Toward vital status sweeps: a case history in sequential monitoring.
We use data from the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) to demonstrate the sensitivity of sequential monitoring to the timeliness of survival data. In CAST vital status sweeps were not routinely performed prior to the times of sequential analysis. Examination of the delay between death and reporting of death shows that the change in the time of sequential analysis by even as few as several months can have dramatic impact on the results of the sequential analysis.
Clinical Trial Center, University of Washington, Seattle 98105, USA.
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Hallstrom
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McBride
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Moore
D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015982:Bias; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012306:Risk; D016019:Survival Analysis
D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents