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"Can someone help me"
May 23, 2007 by Ed (not verified), 2 years 26 weeks ago
Comment id: 23750
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The authors combined the results from 42 different research studies, producing raw numbers more or less those which you give above (the denominators were different for the MI and death calculations). But when combining results from studies in which there are few events (the rate of MI was a little under 1%), one doesn't simply add the numerators and denominators, and then divide one ratio by the other. To cut a very long story short, the authors chose (and the New England Journal reviewers obviously agreed with the choice) a statistical method called Peto's method. See ssrc.tums.ac.ir/SystematicReview/Assets/meta-analysis-methods.ppt.
The acompanying editorial suggests that any flaws in the analysis would have, if anything, UNDERestimated the cardiac risk of Avandia.