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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2006;29:63-64
© 2006 Elsevier Science NL

Editorial comment

Divisione di Cardiochirurgia, Policlinico San Donato, Via Morandi 30, 2007 San Donato, Milano, Italy

^_* Tel.: +39 02 5277 4521; fax: +39 02 5277 4327. (Email: menicanti@libero.it).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

The article entitled ‘The Italian CABG Outcome Study: short-term outcomes in patients with coronary artery bypass graft surgery’ deals with the first Italian National Survey of CABG outcome and represents a very important step in the management of the public health in our country. The authors applied an elegant statistical analysis on outcome, but unfortunately they published the results too early because the data generating the statistical model are not completely realistic. There are such biases in the analysis that make the elegant statistical model totally useless. I wish to make the following comments:

(A) The study was voluntary and the participating centres were asked to present data covering at least 6 months of observation. We know from the literature that a good and reliable representative period of observation should last more than 2 years!
The period of observation was established from January 2002 through 30th September 2004, and each centre was free to choose the period, according to the preference of participants, therefore the range of the observational period was extremely wide (6–29 months). . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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				F. Seccareccia, C. A. Perucci, D. Fusco, and P. D'Errigo Reply to hekmat et Al. Eur. J. Cardiothorac. Surg., May 1, 2006; 29(5): 857 - 858. [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. A. Menicanti Reply to seccareccia et Al. Eur. J. Cardiothorac. Surg., May 1, 2006; 29(5): 859 - 860. [Full Text] [PDF]

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