In Reply: Aminophylline Study: Not Enough Patients?

Abstract

In response to Dr Hornberger's inquiry about the power analysis of our study, patients excluded from the final statistical analysis were those who also required longer hospitalization rates, which raised the standard deviations for both groups considerably. These patients were removed from the study for either aminophylline toxicity or failure to respond to therapy. When the data for these cases were excluded, the standard deviation dropped to 0.82 and 0.53 for the aminophylline and placebo groups respectively, resulting in the relatively high power to detect a 1 day difference in hospitalization.