MIST II Clinical Trial A No Go
(Not to be confused with the computer game series of the same name, but different spelling. Sorry — as I far as I know, they don’t do fully funded clinical trials for video games, although they probably should). If you were interested in joining the clinical trail for MIST II, forget it. NMT medical announced over the weekend that they were scrapping the clinical trial for heart holes being the cause of migraines in some people because they could no longer afford it. Instead, they will concentrate on just one major clinical trail, this one for strokes.
What Was MIST II?
MIST II wasn’t a clinical trial for a new medicine, but to prove that some people get migraines with auras because of PFO (patent pramen ovale, a genetic whoopsie of the heart often nicknamed “heart holes”. It’s not an incredibly serious genetic condition, but not something you wish upon a star to get.)
MIST II was to have backed up other studies done in the UK and America about closing the heart hole to give relief to those who get migraines with auras. One of the reasons that this clinical trial was scrapped is that far more people get strokes than have PFO and migraines with auras. NMT claims that out of over 1400 applicants since August 2006 for the MIST II trial, only a handfull passed the screening qualifications. So, they have decided that the trial had “little likelihood of being completed in a reasonable timeframe.”
NMT will also save at least $14 million (US).
In NMT’s favor, the odds of you getting a stroke rather than a PFO and migraines with auras is really high. It’s estimated that 750,000 people have a stroke just in America alone. NMT claims stroke is the leading cause of disbility in older Americans, and the American Heart Foundation (which has a sister group, the American Stroke Association) claims that stroke is the third leading cause of death in America.
In case you have migraines with auras, you should go to the doctor anyway, whether you also suspect you have PFO or not. PFO is a treatable condition with surgery.
Hope this helps.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
[...] that study was cancelled, but another study from Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson Univeristy Hospital is backing up [...]