Network plots can clearly present the relationships among the direct comparisons of various interventions in a network meta-analysis. Currently, there are some methods of drawing network plots. However, the information provided by a network plot and the interface-friendly degree to a user differ in the kinds of software. This article briefly introduces how to draw network plots using the network package and gemtc package that base on R Software, Stata software, and ADDIS software, and it also compares the similarities and differences among them.
The WinBUGS software can be called from either R (provided R2WinBUGS as an R package) or Stata software for network meta-analysis. Unlike R, Stata software needs to create relevant ADO scripts at first which simplify operation process greatly. Similar with R, Stata software also needs to load another package when drawing network plots. This article briefly introduces how to implement network meta-analysis using Stata software by calling WinBUGS software.
Objective To explore the mechanism of pulmonary hypoplasia in case of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), and study the ultramicrostructural features of lung tissue of CDH fetal rat models at different developmental stages. Methods Seven SpragueDawley (SD) pregnant rats were randomly divided into CDH group (n=4) and control group (n=3). For the rats in the CDH group, Nitrofen was used to fill in the stomach once at day 9.5 of pregnancy (125 mg of Nitrofen dissolved in 2 ml of olive oil each), and 3, 10, 17 fetal rats were collected at day 16, 18 and 21 of pregnancy respectively. For the rats in the control group, 2 ml of olive oil was used to fill in the stomach, and 10 fetal rats were collected at day 16, 18, and 21 of pregnancy respectively. The lung tissue sections of the fetal rats collected on day 16 were observed under transmission electron microscope (TEM). For the lung tissue of the fetal rats collected on day 18, hematoxylineosin (HE) staining and TEM observation were performed and the incident of CDH was detected. Besides the procedures carried out for the rats collected on day 18, the ratio of fetal lung to body weight was observed for the lung tissue of the fetal rats collected on day 21. Results (1) The ratio of fetal lung to body weight of fetal rats in the CDH group was significantly lower than that of fetal rats in the control group (0.0238 vs. 0.0430, Plt;0.01). The incidences of CDH in the 18thday and 21stday fetal rats in the CDH group were 90.00% and 82.35%respectively, while no CDH was observed in the corresponding fetal rats in the control group, suggesting pulmonary hypoplasia in the CDH group. (2) The ultramicrostructural observation showed that compared with the control group, pulmonary hypoplasia appeared in 16thday fetal lungs in the CDH group, i.e., broad breathing barrier substrate, little contents, predominant euchromatin and rich ribosomes in the alveolar epithelial cells, and no microvilli in the bronchial lumen. The observation on the 18thday and 21stday samples suggested that, with the progressing of pregnancy, the abovementioned features became more obvious. (3) Typical lamellated body was observed in fetal lung type Ⅱ alveolar epithelial cells from the 21stday fetuses in both the CDH group and the control group, suggesting that some late subcellular structures were normal. Conclusion Lung hypoplasia develops in the early period of fetal rats with CDH rather than in the late period, implying that the treatment of pulmonary hypoplasia of diaphragmatic hernia should be performed in the early stage of lung development.
Dose-response meta-analysis, as a subset of meta-analysis, plays an important role in dealing with the relationship between exposure level and risk of diseases. Traditional models limited in linear regression between the independent variables and the dependent variable. With the development of methodology and functional model, Nonlinear regression method was applied to dose-response meta-analysis, such as restricted cubic spline regression, quadratic B-spline regression. However, in these methods, the term and order of the independent variables have been assigned that may not suit for any trend distribution and it may lead to over fitting. Flexible fraction polynomial regression is a good method to solve this problem, which modelling a flexible fraction polynomial and choosing the best fitting model by using the likelihood-ratio test for a more accurate evaluation. In this article, we will discuss how to conduct a dose-response meta-analysis by flexible fraction polynomial.
when we conducted a meta-analysis, it is often an annoying thing to deal with the data of discrete exposure and multiple outcomes. Conventional "high VS low" approach abandoned the information of middle category, and led to the loss of statistical power. In this paper, we introduced a method and software to combine the groups of discrete exposure and multiple outcomes in the meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Firstly, we introduced the transforming and combination theory and method, and then, we conducted the combination using EXCEL macro software. The result was consistent with the results of the original data in the combination of discrete exposure and multiple outcome data. Therefore, in the case of the original research data cannot be acquired, EXCEL macro software can be a good solution.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the clinical and genetic features of permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus (PNDM) case reports. MethodsThe PubMed, Embase, Scopus, SinoMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Medrxiv, VIP, CNKI and WanFang Data databases were electronically searched to collect PNDM case reports from inception to June 2023. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the reporting quality of the included studies. Descriptive analysis was performed. ResultsA total of 105 case reports were finally included. Typical clinical manifestations of PNDM were early onset of persistent hyperglycemia, developmental delay and low birth weight. The results of genetic testing showed that mutations in the KCNJ11, INS, EIF2AK3, GCK, ABCC8, PTF1A, GATA6, IER3IP1, SLC19A2, NEUROG3, PDX1, and 6q24 genes were closely associated with the development of PNDM. In addition, there may be different clinical manifestations and prognosis of PNDM in different genotypes. ConclusionThis study reveales the clinical characteristics and genetic pattern of PNDM, and provides a direction for further research on the mechanism of PNDM.
The key for performing meta-analysis using WinBUGS software is to construct a model of Bayesian statistics. The hand-written code model and Doodle model are two major methods for constructing it. The approach of hand-written code is flexible and convenient, but the language programming is fallibility. The Doodle is complicated, but it is benefit to understand the structure of hand-written code model and prevent error. This article briefly describes how to construct the Doodle model for binary and continuous data of head to head meta-analysis, indirect comparison and network meta-analysis, and ordinal variables meta-analysis.