The conclusions drawn here apply to high TB and HIV burden settings and, for the sake of external validity, require confirmation in other settings.
The strengths of this study include the relatively large sample size, strict matching for area of residence to avoid possibility of confounding by region, verification of the reliability and validity of questionnaires, histologic confirmation of all case diagnoses, and appropriate sensitivity analyses.
Some well-known methods for matrix updating serve as an additional instrumental confirmation to validity of homothetic paradigm.
Convergent construct validity was indicated by confirmation of the hypotheses of strong correlations between DEMMI scores, as a measure of mobility, and scores of other mobility related outcome measures.
Quality control measures included several independent systems: confirmation of validity of the entered data by the reporting team, selective comparison of the survey data with MED-A data sets in the EBMT Registry database and cross-checking with the National Registries.
Overall data validity was supported by confirmation of established risk and protective factors (e.g., current breast-feeding, presence of other children in the household, low maternal education, child's sex, and ETS exposure) (Koch et al. 2003; Pino et al. 2004).
Quality control measures included several independent systems: confirmation of validity of the entered data by the reporting team, selective comparison of the survey data with MED-A data sets in the EBMT Registry database, cross-checking with the National Registries and onsite visits of selected teams.
To confirm the validity of the microarray results, qRT-PCR confirmation was undertaken for 11 putative differentially expressed genes (Table 1).
Among the 7 biomarkers associated to both HZB and successful pregnancy reported previously, 5 genes (out of 7) were also significantly different between the two groups studied (ZGP versus the ZBNP) (i.e. 71.4 % of biomarkers confirmed), which is a further quantitative confirmation of the validity of our biomarkers on separate biological samples.
Pathways common to both sets of candidate genes represent a confirmation of the validity and robustness of the results obtained in the first pathway analysis and regarding the hypothesis of connection between CO and cardiomyopathy, in NS.
