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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Oct 19.
Published in final edited form as: Crit Care Med. 2008 Mar;36(3):706–714. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0B013E3181544248

Figure 3. Scatterplot of probabilistic analyses comparing incremental costs and effects.

Figure 3

These scatterplots graph the results of 1,000 simulations during which important clinical variables were allowed to vary simultaneously within predefined distributions (see Methods). The x axis represents the incremental difference in mechanical ventilator-free days by group (propofol – lorazepam in Graph A, midazolam – lorazepam in Graph B, and propofol – midazolam in Graph C). The y axis represents incremental costs calculated in a similar fashion. The clustering of simulation results in the lower right quadrant in Graphs A and B demonstrates the comparative dominance of propofol and midazolam over lorazepam. The clustering of analyses at the intersection of the axes in Graph C suggests that there is little evidence that clinically or economically important differences exist between propofol and midazolam.