Evaluation of Response-Time Data Involving Transient States: An Illustration Using Heart-Transplant Data

Abstract The problem considered is how to compare time-to-response data for different groups when the group membership of an individual can be arbitrarily varied during a study. Modified life tables can be constructed which reflect such changes in an individual's status, and associated measures of relative risk and statistical significance calculated. This is illustrated with survival data for heart-transplant patients, for which a patient can transfer from the nontransplanted to the transplanted group. Alternative procedures are given in which distinctive groups are defined for each transplant day.