Network meta-analysis of antiplatelet treatments for secondary stroke prevention

Network meta-analysis is a fairly new method for assessing the relative effectiveness of two treatments when they have not been directly evaluated in a controlled randomized trial (CRT) but have each been compared with other treatments.1 It allows an estimation of the heterogeneous effect of any given treatment and for inconsistency in the evidence from different pairs of treatments.1 It has also been used to compare the efficacy of different therapies, such as the effect of antihypertensive drugs on health care outcomes2 and on the incidence of diabetes mellitus,3 of antithrombotic treatment on stroke prevention in non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation,4 and of drug-eluting and bare-metal stents on outcome.5 The efficacy of antiplatelet agents in … *Corresponding author. Tel: + 41 44 255 5686, Fax: + 41 44 255 8864, Email: ralf.baumgartner{at}usz.ch