A STRATEGY FOR ANALYZING MULTIPLE PARAMETERS WITH APPLICATION TO ANEURYSMAL SAH PATIENTS ALL OF THEM CLIPPED BUT TREATED WITH AND WITHOUT CYCLOSPORINE

The study evaluated the effectiveness of the combination of nimodipine and cyclosporine A vs nimodipine alone in the prevention of delayed n eurologic deficit in 82 (31 plus 51) patients in whom intracranial ane urysms were clipped within 72 h after subarachnoid haemorrhage. The te sts performed included examination of the neurological condition befor e and after operation, angiography of cerebral arteries to visualize v asospasm, and analysis of the distribution and amount of blood in the brain fluids and/or tissue according to Fisher's scale. Inclusion of c yclosporine A in the treatment was clearly beneficial for the neurolog ical condition. While cyclosporine A did not appear to produce a stati stically significant improvement as evaluated by the chi-square test, a positive result was obtained following analysis of the correlation c oefficients after Pearson in combination with the logistic log-linear regression analysis. The results argue against the utility of the chi- square test for verifying clinical data obtained in a limited number o f patients.