Evaluation of the Efficacy of Botulinum Neurotoxins
A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Bacterial Toxins".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 1988
Special Issue Editor
Interests: neurological diseases; such as stroke; traumatic brain injury; Parkinson’s disease; dystonia and peripheral neuropathy; clinical neurophysiology; psychometrics; human movement
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A growing body of evidence shows that botulinum neurotoxins (BNTs) are effective in a wide range of clinical conditions, such as blepharospasm and cervical dystonia. In these diseases, BNTs can even be the first line of therapy.
However, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have also showed some areas of uncertainty when it comes to BNTs efficacy. These aggregate studies have pointed out the lack of consistent outcome measures between the different clinical trials. Moreover, concerns can be raised about some of the outcome measures currently available.
Measurement is a crucial step in the process of efficacy evaluation, and the demonstration of effectiveness implicitly comes through the demonstration of the improvement of variables that are valuable for patients, physicians and other stakeholders.
This Special Issue of Toxins, methodological in nature, addresses the evaluation of the efficacy of BNTs from a measurement perspective.
Scholars are encouraged to submit manuscripts reporting new questionnaires, clinical scales and instrumental measures (e.g., from movement analysis, echography, clinical neurophysiology or urodynamic studies) that are important in the BNTs clinic.
Studies evaluating existing outcome measures by means of modern psychometric techniques (such as the Rasch analysis and other techniques from the item response theory) are also of great interest.
Papers describing new outcome measures, whether they be questionnaires or instrumental measures, should be focused on validity and responsiveness, which should be evaluated with respect to anchors of real importance for patients treated with BTNs and their clinicians. For newly developed questionnaires and scales, priority will be given to those measures developed with modern psychometrics.
The ultimate goal of this Special Issue is to provide scholars and clinicians with sound measures to increase the chance of reaching the right conclusion about BNTs efficacy.
Dr. Antonio Caronni
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Botulinum neurotoxins
- Treatment outcome
- Outcome measures
- Spasticity
- Movement disorders
- Pain
- Disability evaluation
