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ARTICLES: Erika W. Hagen, Mona Sadek-Badawi, David P. Carlton, and Mari Palta Permissive Hypercapnia and Risk for Brain Injury and Developmental Impairment Pediatrics 2008; 122: e583-e589 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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need some clarifications

Abeer J. Hani   (3 October 2008)

need some clarifications 3 October 2008
Abeer J. Hani, Pediatric Intern American University of Beirut Send letter to journal: Re: need some clarifications ah101{at}aub.edu.lb Abeer J. Hani	Dear all, I first want to salute you for the brave choice of venturing into this study given the enormous difficulties. I was hoping however you could please help me clarify the following issues: 1) what was the target sample size needed to establish statistical significane of the primary outcomes studied. 2) concerning the infant characterisitics table 2, we have no idea about the p-value of these characterisitics to determine whether they are statistically significant or not between the 2 or 3 studied groups? 3) what is the reason for choosing a logisitc regression for the first outcome and a linear regression for the second outcome? 4) At what point in time was IVH assessed for given that you only determined whether patient underwent permissive hypercapnia or not during the first 24 hours of life? 5) Was there any assocation between the respiratory strategy and the apgar score at 5 min? 6) concerning the prospective aspect of the study, i believe the study of the behavioral outcome at 2-3 years is actually prospective, but what about the first outcome (IVH with permissive hypercapnia)? was that not a retrospective study in that the applied respiratory strategy with possible subsequent IVH were determined in retrospect based on medical charts? I am sorry for my many questions, but I would be grateful if I could get an answer ASAP. Best regards, Abeer Hani Conflict of Interest: None declared