Reader Comments

Post a new comment on this article

Targetting the treatment towards those most likely to respond

Posted by AndrewK on 04 Aug 2012 at 09:25 GMT

This is the first phase 3 placebo controlled trial to demonstrate significant efficacy and should be applauded.

However not all patients appeared to have responded and so the efficacy is not as impressive as it could be.

For example, only 65% of patients in the intervention group had a 25% or more increase on the exercise tolerance test. (Compared to 37% of the placebo group).

Given that only a subset of patients made significant improvements, the cost effectiveness and general acceptability of this drug could be improved significantly by identifying those who are most likely to respond.

I hope that the authors are able to provide further analysis on this point.

No competing interests declared.