Better decision making in drug development through adoption of formal prior elicitation.

With the continued increase in the use of Bayesian methods in drug development, there is a need for statisticians to have tools to develop robust and defensible informative prior distributions. Whilst relevant empirical data should, where possible, provide the basis for such priors, it is often the case that limitations in data and/or our understanding may preclude direct construction of a data-based prior. Formal expert elicitation methods are a key technique that can be used to determine priors in these situations.

Epithelial desquamation observed in a phase I study of an oral cathepsin C inhibitor (GSK2793660).

Aims: Cathepsin C (CTSC) is necessary for the activation of several serine proteases including neutrophil elastase (NE), cathepsin G and proteinase 3. GSK2793660 is an oral, irreversible inhibitor of CTSC that is hypothesized to provide an alternative route to achieve NE inhibition and was tested in a Phase I study.

Methods: Single escalating oral doses of GSK2793660 from 0.

Inclusion of 'minor' trauma cases provides a better estimate of the total burden of injury: Queensland Trauma Registry provides a unique perspective.

Introduction: Injury is recognised as a frequent cause of preventable mortality and morbidity; however, incidence estimates focusing only on the extent of mortality and major trauma may seriously underestimate the magnitude of the total injury burden. There currently exists a paucity of information regarding minor trauma, and the aim of this study was to increase awareness of the contribution of minor trauma cases to the total burden of injury.

Methods: The demographics, injury details, acute care factors and outcomes of both minor trauma cases and major trauma cases were evaluated using data from the state-wide trauma registry in Queensland, Australia, from 2005 to 2010.

Safety and efficacy of an oral CCR3 antagonist in patients with asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Background: Several chemokines, notably eotaxin, mediate the recruitment of eosinophils into tissues via the CCR3 receptor.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the role of CCR3 agonists in asthma by observing the effect of a small molecule antagonist of the CCR3 receptor (GW766994) on sputum eosinophil counts in patients with eosinophilic asthma.

Methods: Clinical and physiological outcomes, the chemotactic activity of sputum supernatant for eosinophils and the presence of eosinophil progenitors in sputum and blood samples were also studied.

Mapping Abbreviated Injury Scale data from 1990 to 1998 versions: a stepping-stone in the contemporary evaluation of trauma.

Introduction: Many trauma registries have used the 1990 revision of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS; AIS90) to code injuries sustained by trauma patients. Due to changes made to the AIS codeset since its release, AIS90-coded data lacks currency in the assessment of injury severity. The ability to map between the 1998 revision of AIS (AIS98) and the current (2008) AIS version (AIS08) already exists.