Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21435220›Full record

Trial reportBMC neurology2011

Evaluation of muscle strength and motor abilities in children with type II and III spinal muscle atrophy treated with valproic acid.

Illora A Darbar, Paulo G Plaggert, Maria Bernadete D Resende, Edmar Zanoteli, Umbertina C Reed

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readClinical Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC neurology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01033331 (Evaluation of the Muscle Strength and Motor Ability in Children With Spinal Muscle Atrophy Type II and III Treated With Valproic Acid), which is not on this map. Cited by 18 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
2.7field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT01033331 completednot on this map

Evaluation of the Muscle Strength and Motor Ability in Children With Spinal Muscle Atrophy Type II and III Treated With Valproic Acid

TypeobservationalSponsorUniversity of Sao Paulo General HospitalRan2006 to 2008Enrolled22ConditionsSpinal Muscular Atrophy
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. The impact of threeFrontiers in neurology · 2024
    Pooled it
  2. Drug treatment for spinal muscular atrophy types II and III.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020
    Pooled it
  3. Drug treatment for spinal muscular atrophy type I.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019
    Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Trial
  6. Article
  7. Observational
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. The promise and perils of HDAC inhibitors in neurodegeneration.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2015
    Review
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. New therapeutic approaches to spinal muscular atrophy.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2012
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Illora A DarbarDepartment of Neurology, Medical School of the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. illorafisio@terra.com.br
Paulo G Plaggert
Maria Bernadete D Resende
Edmar Zanoteli
Umbertina C Reed
Universidade de São Paulo · BRAssociação de Assistência à Criança Deficiente · BR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSpinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive disorder that affects the motoneurons of the spinal anterior horn, resulting in hypotonia and muscle weakness. The disease is caused by deletion or mutation in the telomeric copy of SMN gene (SMN1) and clinical severity is in part determined by the copy number of the centromeric copy of the SMN gene (SMN2). The SMN2 mRNA lacks exon 7, resulting in a production of lower amounts of the full-length SMN protein. Knowledge of the molecular mechanism of diseases has led to the discovery of drugs capable of increasing SMN protein level through activation of SMN2 gene. One of these drugs is the valproic acid (VPA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor.

methodsTwenty-two patients with type II and III SMA, aged between 2 and 18 years, were treated with VPA and were evaluated five times during a one-year period using the Manual Muscle Test (Medical Research Council scale-MRC), the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale (HFMS), and the Barthel Index.

resultsAfter 12 months of therapy, the patients did not gain muscle strength. The group of children with SMA type II presented a significant gain in HFMS scores during the treatment. This improvement was not observed in the group of type III patients. The analysis of the HFMS scores during the treatment period in the groups of patients younger and older than 6 years of age did not show any significant result. There was an improvement of the daily activities at the end of the VPA treatment period.

conclusionTreatment of SMA patients with VPA may be a potential alternative to alleviate the progression of the disease.

trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01033331.

Indexed as

AdolescentChildChild, PreschoolEnzyme InhibitorsFemaleHumansMaleMotor ActivityMuscle StrengthSpinal Muscular Atrophies of ChildhoodValproic AcidEnzyme InhibitorsValproic Acid

Identifiers

PMID21435220
PMCPMC3078847
OpenAlexW2090213201

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.