Where Have All the Rodents Gone? The Effects of Attrition in Experimental Research on Cancer and Stroke.
Where Have All the Rodents Gone? The Effects of Attrition in Experimental Research on Cancer and Stroke.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pbio.1002331
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发表时间：
2016-01
期刊：
影响因子：
9.8
通讯作者：
Dirnagl U
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Holman C;Piper SK;Grittner U;Diamantaras AA;Kimmelman J;Siegerink B;Dirnagl U
由于样本量较小，临床前实验中动物的损失可能会极大地改变结果。然而，磨损对结果失真的影响尚不清楚。我们使用模拟研究来分析随机和有偏见的流失的影响。正如预期的那样，样本的随机丢失降低了统计功效，但有偏差的去除（包括异常值的去除）却大大增加了假阳性结果的可能性。接下来，我们对中风和癌症的动物报告和自然消耗进行了荟萃分析。大多数论文没有充分报告磨损，并且从模拟数据的结果推断，我们认为它们的效应大小可能被高估了。本文结合对中风和癌症研究的模拟和荟萃分析，强调了在临床前研究中未能报告动物损失的潜在严重误导性后果。
Given small sample sizes, loss of animals in preclinical experiments can dramatically alter results. However, effects of attrition on distortion of results are unknown. We used a simulation study to analyze the effects of random and biased attrition. As expected, random loss of samples decreased statistical power, but biased removal, including that of outliers, dramatically increased probability of false positive results. Next, we performed a meta-analysis of animal reporting and attrition in stroke and cancer. Most papers did not adequately report attrition, and extrapolating from the results of the simulation data, we suggest that their effect sizes were likely overestimated. Using a combination of simulation and meta-analysis of stroke and cancer studies, this article highlights the potentially seriously misleading consequences of failing to report the loss of animals in preclinical studies.