This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Dermatology  • Dermatologic Disorders  • Psoriasis  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In reply

Dr Whitmore's letter regarding our report on intramuscular alefacept raises several questions. One question concerns the durability of placebo response. A small proportion of placebo-treated patients undoubtedly undergo lasting spontaneous remissions of psoriasis, and a comparably small proportion of alefacept-treated patients experience spontaneous remission of their disease as well. The difference between the 2 groups should be considered when evaluating the durability of response. Certainly, there is a significantly greater response that is longer lasting in the alefacept-treated patients than in the placebo-treated patients.

In regard to Dr Whitmore's concern about the durability of the PASI-50% response analysis, there are 2 key aspects of the study to remember: First, the duration analyses are based on the intent-to-treat principle; therefore, all patients are included in the analysis at each visit. Second, week 24 represents the last study visit for which each patient was evaluated and thus does not always . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Mark Lebwohl, MD
Department of Dermatology
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine
5 E 98th St
New York, NY 10029
(e-mail: Lebwohl@aol.com)

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Appropriate Use of Alefacept Therapy for Psoriasis—Reply
S. Elizabeth Whitmore
Arch Dermatol. 2004;140(2):239-240.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT