TY - JOUR T1 - ADverse events in patients receiving cholinesterase inhibitors due to dissimilar follow-up periods AU - Chan M Y1 - 2009/10/12 N1 - 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.347 JO - Archives of Internal Medicine SP - 1718 EP - 1725 VL - 169 IS - 18 N2 - It is interesting to note that while the incidence of hospital visits for syncope are comparatively higher in the cholinesterase inhibitor cohort (2.2% vs 1.5% in controls, see Table 3 in Gill et al1), the incidences for all other adverse outcomes are actually almost identical between cholinesterase inhibitor and control groups (hospital visits for bradycardia, 0.5% vs 0.4%; pacemaker insertions, 0.3% vs 0.3%; and hospitalizations for hip fractures, 1.6% vs 1.6%). The significant difference noted in the event rates and subsequent hazard ratios are therefore mainly influenced by the shorter follow-up periods reported for the cholinesterase inhibitor group (hospitalization due to hip fractures, mean follow-up times were 252 days and 302 days for the cholinesterase inhibitor and control cohorts, respectively.) Unfortunately, there was no clarification for this disparity in the article text. SN - 0003-9926 M3 - doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.347 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2009.347 ER -