Correspondence

Letter to the Editor

“…We have the same concerns we published in our earlier letter to the editor about Pouchelon and colleagues' study, and wish to refute certain statements made in their letter 1–3 . Our point was not to indict retrospective studies per se.…”

“…We have the same concerns we published in our earlier letter to the editor about Pouchelon and colleagues' study, and wish to refute certain statements made in their letter. [1][2][3] Our point was not to indict retrospective studies per se. Rather, our objections specifically concern retrospective studies of treatment efficacy, which are biased by design.…”

“…The SVEP trial found no prolongation in this interval in Cavalier King Charles (CKC) Spaniels 4 . The VETPROOF trial in other breeds (OB) concluded that “improvement in the primary endpoint, CHF‐free survival, was not significant.” 5 Pouchelon et al 3 stated, “No difference in the time to onset of CHF was found between the BNZ (benazepril) and UT (untreated) groups in the whole study population or in the OB and CKC populations”—a statement they failed to repeat in their conclusions or abstract. All three studies have now found ACE inhibitors do not prolong the time to onset of heart failure in any dogs with MVD.…”