Deciding who should have thrombolysis

doi:10.1136/bmj.308.6920.59a

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

J Rawles

Medicines Assessment Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2ZD.

EDITOR - K S Channer1 and other correspondents2 seem to misunderstand the results of clinical trials of thrombolytic agents. In 17 000 patients in the second international study of infarct survival (ISIS-2) the odds of dying were reduced by 25% by streptokinase compared with placebo (figure).3 With such large numbers the confidence intervals, which indicate where the “true” result is to be found with 95% certainty, are narrow.

Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for death within 35 days after …