Extract
In their letter to the Editor, M.S. Zinter and G-S. Cheng raise concerns about the conclusion of our study that immunocompromised patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure who undergo fibreoptic bronchoscopy have inferior survival relative to those who do not undergo fibreoptic bronchoscopy. They offer an alternative explanation to our findings by emphasising the role of the time-varying nature of the bronchoscopy as well as the time-varying nature of other covariates, including illness severity leading up to bronchoscopy, when performing the propensity score matching.
Abstract
The decision-making process regarding whether to perform bronchoscopy in acute respiratory failure in immunosuppressed patients is complex and does not depend solely on severity http://bit.ly/2O9cjcq
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: P.R. Bauer has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: S. Chevret has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: E. Azoulay reports personal fees for lectures and travel support from Gilead, personal fees for lectures from Baxter, personal fees for lectures and non-financial support from Alexion, grants from Ablynx and MSD, and devices for research from Fisher and Paykel, outside the submitted work.
- Received November 8, 2019.
- Accepted November 10, 2019.
- Copyright ©ERS 2019