To the Editor,
We appreciate you and the author(s) who accurately read and criticized our article entitled “Preoperative oral pentoxifylline in case of coronary artery bypass grafting with left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction equal to/less than 30%)” published in Anatol J Cardiol 2014 Dec 31 (1). The gold standard of clinical research is a randomized controlled trial (2). We considered all rules and laws of allocation sequences in randomized trials. The levels of cytokines have been evaluated by laboratory-trained personnel using the same type of laboratory kit.
As you noticed, the study sample, a group of high-risk patients, may be one of the reasons for the higher level of cytokines before surgery. Also, we mentioned in our article that some novel results have been obtained that should be confirmed in further studies (1).
References
- 1.Mansourian S, Bina PP, Fehri A, Karimi AA, Boroumand MA, Abbasi K. Preoperative oral pentoxifylline in case of coronary artery bypass grafting with left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction equal to/less than 30%) Anatol J Cardiol. 2014 Dec 31; doi: 10.5152/akd.2014.5883. Epub ahead of print. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Schulz KF, Grimes DA. Generation of allocation sequences in randomised trials: chance, not choice. Lancet. 2002;359:515–9. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)07683-3. [CrossRef] [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]