Goding & Bierbaum, 1999. Otolaryngol.Head Neck Surg.

My first real post, and it may come with lots of updates, so please be patient.

Paper: G. S. Goding, Jr. and R. W. Bierbaum. Relationship of the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle to the posterior cricoid lamina. Otolaryngol.Head Neck Surg. 120 (4):493-498, 1999.

Link to PubMed and abstract: PMID 1018794

First Commented on April 10, 2007

Overall Feeling: Nice little paper which illustrate the general shape and direction of the Posterior Cricoarytenoid intrinsic muscle in the larynx (the main muscle which opens your vocal folds or vocal folds so you can breath).

First Comment: The authors never talk about error or uncertainty from the measurements. All they say is this:

The mucosa was dissected to expose the PCA and cricoid cartilage. Measurements of the vertical height of the PCL and the anterior cricoid arch were obtained with a caliper accurate to 0.001 in. (from Page 493, last paragraph)

...uh, so what! The real statement should include this line but with an additional line saying something like, "three researchers independently measuring the same thing resulted in an uncertainty of +/-0.1 inches". This is an easy catch that the reviewers missed. As a potential user of the data, I don't know how much to trust the exact numbers given. I need a confidence rating of some sort. From reading other works, I have seen uncertainty on the order of +/-0.3 cm in similar situations where measures are done by hand with a caliper. Assuming similar protocols, this would result in +/- 0.013 in. You may say back to me, "so what". But, it is not in the paper and it should be. Does it change the conclusions? No. Should it have been published without it? No. By missing such 'minor things' opens the door for publications where the conclusions will be dependent on such things.

Possibly more later...