In infants born at 29 to 32 weeks’ gestation, Farber et al1 conclude that palivizumab dispensing reduces respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-diagnosed hospitalizations but increases hospitalizations due to bronchiolitis without RSV diagnosis. I disagree with the interpretation of study results provided by the authors. By using data reported in Table 2 and Table 5 of the article, I prepared a new table (Table 1). In Table 1, I have collapsed “no palivizumab” and “1–25% eligible doses dispensed” groups into a single category because they did not substantially differ in the frequency of RSV-diagnosed and RSV-undiagnosed admissions. The total, observed admissions (with and without RSV diagnosis) according to palivizumab dispensing are reported in the second column. If no or low (1%–25%) palivizumab eligible dosages were adopted in all infants, we would observe the same frequency of RSV-diagnosed hospitalizations (ie, 5.14%) throughout all infant groups. As a consequence, the total...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
January 2017
Letters to the Editor|
January 01 2017
Alternative Explanation of the Results
Giovanni Tripepi, MSc, PhD, CNR-IFC
Senior Researcher, Biostatistician/Epidemiologist, Institute of Clinical Physiology of Reggio Calabria, Italy
E-mail: gtripepi@ifc.cnr.it
Search for other works by this author on:
E-mail: gtripepi@ifc.cnr.it
Conflict of Interest: Dr Tripepi has received honoraria from Abbvie and Biotest.
Pediatrics (2017) 139 (1): e20163483A.
Article history
Accepted:
October 19 2016
Citation
Giovanni Tripepi; Alternative Explanation of the Results. Pediatrics January 2017; 139 (1): e20163483A. 10.1542/peds.2016-3483A
Download citation file:
0 Comments
Comments Icon
Comments (0)
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Pay-Per-View Access
$25.00
14
Views
0
Citations