Final status of the field work

241 dialysis centers in Germany and Austria agreed to participate and 170 did actively collaborate in the case-control study. All incident dialysis cases in these centers were recruited for the study and most of them interviewed.

The centers are well scattered over the territory of Germany and Austria as can be seen in the schematic map.
There is a listing of all already participating dialysis centres attached.

The field work was completed in December 2004. 802 cases were interviewed in Germany and 198 in Austria. Complete data were obtained for 788 (Germany) and 190 cases (Austria), respectively.
 
The results are in the phase of publication since summer 2006. In between, the chairmen of the international Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) made a statement available to the relevant Health Authorities.
The official letter is attached (in German).

The data evaluation was completed in July 2006 after several re-analysyes. A study report was written and after several revisions accepted by the SAC members and presented to the Regulatory Bodies in August 2006.

The final status (per Jan 2005):

		Cases	Controls
Germany	Identified	964 (162)
	Interviewed	802 (4)	3136
Austria	Identified	224 (26)
	Interviewed	198 (0)	772
TOTAL	Identified	1188 (188)
	Interviewed	1000 (4)	3908
		(Excluded cases in parenthesis)