Identifying patients who may benefit from treatment

The current issue of our journal includes several studies on left ventricular function and heart failure. In heart diseases, investigating whether a new treatment method or drug is effective requires large randomized trials. Once the effectiveness of a method or drug has been adequately demonstrated through large studies, it will usually receive approval. The patients included in studies used for drug approval may have a wide range of characteristics. In this context, a new method or drug may be more effective in certain patient groups, and less so in other groups. It is evident that identifying the patients who will or will not benefit from a new treatment method is important. Subgroup analyses are performed to determine the patient groups who will benefit from a treatment. However, the power of a study may sometimes be insufficient to properly evaluate treatment effectiveness or lack of effectiveness in different subgroups, and if subgroup analysis is performed under such circumstances, the results will most likely be unreliable.