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Duplicate publication

We have recently published two manuscripts on the effects of interleukin (IL)-5 administration to patients with mild asthma, one in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (1), and the other in Thorax (2). We are addressing this letter to the Editors of both journals. The data described in both articles have been obtained from one experiment performed in the same group of patients with mild asthma. Whereas the article in the AJRCCM (1) reports primarily on the phenotypic changes in circulating blood eosinophils and CD34⁺ cells, the Thorax article (2) describes the changes in the airways with measurements of bronchial responsiveness and of eosinophil counts in sputum, together with eotaxin levels in the serum. Both manuscripts, however, detail the changes in blood eosinophils counts and serum IL-5 changes derived from these nine patients, which constitutes a partial duplication of the data described in the two papers. At the time of submission of the manuscripts to the two journals, we did not inform the respective journals of the existence and submission of the other manuscript.

We would also like to take the opportunity of pointing out one mistake and two differences in the two manuscripts: (1) Table 1 in Thorax contains mistakes regarding the FEV₁ values; Table 1 in the AJRCCM article shows the correct values. (2) The AJRCCM article quotes the median values in the text, whereas mean values are plotted in Figure 2, and the Thorax article shows the geometric mean. (3) The blood eosinophil counts were analyzed in the AJRCCM paper as paired t tests, whereas in the Thorax paper, we used repeated measures analysis of variance (as recommended by a reviewer), which does not provide significant differences in eosinophil counts.

We recognize that it has been an error of judgement on our part in having the experimental data from this study reported in two separate manuscripts, and also in not informing you (and the reviewers) of the existence of these two separate manuscripts at the time of submission. We have not intentionally set out to duplicate publication of our experimental data and regret that this has happened. We also would like to apologize for the concern that this may cause to the high reputation of both journals.

K. Fan Chung, Elizabeth L. J. van Rensen, Robert G. Stirling and Peter J. Barnes

National Heart and Lung Institute London, United Kingdom

REFERENCES

1. Stirling RG, van Rensen ELJ, Barnes PJ, Chung KF. Interleukin-5 induces CD34⁺ eosinophil progenitor mobilization and eosinophil CCR3 expression in asthma. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2001;164:1403–1409.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. van Rensen ELJ, Stirling RG, Scheerens J, Staples K, Sterk PJ, Barnes PJ, Chung KF. Evidence for systematic rather than pulmonary effects of interleukin-5 administration in asthma. Thorax 2001;56:935–940.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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