Materials and Methods
This section is meant for description of design of your study, the complete methodology, how the data was accumulated and finally how the analysis was done. You should always keep in mind that it should be thorough to the extent that it is reproducible by another investigator. Try to pen down this section early so that you can pick up any methodological flaw in your study and hence can correct them before hand.
A good way to start this section would be to mention the design of your study. Mention whether it is a treatment study or an observational study. Treatment studies could be randomized or non randomized. Again randomized studies could be double blinded or single blinded. Mention which type your study fits in. Describe the method of randomization, if done.
The name of the institute and the department in which the study was carried out should be stated. It is better to mention in what type of institute you have carried your work --- It is important because this gives an idea about the patient population from which the recruitment was done. Patient profile from a tertiary care institute will see much more end stage diseases whether cases from other institutes are likely to have much more fresh cases. Though we can never generalize like this but some times this holds true.
Next patient population should be described (opd based study/in patient analysis)
Ethical consideration holds immense importance in present day. It is of paramount importance in prospective studies. Before starting your study get a consent form printed and approved by your institutions ethics committee. Explain clearly the whole purpose of the study to every patient before enrolling him. Finally mention your ethics committee and patients consent in this section. At times you may be asked to submit the patient consent form and ethics committee approval. Be prepared at all times.
Mention the inclusion and the exclusion criteria
- Explain the reason for including and excluding patients. Now this is pretty important because here the reader gets an idea behind the logic of patient selection in your study.
- Enumerate all the procedures that the patients underwent when he was enrolled like BCVA, Applanation, Color vision, Slit lamp, Fundus…….
- Mention details like … BCVA (Snellen/ETDRS), Color vision (Isihara/FM 100), Slit lamp (illumination), Fundus (IO/78D/90D)
- State the investigations patient underwent and the reasons for performing the investigation. (..like ultrasound for opaque media)
- If your study involves primarily investigational modality mention the complete details like if your study is on ERG mention … Commercial name of the equipment, software used and settings for recording like time for dark adaptation etc.
- If any medication was used mention the generic name and the complete dose like prednisolone (1mg/kg/bwt).
- Mention the follow up visits, number of visits, what parameters were assessed in follow up visits.
- Clearly define a anatomical outcome (like retina attached , media clear , no glaucoma ….in final outcome of endophthalmitis cases)
- Similarly define functional outcome like Vn > 3/60
- Statistics: Mention the test used, software used like SPSS, which version, p value.
