The idea is to evaluate the effects of different treatments on bone healing in animals but studies were realized on several animal models. Can I compare the outcome (i.e. Bone bridging or Bone volume percentage) even if they are measured on different animals?
Hello there,
The use of systematic review and meta-analysis of preclinical studies has become more common. Empirical evidence suggests that too many preclinical experiments lack methodological rigor, and this leads to inflated treatment effects.
Animal models are invaluable tools for enriching our understanding of the mechanisms and etiology of human diseases. The number of preclinical experiments performed each year continues to increase and our understanding of disease mechanisms is improving, but the number of novel interventions reaching the clinic to treat diseases continues to fall. It is clear that there are limitations to the translational paradigm as it currently exists. It is also clear from the sheer volume of preclinical research that structured methods are required to make objective sense of the available data. Systematic review and meta-analysis are useful tools which can address some, but not all, of the challenges of translational research. They provide a less biased summary of research findings and allow judgement of both the range of available evidence (and hence the external validity) and the likelihood that conclusions are at risk of bias (the internal validity).
Systematic review sets out to use a structured process to identify all data relevant to a specific research question. This may be followed by meta-analysis, a statistical process that provides a summary estimate of the outcomes from a group of studies, and allows these outcomes from different groups of studies to be compared.
Hope this helps
Regards
Sra. Fernandez,
While quite difficult, I would think that a meta-analysis would be possible if the experimental treatment and methodology are similar across species. There are numerous examples in the literature, often written to point out the variability in preclinical animal studies.
Good luck!
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