D.I.C.E. therapy: an overview of the randomised trials

Sandercock P. A. G., Counsell C. E., Slattery J. and Clarke M. Counsell C.E., Western General Hospital, Edinburgh and CTSU, Oxford, UK.

Introduction

Meta-analyses are increasingly being used to assess the treatment effects. However, care is required in the interpretation of their results.

Objective

To demonstrate how purely chance effects can influence the results of meta-analyses to give results, which could have a major public impact.

Methods

Participants in the Edinburgh Stroke Course rolled dice to represent patients in the treatment and control groups of randomised trials. Whenever the dice showed a "six" a death was recorded. The results were combined in a meta-analysis and predefined and post hoc subgroup analyses performed. A random list of all the trials was produced and publication bias simulated by assuming the first 70% of positive trials and the first 40% of negative trials from this list were published.

Results/Discussion

Omitted at the request of the authors (to be distributed at meeting).