Journal Club #4 – Tuesday 30th October 2018, 20:00 GMT.
29 individuals joined in the discussion, sending 77 tweets, which gained 1.88 million impressions on Twitter. Read a summary of the Journal Club.
Chair: Christin Henein @ChristinHenein
The discussion focused on ways of overcoming challenges when conducting clinical trials in chronic bilateral conditions. Ophthalmology is one of those specialities encompassing many disease entities affecting both eyes with varying speeds of progression. This can make study design and analysis of interventions for such conditions more susceptible to errors.
Glaucoma is a chronic progressive optic neuropathy that generally causes a loss of vision in both eyes, although often asymmetric. The study by Garway-Heath et al is the first placebo-controlled trial to show visual field preservation with lantanoprost, an intraocular pressure lowering eyedrop, most frequently prescribed in the treatment of glaucoma. This study addresses some of the challenges through study design, unit of analysis, primary outcomes, adjustments for multiple testing and study duration.
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