Abstract
Letters17 March 2009How Much Did Biases in the Study of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Medications and Mortality Affect the Outcome?Todd A. Lee, PharmD, PhD, A. Simon Pickard, PhD, and David H. Au, MD, MSTodd A. Lee, PharmD, PhDFrom Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital, Hines, IL 60141; University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA 98174.Search for more papers by this author, A. Simon Pickard, PhDFrom Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital, Hines, IL 60141; University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA 98174.Search for more papers by this author, and David H. Au, MD, MSFrom Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital, Hines, IL 60141; University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA 98174.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-150-6-200903170-00020 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE:We thank the correspondents for their thoughtful comments. Drs. Suissa and Ernst raise 3 concerns about our article. First, to alleviate concerns that the observed risk for ipratropium and cardiovascular mortality was a result of an increased risk for exacerbations in the case patients, we conducted an analysis restricted to those without an exacerbation in the 180 days before their event date and found a level of risk (odds ratio, 1.45 [CI, 1.14 to 1.85]) similar to the results reported in the article. Second, unmeasured confounding and bias is a possible explanation for the discordant results between the ...
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call