ABSTRACT
Hippocrates, Aphorisms II.19
INTRODUCTION
Prognostic factors are continuous or discrete variables helping to assess a certain development in advance. They are measured at baseline, i.e. prior to initiation of treatment, or at specified time points during or after treatment, and allow a reliable discrimination in the course of disease and in treatment outcomes. Well-known examples are the relationship between age and sex and expected lifetime. Usually, more than one variable with discriminating power can be identified, and thus prognostic models or scores combining the relevant variables, mostly by an accumulated function, are constructed.
