This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

[bromley]

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?j502080544&w=464753

[NHE]

Thanks for the link Bromley. It's interesting to see that Biogen sponsored this study and that they're bringing out the "big guns" with a heavy duty immunosuppressant along with their serious side effects. In addition, I was wondering if anyone else noticed that the organization of the article appears to be a little misleading.

At the 12-month evaluation, results showed that the annualized relapse rate was significantly decreased from baseline following treatment (1.4 to 0.3, P <.001). In addition, the number of gadolinium-positive lesions decreased from a mean of 3.3 to 0.5 (P <.0625).

Neither the Expanded Disability Status Score (EDSS) nor the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite or its components were significantly affected by combination therapy (P =.280; P =.190, respectively).

The first paragraph appears to be discussing the study's significant results while the second paragraph clearly discusses the results which were not significant. However, while a reduction in gadolinium enhancing lesions is always a good thing, I believe its inclusion in the first paragraph is biased as the result is not statistically significant, i.e., P > 0.05 (note that P < 0.05 is the standard for statistical significance). Though a larger study may find that this parameter to be significant, the organization of the article appears to be misleading.

NHE