PTCA and Random Effects Model

Oh reviewing... there is so much info, but it is all good...

Thought I would share these random definitions I came across in my studies:

One of the most common non-surgical treatment for opening obstructed coronary arteries is Percutanueous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA). The name itself says a lot about the procedure:

Percutaneous means access to the blood vessel is made through the skin

Transluminal means the procedure is performed within the blood vessel

C oronary specifies that the coronary artery is being treated

Angioplasty means "to reshape" the blood vessel (with balloon inflation)Also referred to as "balloon treatment" because special balloons are used to open up obstructed arteries, illustrated on the left, this procedure sometimes also involves the use of devices known as "stents" to help keep the arteries open.

Statistics has a lot of different ways to say practically the same thing and here is one of those fun terms:

Random effects model

This is a statistical model sometimes used in meta-analysis in which both within-study sampling error (variance) and between-studies variation are included in the assessment of the uncertainty (confidence interval) of the results of a meta-analysis.

If there is significant heterogeneity among the results of the included studies, random effects models will give wider confidence intervals than fixed effect models.

- I am fairly certain that this is expressed on a scale of 0-1 and the closer to 1.0 this figure is the less likely the study is to be random and more likely there is more confidence in that study...

There is also a pooled effect estimate... if you read through this Cochrane explanation of heterogeneity you will see the terms meshed together... we really need to have a more clear and concise set of terms!!!

I am assuming this won't be on the boards so, uh, yeah :-D
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