Trial reportNeurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology2015
Tolerability and efficacy of erythropoietin (EPO) treatment in traumatic spinal cord injury: a preliminary randomized comparative trial vs. methylprednisolone (MP).
Trial report in Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative efficacy and safety of four immunomodulatory agents for acute spinal cord injury: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- An updated systematic review of neuroprotective agents in the treatment of spinal cord injury.Neurosurgical review · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Erythropoietin (EPO) for Neuroprotection in Human Studies.Neurochemical research · 2021Pooled it
- Harms of off-label erythropoiesis-stimulating agents for critically ill people.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Trial
- Large Language Models' Responses to Spinal Cord Injury: A Comparative Study of Performance.Journal of medical systems · 2025Article
- Size effect-based improved antioxidant activity of selenium nanoparticles regulating Anti-PI3K-mTOR and Ras-MEK pathways for treating spinal cord injury to avoid hormone shock-induced immunosuppression.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2025Article
- Current and emergent therapies targeting spinal cord injury.Brain & spine · 2025Review
- Hormonal regulatory networks in spinal cord injury: mechanistic insights, crosstalk, and therapeutic innovations.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- High-dose preoperative intraperitoneal erythropoietin and intravenous methylprednisolone in acute traumatic spinal cord injuries following decompression surgeries.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2025Article
- Studies in the Falls Efficacy Scale-International for patients with cervical compressive myelopathy: Reliability, validity, and minimum clinically important difference.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2024Article
- Spinal cord injury: pathophysiology, possible treatments and the role of the gut microbiota.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Review
- EPO regulates neuronal differentiation of adult human neural-crest derived stem cells in a sex-specific manner.BMC neuroscience · 2023Article
- Neurotrophic Factors as Regenerative Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases: Current Status, Challenges and Future Perspectives.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Facile fabrication of an erythropoietin-alginate/chitosan hydrogel and evaluation of its local therapeutic effects on spinal cord injury in rats.Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2021Article
- Plasma Erythropoietin, IL-17A, and IFNγ as Potential Biomarkers of Motor Function Recovery in a Canine Model of Spinal Cord Injury.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2020Article
- Clinical efficacy of γ-globulin combined with dexamethasone and methylprednisolone, respectively, in the treatment of acute transverse myelitis and its effects on immune function and quality of life.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2020Article
- Peripheral nerve injury and myelination: Potential therapeutic strategies.Journal of neuroscience research · 2020Review
- The safety and efficacy of steroid treatment for acute spinal cord injury: A Systematic Review and meta-analysis.Heliyon · 2020Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The only available treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) is high-dose methylprednisolone (MP) administered acutely after injury. However, as the efficacy of MP is controversial, we assessed the superiority of erythropoietin (EPO) versus MP in improving clinical outcome of acute TSCI. Patients aged 18 to 65 years after C5-T12 injury, and grade A or B of the ASIA Impairment Scale (AIS), admitted within 8 h, hemodynamically stable, were randomized to MP according to the NASCIS III protocol or EPO iv (500 UI/kg, repeated at 24 and 48 h). Patients were assessed by an investigator blind to treatment assignment at baseline and at day 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 and 90. Primary end point: number of responders (reduction of at least one AIS grade). Secondary end points: treatment safety and the effects of drugs on a number of disability measures. Frequentistic and post hoc Bayesian analyses were performed. Eight patients were randomized to MP and 11 to EPO. Three patients (27.3 %) on EPO and no patients on MP reached the primary end point (p = 0.17). No significant differences were found for the other disability measures. No adverse events or serious adverse events were reported in both groups. The Bayesian analysis detected a 91.8 % chance of achieving higher success rates on the primary end point with EPO in the intention-to-treat population with a 95 % chance the difference between EPO and MP falling in the range (-0.10, 0.51) and a median value of 0.2. The results of Bayesian analysis favored the experimental treatment.
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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.