%0 Journal Article
%T Meta-analysis of non-randomized studies in interventional cardiology: a critical appraisal
%A Eliano Pio Navarese
%A Alessandro Lupi
%A Antonino Buffon
%A Mara Sansa
%J Italian Journal of Public Health
%D 2009
%I 
%R 10.2427/5761
%X Utilisation of meta-analysis is becoming more and more common in interventional cardiology. The aim of this statistical approach is to collect a large number of patients from randomized clinical studies and nonrandomized registries in order to obtain a pooled estimate of the results. Nevertheless, simply pooling these results without a correct methodological approach can easily lead to biased conclusions. In this report we analyse the possible methodological drawbacks of such an approach and we suggest a simplified check-list of items to be considered in the effort of building-up a meta-analysis from non-randomized studies.
%K Meta-analysis
%K randomized controlled trials
%K non-randomized studies
%K mehodological drawbacks
%U http://ijphjournal.it/article/view/5761