Full data are shown in Table 2. Adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios comparing each arm with the best and worst arms (AQ+AS and SP respectively) are shown in Table 3. Relative risks are also shown for comparison with trials which do not use OR.
A restricted region of left posterior STG responds preferentially to trials containing a phonetic change (DEV) in comparison with trials containing no phonetic change (STD), as shown in Figure 2.
In a review of RCTs published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery [American Volume] between 1988 and 2000, it was demonstrated that drug trials more often reported being double-blinded in comparison with trials of surgical intervention.
The fact that our patient population was a selected one (either active or control; the macroscopically disease free status; good clinical conditions) enhances the overall clarity of the present study because it simplifies the interpretation of the data and facilitates the comparison with trials involving different therapeutical approaches.
Although we recognise that our assessment of chemotherapy within observational population-based data cannot be used to directly assess effectiveness, comparisons with trial data are valuable.
We recommend analysing all primary and secondary outcome comparisons with trial sequential analysis [ 25, 26, 47, 54] or another valid sequential method [ 25, 26, 53].
In each trial the patients are randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group, and conventional analysis using weighted trial effects preserves the benefit of randomisation by considering the patients in each trial only in comparison with that trial's controls.
These simple effects analyses revealed that at both lags, performance accuracy was significantly better on threat trials in comparison with neutral trials (lag 2: p <.001; lag 3: p <.01) and also in comparison with positive trials (lag 2: p <.05; lag 3: p <.01).
Few very small infants were enrolled in these trials and most used a combination of premedication, which makes comparison with our trial difficult.
However, direct comparison with other trial data provide only limited information due to differing study designs.
