The true results of the ECHODIAH study with diacerein

Excerpt

Your journal recently published the abstracts of the 'Third International Symposium on Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis' which was held in Barcelona, Spain, on November 6–9, 2002 [1]. While reading the text of an abstract (page S9: PL 19) that describes the results of NEGMA-LERADS' pivotal clinical study 'ECHODIAH', we noticed the presence of serious errors. The printed text in the last sentence of the second paragraph of this abstract reads: '...Within the valid completers population (n=269), the annual joint space narrowing rate was significantly lower in those receiving placebo (0.018 mm/year versus 0.023 mm/year; p=0.042) ...'; this implies that the placebo had a better effect than diacerein, the test treatment administered. We believe that this misrepresentation of an important portion of the results of the study may be due to an accidental deletion and transcription. …