Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2000
Disability outcome measures in therapeutic trials of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: effects of heterogeneity of disease course in placebo cohorts.
Recent phase III clinical trials of immunomodulatory therapies in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis have shown significant benefits of active treatment on relapse related end points, but effects on disability outcomes have been inconsistent. These apparent discrepancies could be due to differences in the clinical end points employed, the behaviour of placebo cohorts, or both. ⋯ In relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis treatment trials, the conventional measure of mean EDSS change has low sensitivity, whereas the widely applied confirmed progression end points have high error rates regardless of their definition stringency. Alternative methods with better data utilisation include AUC summary measures and categorical disease trend analysis. The heterogeneity of disability outcomes in short trials, combined with unreliable clinical end points, diminishes the credibility of therapeutic claims aimed at reducing irreversible neurological deficits. The behaviour of patients treated with placebo should be carefully analysed before conclusions are drawn on the efficacy of putative treatments.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2000
Evaluation of (18)fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18)FDG PET) in the detection of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours arising from within plexiform neurofibromas in neurofibromatosis 1.
The ability of (18)fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18)FDG PET) to detect malignant change in plexiform neurofibromas from patients with neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) was evaluated. ⋯ (18)FDG PET is helpful in determining malignant change in plexiform neurofibromas in NF1. Increased separation between benign and malignant lesions could be obtained by calculating the SUV at about 200 minutes after injection of (18)FDG, when the peak activity concentration is obtained in malignant tumours.