We indeed demonstrated, in a long-term prospective trial, that an early response to immunosuppressive therapy at 6 months was the best predictor for a good long-term renal outcome in LN [ 9].
This long-term prospective trial is the first to document the safety of DR-HC in patients with primary AI and demonstrates that such treatment is well tolerated during 24 consecutive months of therapy.
However, it is unlikely that a new long-term prospective trial studying the effect of APC in severe sepsis is now possible, and we must therefore tailor our clinical practice with these findings in mind.
Pratley et al. (18) published the first long-term prospective trial comparing treatment with liraglutide versus sitagliptin in patients with type 2 diabetes who were not controlled after treatment with 1,500 mg/day metformin, as measured by their high HbA1c levels (7.5 10%).
Most long-term prospective trials have shown that using antioxidant vitamin supplements does not prevent heart disease or cancer, with the possible exception of prostate cancer.
Acknowledging practical, financial, and ethical reasons why this approach is so favoured, they emphasise that long-term prospective trials would be useful to inform the prognostic interpretation of the IGRA.
Concerning studies comparing pioglitazone in association with either metformin or glibenclamide, both combinations were equally effective in terms of reduction of HbA1c in two long-term prospective trials.
Without evidence of efficacy from long-term prospective trials in young patients, clinicians may be disinclined to commence primary preventative therapy management.
This means that large, long-term, prospective trials are the gold standard of research investigating this question, but of course, these come with limitations.
In addition, the number of patients included has to be considered limited, as no large double-blind, controlled, long-term prospective trials have been performed.
First it is a long term, prospective study.
