International journal of clinical practice
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Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Aug 2011
ReviewA comprehensive review of predictive and prognostic composite factors implicated in the heterogeneity of treatment response and outcome across disease areas.
To assess and present the current body of evidence regarding composite measures associated with differential treatment response or outcome as a result of patient heterogeneity and to evaluate their consistency across disease areas. ⋯ Composite measures can play an important role in characterising heterogeneity of treatment response and outcome in patients suffering from various medical conditions. These measures can help clinicians to better distinguish between patients with high likelihood to respond well to treatment and patients with minimal chances of positive therapeutic outcomes. Herein, the individual factors identified can be used to develop novel predictive or prognostic composite measures that can be applicable across disease areas. Reflecting these cross-disease measures in clinical and public health decisions has the distinctive appeal to enable targeted treatment for patients suffering from multiple medical conditions, which may ultimately yield significant gains in individual outcomes, population health and cost-effective resource allocation.
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Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Aug 2011
Review Meta AnalysisAutologous transplantation of blood-derived stem/progenitor cells for ischaemic heart disease.
Early clinical trials suggest that blood-derived stem/progenitor cells (including peripheral blood-derived stem cells and circulating progenitor cells) may have a positive impact on patients with ischaemic heart disease (IHD). The therapeutic effects of these cells remain unclear, considering the inconsistent results of several clinical trials. The objective of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of autologous blood-derived stem/progenitor cells on improvement of cardiac functional parameters on the basis of a synthesis of the data generated by randomised controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of patients with IHD. ⋯ Available evidence showed moderate improvements over conventional therapy in LVEF of blood-derived stem/progenitor cells transplantation in patients with IHD, and supports further RCTs with higher quality.