Registries in cardiovascular medicine in general, and within interventional cardiology in particular, have gained more attention in medical journals over the past few years. By consecutive enrolment of complete patient populations, the methodology is a powerful tool for describing healthcare, including the complications and benefits of different therapies. However, it is very important to be cautious in the interpretation of the comparison of outcomes between different treatment alternatives in observational studies and always consider them non-definitive and hypothesis generating. In order to avoid selection bias, randomisation of patients may be included within a clinical registry, combining some of the most important features of a prospective randomised trial with the key strengths of a large scale clinical registry. Thereby prospective use of quality registries could potentially revolutionise clinical trials by the fast inclusion of large patient numbers, focus on hard endpoints and complete follow-up, and at a fraction of the...... via BMJ Heart
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