CYSTIC FIBROSIS: Researchers develop new method of determining treatment effects
Health & Medicine Week, September 15, 2003
Researchers reveal that computed tomography (CT) imaging, when combined with
pulmonary function testing (PFT) and developed into a composite score, offers a
new, more sensitive way of determining treatment effects in young patients with
cystic fibrosis.
The group consisted of young patients who had suffered little or no loss of
pulmonary function from their illness. The investigators developed the new
approach while assessing a new drug for cystic fibrosis (CF) in 21 young
patients over 1 year. The composite CT/PFT score that they developed during the
trial combined aspects of functional assessment (the PFT included percent of
predicted lung function testing) plus structural analysis of the lung with
high-resolution computed tomography.
They found that their new technique offered them a greater ability to detect
changes produced by therapeutic intervention than did the individual components
alone.
The authors pointed out that their findings suggest the potential advantages
of using the CT/pulmonary function composite scoring in future clinical trials.
However, they noted that their conclusions were obtained in a small sample (21
subjects over 1 year) who had CF with minimal decreased pulmonary function and
lung disease as determined by high-resolution computerized scoring. They urged
tests with a larger sample of children and adults who had more extensive CF lung
disease. The study appeared in the first issue for September 2003 of the
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. |
