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This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Alessandro Parolari Francesco Alamanni Paolo Biglioli Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Parolari, A. Articles by Biglioli, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Parolari, A. Articles by Biglioli, P. Related Collections Related Article

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Correspondence

Reply

Department of Cardiac Surgery, Unit for Clinical Research in Atherothrombosis, Centro Cardiologico Monzino IRCCS, University of Milano, Milan, 20138 Italy

(Email: aparolari{at}ccfm.it).

To the Editor:

In his letter, Dr Doi [1] discusses some methodological issues concerning the meta-analysis that was published in our article [2], addressing the problem of graft patency in on-pump and off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery [2]. Our analysis showed that the risk of graft occlusion was sensibly higher when an off-pump strategy was chosen, being that the odds of graft occlusion were 50% and 65% higher when a fixed effects model or a random effects model was chosen, respectively [2]. This analysis was performed after the Cochrane guidelines available at that tine [3].

Now, Doi [1] raises questions about the validity and precision of our analysis. Yet he obtained a very similar result (80% odds increase) by his re-analysis of the data, which was done using new meta-analysis software that was subsequently available starting October 2006 [4].

We really do not see a great difference at all in the clinical significance of these different analyses. Both show that there is definitely an increased risk of postoperative graft occlusion after off-pump coronary bypass surgery. We thank Dr Doi [1] who, with his new analysis, totally confirmed our previous findings.

	References

Top References

 

1. Doi SAR. Modelling methodologic quality into meta-analyses and pitfalls of not doing this(letter) Ann Thorac Surg 2009;87:985-986.[Free Full Text]
2. Parolari A, Alamanni F, Polvani G, et al. Meta-analysis of randomized trials comparing off-pump with on-pump coronary artery bypass graft patency Ann Thorac Surg 2005;80:2121-2125.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. In: Higgins JPT, Green S, editors. Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions 4.2.5. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2005[updated May 2005]. In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3.
4. Bax L, Yu LM, Ikeda N, Tsuruta H, Moons KG. Development and validation of MIX: comprehensive free software for meta-analysis of causal research data BMC Med Res Methodol 2006;6:50.[Medline]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Alessandro Parolari Francesco Alamanni Paolo Biglioli Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Parolari, A. Articles by Biglioli, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Parolari, A. Articles by Biglioli, P. Related Collections Related Article