Refined clinical scoring in comparative EAE studies does not enhance the chance to observe statistically significant differences

Silvia M Tietz; Marcel Zwahlen; Neda Haghayegh Jahromi; Pascale Baden; Ivana Lazarevic; Gaby Enzmann; Britta Engelhardt

doi:10.1002/eji.201546272

Refined clinical scoring in comparative EAE studies does not enhance the chance to observe statistically significant differences

Eur J Immunol. 2016 Oct;46(10):2481-2483. doi: 10.1002/eji.201546272. Epub 2016 Aug 31.

Authors

Silvia M Tietz¹, Marcel Zwahlen², Neda Haghayegh Jahromi¹, Pascale Baden¹, Ivana Lazarevic¹, Gaby Enzmann¹, Britta Engelhardt³

Affiliations

¹ Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
² Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
³ Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. bengel@tki.unibe.ch.

PMID: 27469626
DOI: 10.1002/eji.201546272

Abstract

Considering the 3R rules of animal experimentation, we asked if refined scoring of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice improves documentation of clinical EAE allowing to perform a more powerful statistical analysis. Surprisingly, refined EAE scoring failed to improve statistical outcome comparing the overall disease courses between two groups of mice.

Keywords: Area under the curve; Bland-Altman plots; Clinical scoring; Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; Statistical analysis.

Publication types

Comparative Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Disease Models, Animal
Disease Progression
Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / diagnosis*
Humans
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Knockout
Multiple Sclerosis / diagnosis*
Observer Variation
Research Design*
Severity of Illness Index