Biotech Values

[biomaven0]

The standard test for PAOD is the ankle brachial index - basically the ratio of the systolic blood pressure in the ankles to that in the arms. Anything below 0.9 indicates a problem, with a reading below 0.5 indicating a serious problem. That was the test used in the recent paper discussing PAOD in Tasigna patients - they found 28% of 2nd-line Tasigna patients had an index below 0.9

It's a pretty simple test - takes a nurse under 10 minutes.

The FDA's concern here is that some patients have had incidents very shortly after going on the drug, and so such testing might not help. I'd be interested to know if those patients were previously on Tasigna.

Peter