Dear Ziad,

My sugestion is first make two different rec files... one wiht the data you are entering and a second one from one or more laboratory results. Usually is easier to keep different files from different sources. Lets say... one from clinical evaluations, one from CD4+ T cells and Viral Loads, one from the hamatology laboratories, one froam immunology laboratories and etc, because thy come from different sources.

The most important thing here is to keep in all files with a unique identfier, or a combination of fields that uniquely connect each lab result and its owner (the patient).

Usually this connection is done later... right before the data cleaning, before the analysis. But if you see a necessity to bind tha data for a beter controls of what is going on with your patinets (and your data) then...

Make a qes file with all the fields whith the data is the xls spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet has wierd column names... first backup the file, later change the column names to the name which you want in the rec file. Make shure that the two recfiles have the very same variable names (the one with CD4 and VL and the one wiht the CD4 and VL and all clinical data).

Example:

xls "unique number" name CD4+ "Viral laod" "Collection date" 1 Ziad 560 <80 last sunday ........

to

xls v1 v2 v5 v6 v7 1 Ziad 560 <80 last sunday ........

CD4VL.qes

***************** My lab results ***************** v1 Unique aidentifier ###### v2 Name <A > v5 CD4 cell count #### v6 Viral load ######### v7 Collection date <dd/mm/yyyy>

Also important that these variables must have the vary same name in the destination recfile with the clinical and lab results data...

AIDS.qes

***************** My patients data ***************** v1 Unique aidentifier ###### v2 Name <A > v3 Date of HIV diagnosis <dd/mm/yyyy> v4 Date of TB diagnosis <dd/mm/yyyy> v5 CD4 cell count #### v6 Viral load ######### v7 Collection date <dd/mm/yyyy>

.....

Now that you got this, you must save your spread as a TXT separeted by TAB or by commas (I like TAB better :))

Now, from in EpiData import this spread sheet using the CD4LV.qes as structure. Chek you data, if it is OK then go on...

Now you r going to combine you dataset side by side using the unique identfier. This option in Epidata is very ituitive. IMPORTANT IS TO BACKUP ALL THE FILES BEFORE YOU START. Sometimes the variable format are tricky from xls and you might have to make it several times before you got it right!

A tip is allways use Stata to import data into EpiData, because in this situation Epidata keeps all the file structure and all the labels. From stata you dont have to make a qes file before. But this doen not seem to be you case because your data is allready on xls.

Another easier way to do it is to use a software that transport and tranform almost every datase format such as StatTransfer. In this situation from .xls to .rec in a plink of you eyes. And then conbine in EpiData entry or your analysis software!

May the force be with you!