You are here

Responses

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Original article
Corticosteroids for the prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in preterm infants: a network meta-analysis
Compose a Response to This Article
Compose Response

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests

PLEASE NOTE:

  • A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in a BMJ journal; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed unless it is also republished as a Letter, Correspondence or as other content. Find out more about rapid responses.
  • We intend to post all responses which are approved by the Editor, within 14 days (BMJ Journals) or 24 hours (The BMJ), however timeframes cannot be guaranteed. Responses must comply with our requirements and should contribute substantially to the topic, but it is at our absolute discretion whether we publish a response, and we reserve the right to edit or remove responses before and after publication and also republish some or all in other BMJ publications, including third party local editions in other countries and languages
  • Our requirements are stated in our rapid response terms and conditions and must be read. These include ensuring that: i) you do not include any illustrative content including tables and graphs, ii) you do not include any information that includes specifics about any patients,iii) you do not include any original data, unless it has already been published in a peer reviewed journal and you have included a reference, iv) your response is lawful, not defamatory, original and accurate, v) you declare any competing interests, vi) you understand that your name and other personal details set out in our rapid response terms and conditions will be published with any responses we publish and vii) you understand that once a response is published, we may continue to publish your response and/or edit or remove it in the future.
  • By submitting this rapid response you are agreeing to our terms and conditions for rapid responses and understand that your personal data will be processed in accordance with those terms and our privacy notice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

Other responses

Jump to comment:

  • Published on: 11 June 2019
    Methodology concerns about a network meta-analysis
    • Yan-Jin Liu, Dr The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
    • Other Contributors:
      • Bing-Kun Zheng, Neonatology Fellow

    Dear Editor,
    We read with great interest the network meta-analysis performed by Zeng et al [1]. The authors investigated the comparative efficacy and safety of different corticosteroids in the prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in preterm infants. They included 47 RCTs with 6747 participants. We have several concerns about the study.
    First, it looks that the authors are unfamiliar with the procedures of network meta-analysis because there were obvious mistakes. Figure 1 in the study was network plot of different corticosteroids. In Figure 1, the circle size should be proportional to the sample size randomised to each intervention [2]. The line width should be proportional to the study numbers of each direct comparison. However, the circle size was not proportional to the sample size in Figure 1. The line width between dexamethasone (high dose) and placebo also seems inadequate.
    Second, various statistical methods or plots have been suggested to assist interpreting the results of network meta-analysis [3]. However, many of them were not performed or presented in this study. For example, since there were direct estimates (i.e., results of pairwise meta-analysis) and indirect estimates (i.e., results of network meta-analysis), the inconsistency between them should be assessed and explored because important inconsistency could threaten the validity of the results. Besides, the authors also didn’t assess small-study effects. Small-study effects could mat...

    Show More
    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.