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Previous Volume 350:1794-1797 April 22, 2004 Number 17 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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To the Editor: The recent trial of interferon gamma-1b for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, reported by Raghu et al. (Jan. 8 issue),¹ is a major accomplishment, despite the disappointing results. One may wonder, however, whether the selected end points were optimal. A decline in the forced vital capacity by at least 10 percent of the predicted value seems a robust criterion, but the criterion for the difference between alveolar and arterial oxygen tension (P(A–a)O₂), which accounted for 55 percent of the primary end-point events, is weak. Day-to-day variations in barometric pressure, the effective alveolar ventilation, and random errors in measurement . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• King, T. E. Jr, Safrin, S., Starko, K. M., Brown, K. K., Noble, P. W., Raghu, G., Schwartz, D. A. (2005). Analyses of Efficacy End Points in a Controlled Trial of Interferon-{gamma}1b for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Chest 127: 171-177 [Abstract] [Full Text]