ABSTRACT
Throughout this chapter it will be convenient to use data from a real trial to illustrate the application of certain techniques and how they are interpreted.
One of the long-term complications of diabetes is kidney disease or nephropathy. One of the problems that can exacerbate this condition is raised blood pressure, and therefore there is some purpose to seeing if medication can reduce blood pressure in this group of patients. An RCT was reported by Hommel et al. (1986) in which insulin-dependent patients with diabetic nephropathy were randomized to receive either Captopril, a drug intended to reduce blood pressure, or a placebo (reduction of blood pressure is not quite the whole story: Captopril is one of a class of drugs that will reduce blood pressure, but it also has other actions that are thought to be of specific benefit in diabetic nephropathy). The systolic blood pressure was measured before randomization, giving a baseline value and then again after one week on treatment. The data are given in Table 6.1 with all blood pressures in mmHg.
