Disseminated cryptococcal infection in an immunocompetent patient treated with short course induction therapy.

A 49- year old immunocompetent male presented with a right flank abscess and was found to have disseminated cryptococcal disease. Treatment was initiated with a one-week intravenous regime of amphotericin B and flucytosine based on recent trial data that this is as effective, and less toxic, than the standard two weeks. After completion of intravenous treatment he was discharged with oral anti-fungals and is making a good recovery with ongoing follow up.

Why are two mistakes not worse than one? A proposal for controlling the expected number of false claims.

Multiplicity is common in clinical studies and the current standard is to use the familywise error rate to ensure that the errors are kept at a prespecified level. In this paper, we will show that, in certain situations, familywise error rate control does not account for all errors made. To counteract this problem, we propose the use of the expected number of false claims (EFC).

Analysing malaria drug trials on a per-individual or per-clone basis: a comparison of methods.

There are a variety of methods used to estimate the effectiveness of antimalarial drugs in clinical trials, invariably on a per-person basis. A person, however, may have more than one malaria infection present at the time of treatment. We evaluate currently used methods for analysing malaria trials on a per-individual basis and introduce a novel method to estimate the cure rate on a per-infection (clone) basis.