A case series (also known as a clinical series) is a medical research study that tracks patients with a known exposure given similar treatment^[1] or examines their medical records for exposure and outcome.

A case series can be retrospective or prospective and usually involves a smaller number of patients than more powerful case-control studies or randomized controlled trials.

A case series is a type of observational study. Case series may be consecutive^[2] or non-consecutive,^[3] depending on whether all cases presenting to the reporting authors over a period of time were included, or only a selection.

Case series may be confounded by selection bias, which limits statements on the causality of correlations observed.

[edit] See also

• Case report

[edit] References

v • d • e Biomedical research: Study designs / Design of experiments Overview Clinical trial · Clinical trial protocol · Clinical trial management · Academic clinical trials · Study design Controlled study (EBM I to II-1; A to B) Randomized controlled trial (Blind experiment, Open-label trial) Observational study (EBM II-2 to II-3; B to C) Cross-sectional study vs. Longitudinal study Cohort study (Retrospective cohort study, Prospective cohort study) Case-control study (Nested case-control study) Case series · Case study/Case report Epidemiology/ methods occurrence: Incidence (Cumulative incidence) · Prevalence (Point prevalence, Period prevalence) association: absolute (Absolute risk reduction, Attributable risk, Attributable risk percent) · relative (Relative risk, Odds ratio, Hazard ratio) other: Virulence · Infectivity · Mortality rate · Morbidity · Case fatality · Specificity and sensitivity · Likelihood-ratio test Trial/test types In vitro/In vivo · Animal testing · Animal testing on non-human primates · First-in-man study · Multicenter trial · Seeding trial · Vaccine trial Analysis of clinical trials Risk-benefit analysis Interpretation of results Selection bias · Correlation does not imply causation · Null result Category • Glossary • List of topics

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