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European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on November 15, 2006
European Heart Journal 2006 27(23):2744-2745; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehl372
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© The European Society of Cardiology 2006. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The meta-analysis: supportive or illuminating?

Peter R. Kowey1,2,* and Gan-Xin Yan1,2

1 Main Line Health Heart Center, Wynnewood, PA 19096, USA
2 Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA

* Corresponding author: Suite 558, Medical Office Building East, 100 Lancaster Avenue, Wynnewood, PA 19096, USA. Tel: +1 610 645 2682; fax: +1 610 896 0643. E-mail address: koweypr@mlhheart.org

This editorial refers to ‘Interventions for prevention of post-operative atrial fibrillation and its complications after cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis’{dagger} by D.C. Burgess et al., on page 2846

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Many of us use statistical methods like an unsteady person might use a lamppost—more for support (of our pre-conceived notions) than for illumination. After all, Yogi Bera once said, ‘If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't have seen it.’ So it is easy to scoff at some of the flimsy constructs our colleagues have brought forward to ‘illuminate’ important issues that have not been answered by definitive trial data.

In no case has the derision reached as high a level as with the meta-analysis, an attempt to compile data from small trials to answer important clinical questions. Though there may be good scientific rationale for . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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Related articles in EHJ:

Interventions for prevention of post-operative atrial fibrillation and its complications after cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis
David C. Burgess, Michael J. Kilborn, and Anthony C. Keech
EHJ 2006 27: 2846-2857. [Abstract] [FREE Full Text]