General Tip for Reading and Understanding an Abstract:
An abstract is usually divided into seven sections. Start by reading the entire abstract quickly – highlight or note any important facts that are key points, such as the number of participants, overall effectiveness, etc. After a quick review go back and read it slowly and carefully. A natural inclination is to just read the conclusion section, but remember that a conclusion, at times, can be what the author wanted to prove and not necessarily the real facts.
The abstract below is from the Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Conference 2007. This particular abstract is about HCV-796 – a drug that is no longer in clinical development due to severe side effects.