title: Clinical study of the Erlanger silver catheter--data management and biometry.
abstract: The clinical evaluation of venous catheters for catheter-induced infections must conform to a strict biometric methodology. The statistical planning of the study (target population, design, degree of blinding), data management (database design, definition of variables, coding), quality assurance (data inspection at several levels) and the biometric evaluation of the Erlanger silver catheter project are described. The three-step data flow included: 1) primary data from the hospital, 2) relational database, 3) files accessible for statistical evaluation. Two different statistical models were compared: analyzing the first catheter only of a patient in the analysis (independent data) and analyzing several catheters from the same patient (dependent data) by means of the generalized estimating equations (GEE) method. The main result of the study was based on the comparison of both statistical models.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Statistik und Dokumentation, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martus
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Geis
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lugauer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Böswald
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Guggenbichler
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002405:Catheterization, Central Venous / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000295:instrumentation; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D011786:Quality Control; D012834:Silver / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D012834:Silver