Figure 6.

Comparison of median disease durations (with error bars representing interquartile range) of PEG users and non-users from the meta-analysis. Disease durations of PEG users and non-users were recorded from published studies that found either significant or insignificant increase in disease duration correlated with PEG usage (see Table 2). Prior study results were combined with the present study’s results in order to determine the aggregate effect of PEG usage on survival duration. Fisher’s test results (see Methods) illustrate a significant aggregate effect that results in a positive associative survival benefit to ALS PEG users. For consistency, the disease duration for the meta-analysis is defined as time elapsed since patient-reported first symptom onset until recorded date of death.