was classified as RCT and was considered as good quality. Out of the total number of articles, 51 were submitted to the ERC, IC was used in 41, there was description of the grant in 6, and the sample size was calculated in 5. The sample revealed trimodal distribution of the number of authors per article (4, 5, 6), appearing in 20 articles each of the respective values of mode. The state of São Paulo contributed to 48 publications. Chi-square test was the most frequently used statistical method (38.7%), the significance level of 5% was adopted in 54 articles, descriptive statistics were used in 90 and CI was reported in18 articles. CONCLUSION: It was not possible to determine the quality of RCT in the Jornal Vascular Brasileiro, because only one good quality trial was found
Randomized controlled trials as topic; publications; journal article; evidence-based medicine; vascular surgical procedures
