The study's small group sizes and unequal distribution increase the risk of unreliable or non-reproducible findings.

With fewer than 10 individuals in the two 'sick' groups, it is difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions. In such small groups, a single patient with an unusual RNA expression pattern could significantly skew the results. In contrast, outliers in the much larger control group will have far less influence on the average. This kind of imbalance increases the risk of generating unreliable or non-reproducible findings.