Premium
Clinical neuroprotection in relation to ophthalmology
Author(s) -
ROSSETTI L
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2013.1643.x
Subject(s) - neuroprotection , glaucoma , clinical trial , medicine , intensive care medicine , neuroscience , ophthalmology , psychology , pharmacology
Neuroprotection has been proposed as a possible therapeutic paradigm for the treatment of glaucoma. Unfortunately, despite the bulk of evidence coming from experimental animal research, very few data on effective neuroprotection in human glaucoma are available. A first problem is related to clinical trials on neuroprotection: the choice of study design, types of patients and study outcomes has often been debated. Then the question of the right compound is also a fundamental issue. As of today, to carry out a clinical trial potentially providing convincing evidence of neuroprotection in glaucoma is considered so expensive that no company would think to put money in it. On the other hand, there are some small studies showing surprisingly large effects on various outcomes relevant for glaucoma. Looking at the existing examples of clinical trial on neuroprotection in glaucoma (e.g. the memantine trial, the LoGTs, etc.), better designed studies should be proposed and research to validate new outcomes highly encouraged.